Reconstruction talk:Proto-Germanic/haiþī

*haiþī

Judging from Gothic, as well as various West Germanic forms, this was probably an ī/jō stem. What do you think? —CodeCat 17:40, 8 March 2013 (UTC)

Yes, possibly. I've seen reconstructions for all three (-ī, -jō, and -iz). I went with -iz bc of Old Norse, but please feel free to move if you think otherwise :) Leasnam (talk) 17:44, 8 March 2013 (UTC)

I think Old Norse added -r to several original ō-stems. I'm not sure why, though. But that could be what happened here, too. —CodeCat 18:43, 8 March 2013 (UTC)

[1] says of ō-stem nouns: The vowel of the final stem syllable undergoes u-umlaut in the N sg. The nominative ending -r appears only on long jō-stem nouns.

w:Old Norse says this concerning the differences in Old East Norse:

Feminine o-stems often preserve the plural ending -aʀ while in OWN they more often merge with the feminine i-stems: (runic OEN) *sōlaʀ, *hafnaʀ/*hamnaʀ, *vāgaʀ while OWN sólir, hafnir and vágir (modern Swedish solar, hamnar, vågar; suns, havens, scales; Danish has mainly lost the distinction between the two stems with both endings now being rendered as -er or -e alternatively for the o-stems).

Vice versa, masculine i-stems with the root ending in either g or k tended to shift the plural ending to that of the ja-stems while OWN kept the original: drængiaʀ, *ælgiaʀ and *bænkiaʀ while OWN drengir, elgir (elks) and bekkir (modern Swedish drängar, älgar, bänkar).

The plural ending of ja-stems were mostly preserved while those of OWN often acquired that of the i-stems: *bæðiaʀ, *bækkiaʀ, *væfiaʀ while OWN beðir (beds), bekkir, vefir (modern Swedish bäddar, bäckar, vävar).

So that would mean that there was a general tendency to merge a/ō-stems with i-stems in Old Norse, taking endings from one or the other depending on the dialect. Also, since apparently jō-stems (which would include ī/jō stems) had -r, it still fits. —CodeCat 18:47, 8 March 2013 (UTC)

Ah, very good. Moving... Leasnam (talk) 20:18, 8 March 2013 (UTC)