hwa

Forms

hwā (masculine and feminine), neuter hwæt; accusative hwone, hwæt; genitive hwæs; dative hwǣm; instrumental hwȳ, hwon.^[2] Variants: accusative hwane, hwæne, West Saxon dative hwām, instrumental hwī, hwan;^[3] Lindisfarne writes the neuter huæd.^[3] There is no plural, and masculine and feminine are not told apart.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hwaʀ, from Proto-Germanic *hwaz (“who”).^[1][4] Kroonen counts it as the Indo-European interrogative pronoun, with Gothic 𐍈𐌰𐍃 (ƕas), Old Norse hverr, Old Saxon hwē and Old High German hwer beside it; the neuter hwæt matches Gothic 𐍈𐌰𐍄𐌰 (ƕata), hvat, hwat and hwaz.^[5] Old Frisian has the same form, Old Frisian hwā.^[4][6]

Kroonen traces the masculine to Proto-Indo-European *kʷos and the neuter to *kʷod; the Old Saxon and Old High German forms point instead to *hwiz, from *kʷes.^[5] Ringe and Taylor think that preform of uncertain age.^[4] The use of the same pronoun as an indefinite, “someone, something”, is inherited: Latin quis has it too, though usually with a prefix, as in aliquis.^[7]

The final *-z was lost: Hogg and Fulk take the loss from the unstressed indefinite use; the form then spread to stressed positions, where its vowel was lengthened as in sē.^[3] Ringe and Taylor instead see a regular loss of word-final *-z in monosyllables, with compensatory lengthening, in the northern West Germanic dialects, against the retained *-z of Old High German, and they reject the explanation from unstressed forms.^[4] Hollifield derives hwā from *xwai.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The paradigm is first recorded in its neuter: the will of the reeve Abba of 833×839, which survives as a contemporary single sheet, provides for the case gif him elles hwæt sæleð “if anything else befalls him”.^[8][9] The Vespasian Psalter gloss of the mid-ninth century renders “Domine quid multiplicati sunt” (Psalm 3.2) with Dryhten hwet gemonigfaldade sindun.^[10][9] The masculine hwā is first recorded in the Pastoral Care in Hatton 20, written 890×897: Hwa meahte ieð monnum rædan butan scylde, ðonne se ðe hi gescop? “Who could more easily rule men without fault than he who made them?”^[11][9]

Semantic evolution

The pronoun asks after a person, hwæt after a thing, in direct and indirect questions; the neuter can ask after people of any gender or number when it asks what they are.^[12][13] Unstressed, it is the indefinite “someone, anyone”, as in Beowulf, and swā hwā swā means “whoever”.^[14][15] The laws use it often as “who?”, with all its cases.^[16] Ælfric's Grammar renders Latin “quis” with it and calls the question form “interrogative”.^[12]

It lived on as Middle English who, now English who.^[17][18]

Timeline

• 833×839 – elles hwæt “anything else” in the will of Abba, a contemporary single sheet.^[8][9]
• s. ix med. – hwet for Latin “quid” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[10][9]
• 890×897 – Hwa meahte ieð monnum rædan “who could more easily rule men” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[11][9]
• s. x/xi – the interrogative hwā and the indefinite hwone “anyone” in the Beowulf manuscript.^[19][14]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. who? (neuter hwæt: what?) in direct questions.^[12][14]
2. who, what, in indirect questions.^[12][15]
3. (indefinite) someone, anyone; something, anything.^[15][14][20]
4. in swā hwā swā: whoever.^[15]

Word family

• ġehwā
• āhwā
• ǣġhwā
• hwæthwega

Descendants

• Middle English who (→ English who; English whe; Scots wha)^[1]

Related words

• hwilċ
• hwæþer
• hwǣr
• hwider
• hū
• hwonne

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 5.19
3. ^ a b c d e Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 5.20
4. ^ a b c d Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 86
5. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 261
6. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 179
7. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 5.18
8. ^ a b The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 1482
9. ^ a b c d e f Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
10. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 329
11. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
12. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 569
13. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 575
14. ^ a b c d Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. hwā
15. ^ a b c d Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 117
16. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 119
17. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
18. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
19. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 344
20. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. hwā