*aftai

A Proto-Germanic adverbial locative in *-ai, built secondarily to a reanalyzed stem *aft- abstracted from *after (‘after, behind’). The reinterpretation was probably *af-ter → *aft-er, after which a static locative form *aft-ai was created to the newly reanalyzed stem, comparable in structure to *furai (‘before, in front’) (Dunkel 2014: 66–86; Kroonen 2013: 3). Gothic 𐌰𐍆𐍄𐌰 (afta) is the key direct reflex; it has often been treated as an error for 𐌰𐍆𐍄𐍂𐌰 (aftra), but Lehmann (1986: s.v. afta) keeps it distinct because 𐌰𐍆𐍄𐍂𐌰 (aftra) does not normally mean simply ‘behind’. This is consistent with the static “where?” value of *aftai, as opposed to the broader temporal/local range of *after.