Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/magan

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

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *maganą.

Verb

*magan

to be able, may

Inflection

*mag, *maht, *magun, *mahtā

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

In all descendants but Old English, the infinitive/plural stem vowel was replaced with u (even then, most Middle English forms are from an Old English *mugan).

Old English: magan, *mugan
- Middle English: mowen (mostly from analogical *mugan)
  - English: may
  - Scots: mey, may, ma
  - Yola: mye, mai, mey, maa, ma
Old Frisian: muga
- North Frisian:
  Föhr-Amrum: mei
  Mooring: mooge
  Sylt: mai
- Saterland Frisian: muuge
- West Frisian: meie
Old Saxon: mugan
- Middle Low German: mogen, mögen
  - Low German: mögen, mägen
    German Low German: mögen
Old Dutch: mugan
- Middle Dutch: mōgen
  - Dutch: mogen, meugen (dialectal)
    - Afrikaans: mag
  - Limburgish: moge
Old High German: mugan
- Middle High German: mugen, mogen, magen, megen, mügen, mögen
  - Alemannic German: möge
  - Bavarian: megn
  - Central Franconian: mugge
  - Cimbrian: mögan, möng (Luserna)
  - German: mögen
    - → Central Franconian: müjje
  - Rhine Franconian:
    Pennsylvania German: meege
  - Yiddish: מעגן (megn)