*jugunþi

Reconstruction

Ringe and Taylor reconstruct *jugunþi for Proto-West Germanic,^[1] and Wiktionary has the same form.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *jugunþiz (“youth”),^[2][3] which Orel writes *juʒunþiz, Köbler *jugunþi-, *jugunþiz beside *juwunþi-, and Kroonen *ju(w)unþi-.^[4][3][5] Kroonen and Orel relate it to the adjective "young", Proto-Germanic *jungaz.^[5][4]

Morphology

A feminine noun, an i-stem in Old Saxon and Old Dutch,^[6][7] an ō-stem in Old High German and Old English.^[8][9] Kroonen calls it a ti-stem.^[5]

Evidence

The word is attested in all the West Germanic languages; in the northern dialects *jugunþi lost its nasal before the fricative, through *jugų̄þ, giving Old English ġeoguþ, Old Frisian jogethe and Old Saxon juguth, while Old High German jugund kept it.^[1] De Vaan finds that, apart from the oldest form, the dative singular iuginde in the Wachtendonck Psalms, all the Dutch records agree with the northern loss of the nasal, such as Old Dutch iugethet (“rejuvenated”) in the Leiden Williram of about 1100 and Middle Dutch ioget in Limburg in 1240.^[10] ONW dates that form to the 10th century.^[11]

Competing analyses

Kroonen holds that the West Germanic forms point to *juwunþi-, with a regular change of *w to a velar between two high vowels, one of them rounded; the *w probably arose in the hiatus of *juunþi-.^[5] De Vaan, following Kroonen, derives West Germanic *jugunþi- from Proto-Germanic *juwunþi-,^[10] and EWA too sets up West Germanic *i̯ugunþi- from Proto-Germanic *i̯uu̯unþi-, taking the change of *w between sonants to have been perhaps regular before a stressed sonant.^[8] Wiktionary puts the g already in Proto-Germanic, from earlier *juwunþiz, possibly under the influence of *dugunþō "virtue",^[12] while Orel explains it as a taboo change of *-w- to *-ʒ-.^[4]

De Vaan describes the loss of the nasal as a loss in an unstressed syllable, which *dugunþi- "virtue" shares; in that word too High German keeps the nasal, Low German has both variants and the northern languages lost it, and Dutch again sides with them.^[10] Ringe and Taylor list the word among the examples of the loss of nasals before fricatives in the northern dialects.^[1]

Meanings

1. youth^[1][2]

Old English also used the word for "young people, a young troop",^[8][9] and Old High German also for "virginity, puberty, adolescence".^[8]

Reflexes

• Old English: ġeoguþ (“youth, young people”)^[9]
• Old Frisian: jogethe (“youth”)^[13]
• Old Saxon: juguth (“youth”)^[6]
• Old Dutch: jugint (“youth”)^[11]
• Old High German: jugund (“youth, adolescence, virginity”)^[8]

References

1. ^ 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. 141
2. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *jugunþi
3. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *jugunþi-
4. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 207
5. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 276
6. ^ a b Tiefenbach, Heinrich (2010), Altsächsisches Handwörterbuch / A Concise Old Saxon Dictionary, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. s.v. juguth
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altniederfränkisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. jugind
8. ^ a b c d e 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. jugund
9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. geogoþ, geoguþ, iuguþ
10. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2017), The Dawn of Dutch: Language Contact in the Western Low Countries before 1200, NOWELE Supplement Series 30, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins, p. 237
11. ^ a b Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. jugint
12. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *jugunþiz
13. ^ Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. jogethe