Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/falisaz

This Proto-Germanic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Germanic

Alternative forms

• *falisaz (West Germanic only)
• *felzaz

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *pels-, *pelis- (“rock, cliff”), or perhaps an s-stem *pél-es-. Compare Old Irish ail (“boulder, rock”), Proto-Celtic *ɸallo- (“cliff”), Sanskrit पाषाण (pāṣāṇa, “stone, rock”) and Pashto پرښه (parṣ̌a). Kroonen suggests reconstructing an acrostatic *pól-s ~ *pél-s-s, with o-grade based especially on the Old French borrowing falise.
Alternatively from a substrate language; more at πέλλα (pélla).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɸɑ.li.sɑz/

Noun

*falisaz m

1. rock, cliff

Inflection

masculine a-stemDeclension of *falisaz (masculine a-stem)
	singular	plural
nominative	*falisaz	*falisōz, *falisōs
vocative	*falis	*falisōz, *falisōs
accusative	*falisą	*falisanz
genitive	*falisas, *falisis	*falisǫ̂
dative	*falisai	*falisamaz
instrumental	*falisō	*falisamiz

Descendants

• Proto-West Germanic: *falis
  • Old Saxon: felis
    • Middle Low German: vels
  • Old Dutch: *felis
    • Middle Dutch: vels
      • Dutch: vels
  • Old High German: felis, fels, feliso
    • Middle High German: vels, velse
      • German: Fels, Felsen (often distinguished)
      • Hunsrik: Fels
      • Luxembourgish: Fiels
  • → Vulgar Latin: *falisa, *falesa
    • Old French: falise, falese, faleise, faloise
      • Middle French: falize, falise, faleise, faloise, falaise
        • French: falaise (see there for further descendants)
      • → Medieval Latin: falesa, falisia
        • Italian: falesa, falesia
• Old Norse: fell, fjall (possibly < *felzaz)
  • Icelandic: fjall, fell
  • Faroese: fjall
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: fjell; (dialectal) fjall, fjadd
  • Old Swedish: fiæl
    • Swedish: fjäll
  • Danish: fjeld
    • Norwegian Bokmål: fjell
  • → Middle English: fell, fel
    • Scots: fell, fiold
    • English: fell

Further reading

• Matasović, Ranko (2009) “*fales-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 120