Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/-ōn
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This Proto-West 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-West Germanic
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]From Proto-Germanic *-ōną.
Suffix
[edit]*-ōn
- Creates denominative verbs from nouns.
- Creates factitive verbs from adjectives.
Inflection
[edit]| Class 2 weak | ||
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | *-ōn | |
| 1st sg. past | *-ōdā | |
| Infinitive | *-ōn | |
| Genitive infin. | *-ōnijas | |
| Dative infin. | *-ōnijē | |
| Instrum. infin. | *-ōniju | |
| Indicative | Present | Past |
| 1st singular | *-ō | *-ōdā |
| 2nd singular | *-ōs | *-ōdēs, *-ōdōs |
| 3rd singular | *-ōþ | *-ōdē, *-ōdā |
| 1st plural | *-ōm | *-ōdum |
| 2nd plural | *-ōþ | *-ōdud |
| 3rd plural | *-ōnþ | *-ōdun |
| Subjunctive | Present | Past |
| 1st singular | *-ō | *-ōdī |
| 2nd singular | *-ōs | *-ōdī |
| 3rd singular | *-ō | *-ōdī |
| 1st plural | *-ōm | *-ōdīm |
| 2nd plural | *-ōþ | *-ōdīd |
| 3rd plural | *-ōn | *-ōdīn |
| Imperative | Present | |
| Singular | *-ō | |
| Plural | *-ōþ | |
| Present | Past | |
| Participle | *-ōndī | *-ōd |
Alternative forms
[edit]- *-ōjan (Northern)
Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]An innovation in the northern languages was to attach the class 1 suffix to the stem vowel of this one, creating a compound *-ōjan.
Etymology 2
[edit]From a conflation of several Proto-Germanic ōn-stem suffixes: *-ōnų (accusative singular), *-ōniz (genitive singular, nominative/vocative plural), *-ōni (dative singular), *-ōnē (instrumental singular), and *-ōnunz (accusative plural), alongside *-ōnō (neutern an-stem nominative/vocative/accusative plural)
Suffix
[edit]*-ōn
- Forms the oblique singular and nominative/accusative plural of 'ōn-stem nouns.
- *sagā (“story”) + -ōn → *sagōn (“stories”)
- Forms the nominative/accusative plural of neuter 'an-stem nouns.
Usage notes
[edit]- All later West Germanic languages either level -ōn into the masculine an-stems (Old English, Old Frisian) or *-an into the neuter an-stems or ōn-stems (Old Dutch, Old High German); Old Saxon shows a combination of both developments; this process probably already began in the period of West Germanic unity.
- In the later West Germanic languages, reflexes of this ending tend to be supplanted by those of the nominative singular *-ā in the oblique singular cases of ōn-stems due to widespread conflation of them with ō-stems.
Related terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- Old English: -on, -un (in ēastre); -o, -u (Northumbrian, in eorðe, folde)
- Old Frisian: -on (in āge)
- Old Dutch: -on
- Old Saxon: -un, -on
- Old High German: -ūn
References
[edit]- Fulk, R[obert] D. (September 2018), “Nouns”, in A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages (Studies in Germanic Linguistics; 3)[1], Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, , →ISBN, →LCCN, § 7.32, page 172.
- Ringe, Donald; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English (A Linguistic History of English; 2), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 62-63, 163-164