*newun

Runic: ᚾᛖᚹᚢᚾ Pronunciation: /ˈne.wun/

numeral

Meanings

nine

Etymology

From earlier *newunt, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁néwn̥ (‘nine’), with -t added through influence of *tehun (‘ten’). Some descendants supposedly reconstruct a variant *negun instead. This presents an isolated case of wu undergoing dissimilatory fortition to gwu (creating the Pre-Germanic form *negwunt necessary for explaining this discrepancy). This change must've happened quite early on in history, as it underwent a regular application of Boukólos rule, showing the gwu losing the w before u, becoming gu (just like other labiovelars in this position) and also regular loss of word final unstressed Pre-Germanic t (which from the word-final consonant of the Proto-Indo-European ancestor term being d in most cases, but in this case was excresently added via influence from *tehun (‘ten’) as mentioned above).

Descendants

*neun (Proto-West Germanic)
- nigun (Old Dutch)
  - nēgen (Middle Dutch)
    - nege (Limburgish)
    - negen (Zealandic)
*neun (Proto-West Germanic)
- nigun (Old Dutch)
  - nēgen (Middle Dutch)
    - negen (Dutch)
      - nege, neë (Afrikaans)
      - neigin (Aukan)
      - negn (Berbice Creole Dutch)
      - nêxe (Jersey Dutch)
      - negen, neegen, negon (Negerhollands)
      - negen (Skepi Creole Dutch)
*neun (Proto-West Germanic)
- nigun (Old Dutch)
  - nēgen (Middle Dutch)
    - negen (Dutch)
      - neigi (Sranan Tongo)
        
        neígi, neni (Saramaccan)
*neun (Proto-West Germanic)
- nigon, nigen, nigan, niogen, nygon (Old English)
  - nyne, nine, nin, niȝen, neghen, neyen, nyen, niwon, niȝhenn (Middle English)
    - nine, nein (English)
    - nine, neen, nyn, nyne (Scots)
    - neen (Yola)
*neun (Proto-West Germanic)
- niugun, nigun, niogen (Old Frisian)
  - ? (North Frisian)
  - njuugen, njúgen (Saterland Frisian)
  - njoggen (West Frisian)
*neun (Proto-West Germanic)
- niun (Old High German)
  - niun (Middle High German)
    - nüün, nin, nine (Alemannic German)
    - ? (Bavarian)
    - neun (German)
    - néng (Luxembourgish)
    - naojn (Vilamovian)
    - נײַן (nayn) (Yiddish)
*neun (Proto-West Germanic)
- nigun, nigon, nigen (Old Saxon)
  - negen (Middle Low German)
    - näajen (Plautdietsch)
*neun (Proto-West Germanic)
- nigun, nigon, nigen (Old Saxon)
  - negen (Middle Low German)
    - nägen (Low German)
      - negen (German Low German)
ᚾᛁᚢ (niu) (Proto-Norse)
- níu, nío (Old Norse)
  - niu (Elfdalian)
  - níggju (Faroese)
  - nei, neie, näiu, neiå (Gutnish)
  - níu (Icelandic)
  - ni (Norn)
  - ni, nio, nie, niu (Norwegian Nynorsk)
ᚾᛁᚢ (niu) (Proto-Norse)
- níu, nío (Old Norse)
  - ni (Old Danish)
    - ni (Danish)
    - ni (Norwegian Bokmål)
ᚾᛁᚢ (niu) (Proto-Norse)
- níu, nío (Old Norse)
  - nīo (Old Swedish)
    - nio (Swedish)
𐌽𐌹𐌿𐌽 (niun) (Gothic)
nyne (Crimean Gothic)

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