hvat

Faroese

Etymology

From Old Norse hvat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷód, *kʷod.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kvɛaːʰt/

Pronoun

hvat n

  1. what

Declension

singular masculine feminine neuter
nominative hvør hvør hvat
accusative hvønn hvørja
dative hvørjum hvørjari / hvørji hvørjum
genitive hvørs (hvørjar) hvørs
plural masculine feminine neuter
nominative hvørjir hvørjar hvørji
accusative hvørjar
dative hvørjum
genitive hvørja


Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *hwat (what), neuter nominative of *hwaz (who, what). Cognate with Old English hwæt, Old Frisian hwet, Old Saxon hwat, Old Dutch wat, Old High German waz, Gothic 𐍈𐌰 (ƕa).

Pronoun

hvat

  1. what (nominative and accusative singular neuter interrogative pronoun)
  2. what (nominative and accusative singular neuter relative pronoun)
  3. something
    • c. 850, Þjóðólfr ór Hvíni, Haustlǫng
      hvat kvað hapta snytrir · hjalmfaldinn því valda
      the helmet-capped instructor of the gods [= Óðinn] said something was causing this

Declension

Declension of hvar
singular masculine neuter
nominative *hver, *hvar hvat
accusative *hven hvat
dative hveim hví
genitive hves hves

Descendants

  • Icelandic: hvað
  • Faroese: hvat
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: kva, kvat; (dialectal) k(v)att, kåt, ka, ke, ko, , hot, høt, , ho
  • Jamtish: hut, hvuð
  • Old Swedish: hvat, hvadh
    • Swedish: vad, hvad (pre-1906 spelling)
  • Old Danish: hwat
    • Danish: hvad
      • Norwegian Bokmål: hva

Further reading

  • Zoëga, Geir T. (1910) “hvat”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press; also available at the Internet Archive