*fimftehun

Reconstruction

Wiktionary reconstructs *fimftehun "fifteen" for Proto-West Germanic.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *fimftehun (“fifteen”),^[2][1] which EWA writes *fimfteχun.^[3] Ringe reconstructs the numerals from thirteen to nineteen as compounds of the units with *-tehun "ten".^[2] EWA calls Old High German fimfzehan a juxtaposition of the words for "five" and "ten",^[3] and Wiktionary likewise analyses it as *fimf "five" and *tehun "ten".^[1]

Morphology

A cardinal numeral.^[4][3] In Old High German the numerals from fourteen to nineteen are treated just like zehan (“ten”), as in Tatian.^[3]

Evidence

The numeral is attested as Old English fīftīene,^[4] Old Frisian fīftīne, also fīftēne,^[5] Old Saxon fīftein, recorded about 1100,^[6] and Old High German fimfzehan, from the 9th century, in Tatian, Notker and psalm glosses.^[3] Old English, Old Frisian and Old Saxon lack the nasal, like their word for "five": Ringe and Taylor show the loss of a nasal before a fricative, with lengthening and nasalization of the vowel, in *fimf, whose northern forms are Old English fīf, Old Frisian fīf and Old Saxon fīf against Old High German fimf, and call it the most obvious sound change of the northern dialects, one fully shared by Old Saxon.^[7] Middle Dutch has viftien and vichtien beside vijftien, which follows the cardinal vijf.^[3] Wiktionary gives the Old Dutch form only as a reconstruction.^[1]

Competing analyses

Ringe and Taylor treat the loss of the nasal as an innovation of the northern dialects, sometimes called Ingvaeonic, and hold that Proto-West Germanic, though for some generations clearly a single language, was probably never completely uniform.^[8] Stiles counts the loss of nasals before fricatives among the Ingvaeonic features, which the traditional approach takes for innovations after Proto-West Germanic, High German being conservative in many respects.^[9]

Meanings

1. fifteen^[2][1]

Reflexes

• Old English: fīftīene (“fifteen”)^[4]
• Old Frisian: fīftīne (“fifteen”)^[5]
• Old Saxon: fīftein (“fifteen”)^[6]
• Old High German: fimfzehan (“fifteen”)^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *fimftehun
2. ^ a b c Ringe, Don (2017), From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 320
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. s.v. fimfzehan
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. fīftīene
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altfriesisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. fīftīne
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. fīftein
7. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 139–140
8. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 139
9. ^ Stiles, Patrick V. (2013), The Pan-West Germanic isoglosses and the subrelationships of West Germanic to other branches, NOWELE 66/1, 5–38, p. 18