Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/wai

This Proto-Germanic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Germanic

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *wáy (“woe! (interjection)”). Compare Latin vae, Lithuanian vai̇̃, vái, Russian увы́ (uvý, “alas”), Middle Irish fáe, Welsh gwae (“woe”), Avestan 𐬬𐬀𐬫𐬋𐬌 (vayōi), Sanskrit उवे (uvé), Persian وای (vây).[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /wɑi̯/

Interjection

*wai

  1. woe! alas! (expression of grief or anguish)

Descendants

Note: In most descendant languages this interjection becomes additionally used as a noun with the meaning “hurt, anguish”.

  • Proto-West Germanic: *wai
    • Old English: wā, wei, wǣ
      • Middle English: wa, wo, woo
    • Old Frisian: wach, *wē
    • Old Saxon: wah, wē
    • Old Dutch: *wē
    • Old High German: wah, wa, wē
    • → Vulgar Latin: *wai, *guai
  • Proto-Norse: *ᚹᚨᛁ (*wai), ᚹᚨᛃᛖ- (waje-)
    • Old Norse: vei, væ, ve-
      • Icelandic: vei, væ
      • Faroese: vei, veiggj
      • Norwegian: ve
      • Old Swedish: vē
        • Swedish: ve
      • Danish: ve
      • → Middle English: waȝȝ, wæi, wei, weye, wai
      • ⇒ Old Norse: væla (“to wail”)
        • → Middle English: weilen, waylen (“to wail, cry, sob”)
        • Icelandic: væla
        • Elfdalian: wäla
        • ⇒ Old Norse: væl (“wail”, noun)
  • Gothic: 𐍅𐌰𐌹 (wai)

References

  1. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013) “*wai”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 566

Further reading

  • Martin Findell Phonological Evidence from the Continental Runic Inscriptions (2012), citing Schneider (1980) (reconstructs *wai and notes the Gothic, ON, OE, OS and OHG descendants)
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.