*-ǭ

Runic: ᛟ Pronunciation: /ɔ̃ː/

suffix · forms nouns · feminine · ōn-stem

Function

like modern English “-ess”; forms feminine agent and personal nouns, often corresponding to masculine *-ô or *-jô

Etymology

From Early Germanic *-ōn-, the feminine counterpart to the masculine an-stem agentive/individualizing suffix *-ô. The suffix reflects a Proto-Germanic convergence of Proto-Indo-European *-ō(n)- with feminine éh₂-stems. The feminine ōn-stems are generally regarded as largely innovative in PGmc (Kroonen 2011a: 36–38; Fulk 2018: 171–72). Ringe (2017: 307) notes that the PGmc nominative singular of the innovative feminine n-stems cannot be securely recovered, and that Northwest Germanic *-ǭ may itself be analogical from the oblique *-ōn- stem.

Paradigm

CaseSingularPlural
Nom.-ǭ-ōniz
Acc.-ōnų-ōnunz
Gen.-ōniz-ōnǫ̂
Dat.-ōni-ōmaz
Inst.-ōnē-ōmiz
Voc.-ǭ-ōniz

Find a form

Descendants

  • *-ā (Proto-West Germanic)
    • -a (Old Dutch)
      • -e (Middle Dutch)
        • -e (Dutch)
  • *-ā (Proto-West Germanic)
    • -e (Old English)
      • -e (Middle English)
  • *-ā (Proto-West Germanic)
    • -e (Old Frisian)
      • -e (West Frisian)
  • *-ā (Proto-West Germanic)
    • -a (Old High German)
      • -e (Middle High German)
        • -e (German)
  • *-ā (Proto-West Germanic)
    • -a (Old Saxon)
      • -e (Middle Low German)
  • -a (Old Norse)
    • -a (Faroese)
    • -a (Icelandic)
    • -a (Norwegian Nynorsk)
  • -a (Old Norse)
    • -e (Danish)
      • -e (Norwegian Bokmål)
  • -a (Old Norse)
    • -a (Old Swedish)
      • -a (Swedish)
  • -𐍉 (-ō) (Gothic)
  • *-ū (Vandalic)

Explore/search these descendants

View on Wiktionary

Words mentioned in this entry

Entries that mention this word