Appendix:Proto-Germanic/mann-
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This entry contains Proto-Germanic reconstructed words and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence. |
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Proto-Germanic [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Proto-Indo-European *man- or Proto-Indo-European *men-.
Pronunciation [edit]
- IPA: /ˈmɑnn?/
Noun [edit]
*mann- m
Declension [edit]
This noun was inflected as a consonant stem, but the daughter languages disagree on the form of the nominative singular. The Gothic form points to a nominative *mannô or *manô, as does the rare Old English nominative manna. The north and west Germanic forms, on the other hand, indicate *mannz. Judging from Gothic evidence, the original compounding form was *mana(n)- with only a single -n-, as in 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌰-𐍃𐌴𐌸𐍃 (mana-sēþs, “mankind”).
Several ideas have been proposed to explain the unusual morphology of this word, particularly the geminate -nn-. One proposal is that its stem was manwa- (wa-stem) or manu- (u-stem), where -nw- would have become -nn- through natural sound change in Germanic. This explains the relationship of the noun to cognates elsewhere in Indo-European, but crucially it does not explain the consonant stem inflection.
A more recent proposal is that the noun reflects a root man- to which n-stem endings have been added. These n-stem endings were not the usual type found in Germanic, but a rarer type that lacked a vowel between the root and the stem suffix in some of the forms. This is also seen in *uhsô (which has the stem *uhsn- in the plural) and Latin carō (with carn-). The stem with out a vowel would have then been *man-n-, to which consonant stem endings would have been added, as n-stems were consonant stems in origin. If this is the case, it would explain the geminate -nn-, the consonant stem endings, and would also account for the n-stem nominative singular found in Gothic and Old English.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | *? | *manniz |
| Vocative | *mann | *manniz |
| Accusative | *mannų | *mannunz |
| Genitive | *manniz | *mannǫ̂ |
| Dative | *manni | *mannumaz |
| Instrumental | *mannē | *mannumiz |
