*-uh
Runic: ᚢᚺ Pronunciation: /ux/particle
Function
- enclitic connective meaning ‘and, and also, too’; chiefly the postconsonantal allomorph of *-hw
- forms generalizing or distributive pronouns from interrogatives and emphatic forms from demonstratives and negatives
Etymology
Postconsonantal allomorph of Proto-Germanic *-hw, from Proto-Indo-European enclitic *-kʷe , cognate with Latin -que, Ancient Greek τε (te), and Vedic Sanskrit च (ca). Per Grimm’s Law, PIE *-kʷebecame pre-Germanic *-hʷe; apocope of final *-e then produced *-hʷ. According to Mottausch (2001: 38–42), after a vowel, this final labiovelar fricative lost its labialization, yielding *-h, whereas after a non-liquid consonant its labial component was realized as a preceding *u, so that *C-hʷ became *C-uh and ultimately Gothic -𐌿𐌷 (-uh). (Fulk 2018: 107 n. 2) regards this purely phonological explanation as the best account of the allomorphic distribution.
Gothic subsequently generalized the fuller allomorph -𐌿𐌷 (-uh) after an elided unstressed final -a, as in 𐌸𐌰𐍄𐌿𐌷 (þatuh), while retaining -𐌷 (-h) after vowels elsewhere (Mottausch 2001: 42–43). Dunkel (2014: 340–41) alternatively derives Gothic -𐌿𐌷 (-uh) from the Proto-Indo-European particle sequence *h₂u *-kʷe (‘and also’), comparing Vedic Sanskrit उ च (u ca), but this morphological analysis accounts less naturally for the mechanically conditioned distribution of Gothic -𐌷 (-h) and -𐌿𐌷 (-uh)(Mottausch 2001: 38–40).
Usage Note
This was an enclitic particle attached to a preceding host. In its inherited coordinating use, it was attached to the second and any subsequent coordinated constituents: schematically, “A B-uh” meant ‘A and B’, and “A B-uh C-uh” meant ‘A, B, and C’. By the attested Gothic period, however, -(u)h had largely lost ordinary word-coordinating function, for which Gothic normally used 𐌾𐌰𐌷 (jah, ‘and’). Its productive connective use was instead anaphoric or sequential, approximately ‘and then, and further. After interrogative pronouns it formed generalizing or distributive expressions, as in Gothic 𐍈𐌰𐌶𐌿𐌷 (ƕazuh, ‘each, everyone, everything’), 𐍈𐌰𐍂𐌾𐌹𐌶𐌿𐌷 (ƕarjizuh, ‘each, every (of many)’), and 𐍈𐌰𐌸𐌰𐍂𐌿𐌷 (ƕaþaruh, ‘each, every (of two)’). With demonstratives it was emphatic, as in 𐍃𐌰𐌷 (sah, ‘that particular’) and 𐌸𐌰𐍄𐌿𐌷 (þatuh, ‘that very’); with negatives it produced meanings such as ‘and not, neither’, as in 𐌽𐌹𐌷 (nih).
Descendants
- -𐌿𐌷 (-uh) (Gothic)