*þū

Reconstruction

Ringe and Taylor reconstruct the nominative singular *þū "you" for Proto-West Germanic,^[1][2] and Wiktionary has the same form.^[3] It continues inherited from Proto-Germanic *þū (“you (singular)”),^[4][5] which Orel writes *þū̆.^[5] Hogg and Fulk give the late Proto-Germanic paradigm behind the Old English forms with a nominative *þu, accusative *þek, genitive *þīnō and dative *þiz.^[6] Ringe and Taylor find that the personal pronouns passed from Proto-Northwest Germanic into Proto-West Germanic with little further change.^[1]

Morphology

A personal pronoun of the second person singular.^[7][8] Ringe and Taylor's Proto-West Germanic singular has the nominative *þū, the accusative *þek ~ *þik and the dative *þiz; the dual has *jit and *ink, the plural *jiz and *iuw, and the genitive was supplied by the possessive adjective *þīn.^[1] Where a stressed and an unstressed form had been inherited, the unstressed one usually survived, but Anglian Old English kept the originally stressed accusative þec.^[1] The dative *þiz lost its final *-z in the northern dialects, giving Old English þē, Old Frisian thī and Old Saxon thī, while in the south the consonant became ⟨r⟩, as in Old High German dir.^[9] Hogg and Fulk add that Old English þū must have had a variant with a short vowel in unstressed position.^[10]

Evidence

The pronoun is attested in all the West Germanic languages: Old English þū, Old Frisian thū, Old Saxon thū, Old Dutch thū and Old High German dū.^[4][8][11] ONW records the accusative ⟨thi⟩ in the Malberg glosses of the Lex Salica, dated 507–768, in the formula of a freed servant, ⟨maltho thi afrio lito⟩ "I tell you, half-free man, I set you free".^[12] It has the enclitic form in forsachistu "do you forsake" in the Utrecht baptismal vow of 791–800, and the nominative ⟨thu⟩ in the Old Dutch pen trial of 1083–1110, ⟨hinase hi[c] [e]nda thu⟩ "except me and you".^[13] On the fibula of Bülach the runes ⟨du⟩ are widely taken, after Krause, for the nominative of this pronoun.^[14] Findell notes that the reading is uncertain and that it assumes a weakening of ⟨þ⟩ to ⟨d⟩ which Nedoma firmly rejects.^[14]

Competing analyses

Hogg and Fulk, following Fullerton, find it hard to explain why West Germanic has the second singular ending *-is rather than *-iz without assuming that *-z was devoiced before *þu,^[15] and they derive the Old English ending ⟨-st⟩ from a sequence *-is þu.^[16] Ringe and Taylor call the devoicing before *þū completely unnecessary, since Proto-West Germanic had inherited both the voiced and the voiceless alternants of Verner's law.^[2]

Meanings

1. you (singular)^[2][3]

Derivatives

• *þīn "your", the possessive adjective that supplied the genitive;^[1] Orel calls Proto-Germanic *þīnaz a Germanic formation based on *þū.^[17]

Reflexes

• Old English: þū (“you (singular)”)^[18]
• Old Frisian: thū (“you (singular)”)^[19]
• Old Saxon: thū (“you (singular)”)^[20]
• Old Dutch: thū (“you (singular)”)^[12]
• Old High German: dū (“you (singular)”)^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 125
2. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 292
3. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *þū
4. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 549
5. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 428
6. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. §5.30
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. thū
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard, Altniederfränkisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. thū
9. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 86
10. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. §5.29
11. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. dū
12. ^ a b Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. thū
13. ^ Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. thu
14. ^ a b Findell, Martin (2010), Vocalism in the Continental Runic Inscriptions, PhD thesis, University of Nottingham, 2 vols, p. Bülach
15. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. §6.14 n. 3
16. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. §6.9
17. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 423
18. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. þū
19. ^ Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. thū
20. ^ Berr, Samuel (1971), An Etymological Glossary to the Old Saxon Heliand, Berne / Frankfurt: Herbert Lang, p. 421