Etymologically
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welcher

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈvɛlçər/, [ˈvɛl.çɐ], [ˈvɛʎ-][1]

Forms

welcher (interrogative, relative and indefinite pronoun; feminine welche, neuter welches; uninflected welch in exclamations)[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German welich, inherited from Old High German welīh, inherited from Proto-Germanic *hwalīkaz (“of what form”), a compound of the pronominal stem of wer and Proto-Germanic *līką (“body, form”), the word of Leiche and the suffix -lich.[3][4][5] It meant “having what shape”.[4][5][2] The German form, with umlaut from /a/, matches Old Frisian hwelik and Middle Dutch welc, while a form with /i/ appears in Gothic 𐍈𐌹𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌺𐍃 (ƕileiks, “what kind of”), Old Norse hvílíkr, Old English hwilc, Old Saxon hwilīk and Middle High German wilich.[3][4] The English cognate is which, and Swedish has vilken.[3][5] The same pattern of formation is seen in solch and gleich.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German welīh is recorded from glosses of about 765, and then in the Hildebrandslied, Isidor, the Muspilli, Otfrid and Notker.[6][7] It asked “which, what kind of”, and as an indefinite pronoun meant “any” and, with a genitive plural, “each”.[7][4]

Semantic evolution

The generalising relative sō welīh sō “whoever” was contracted to swelich in the 11th century, Middle High German swelch.[4] The plain relative welcher, first found in Middle Dutch of the 13th and 14th centuries, passed into Middle Low German and in the 15th century into High German, where the language of law and chancery spread it;[4] it has since largely given way to the relative use of the article der.[4][2]

Timeline

  • c. 765 – Old High German welīh appears in glosses.[6]
  • 11th century – The generalising relative swelich is formed.[4]
  • 15th century – The relative pronoun welcher is taken into High German from Low German.[4]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. (interrogative) which, what: Welches Buch liest du?[2][1]
  2. (formal, in exclamations and dependent clauses) What a, what: Welch ein Zufall![2]
  3. (relative, less common) Who, which, that, in place of der, die, das.[2][1]
  4. (indefinite) some, any, standing for a noun already mentioned: Ich brauche Briefmarken, hast du welche?[2][1]

Word family

  • irgendwelcher

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  3. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 981
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  5. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  7. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 378