*hwī

Reconstruction

The word is *hwī in Wiktionary and Ringe,^[1][2] and *xwī in Orel.^[3]

Etymology

Wiktionary has it inherited from Proto-Indo-European *kʷíh₁ (“how?”).^[1] Orel derives it from *kʷei, a locative of the interrogative stem Proto-Indo-European *kʷo-,^[3] and Fulk also calls it formally a locative, with the PIE ending *-ei.^[4]

Morphology

An instrumental singular, in form, of the interrogative pronoun *hwaz.^[1] Ringe sets up two neuter instrumentals for that pronoun, *hwē and *hwī, and counts it among the few Proto-Germanic paradigms for which doublets are hard to avoid.^[2]

Evidence

The form is found only in Northwest Germanic: Ringe lists Old English hwȳ, the neuter dative Old Norse hví and, probably, Old High German hwiu.^[2] Orel adds Old Saxon hwī.^[3] Gothic has instead the instrumental Gothic 𐍈𐌴 (ƕē), which Ringe calls solidly attested,^[2] and which Köbler assigns to a separate *hwē "how".^[5] Feist explains the first part of Gothic 𐍈𐌹𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌺𐍃 (ƕileiks, “of what kind, which”) as the pronominal stem *hwi-.^[6]

Competing analyses

How Old English hwȳ arose is disputed: Fulk thinks it most likely developed early from *hwī under low stress, the spelling hwī being a later unrounding, while Krahe and Meid explained it as a blend of hwī and hū (“how”).^[4] Holthausen compares Latin quī, an instrumental of the stem of quid,^[7] and Orel compares quī (“who, which”) and Proto-Slavic *či (“how, whether”).^[3]

Meanings

1. how, with what, by what means^[1]

In the daughter languages the word mostly means "why".^[3][8][9] Old Saxon used it after prepositions, as in Old Saxon bihwī (“why, how”).^[10]

Derivatives

• *hwilīkaz "what kind of", from *hwī and *-līkaz.^[11]
• *hwadrê "whither", which Wiktionary derives from *hwī.^[12]

Reflexes

• Old Norse: hví (“how, why”)^[9]
• Old English: hwī, hwȳ (“why”)^[8][7]
• Old Saxon: hwī, in bihwī (“why”)^[10][3]
• Old High German: hwiu, probably, as Ringe gives it^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *hwī
2. ^ a b c d e Ringe, Don (2017), From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 322
3. ^ a b c d e f Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 201
4. ^ a b Fulk, R. D. (2018), A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages, Studies in Germanic Linguistics 3, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Gotisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. ƕē
6. ^ Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 171
7. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. hwī
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. hwī
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. hvī
10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. bihwī
11. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *hwilīkaz
12. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *hwadrê