hvat

Faroese

Etymology

From Old Norse hvat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷód, *kʷod.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kvɛaːʰt/

Pronoun

hvat n

1. what

Declension

Interrogative pronoun - spurnarfornavn
Singular (eintal)	m	f	n
Nominative (hvørfall)	hvør	hvør	hvat
Accusative (hvønnfall)	hvønn	hvørja
Dative (hvørjumfall)	hvørjum	hvørjari / hvørji	hvørjum
Genitive (hvørsfall)	hvørs	(hvørjar)	hvørs
Plural (fleirtal)	m	f	n
Nominative (hvørfall)	hvørjir	hvørjar	hvørji
Accusative (hvønnfall)	hvørjar
Dative (hvørjumfall)	hvørjum
Genitive (hvørsfall)	hvørja

Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *hwat (“what”), neuter nominative of *hwaz (“who, what”). Cognate with Old English hwæt, Old Frisian hwet, Old Saxon hwat, Old Dutch wat, Old High German waz, Gothic 𐍈𐌰 (ƕa).

Pronoun

hvat

1. what (nominative and accusative singular neuter interrogative pronoun)
2. what (nominative and accusative singular neuter relative pronoun)
3. something
   • c. 850, Þjóðólfr ór Hvíni, Haustlǫng

     hvat kvað hapta snytrir · hjalmfaldinn því valda

     the helmet-capped instructor of the gods [= Óðinn] said something was causing this

Declension

    Declension of hvar

singular	masculine	neuter
nominative	*hver, *hvar	hvat
accusative	*hven	hvat
dative	hveim	hví
genitive	hves	hves

Descendants

• Icelandic: hvað
• Faroese: hvat
• Norwegian Nynorsk: kva, kvat; (dialectal) k(v)att, kåt, ka, ke, ko, kø, hot, høt, hø, ho
• Jamtish: hut, hvuð
• Old Swedish: hvat, hvadh
  • Swedish: vad, hvad (pre-1906 spelling)
• Old Danish: hwat
  • Danish: hvad
    • Norwegian Bokmål: hva

References

• “hvat”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press