*ik

Reconstruction

Ringe and Taylor's Proto-West Germanic paradigm of the first person has the nominative singular *ik, with *ek beside it in brackets,^[1] and Wiktionary reconstructs *ik.^[2] Düwel, Nedoma and Oehrl reconstruct West Germanic *ik, *ika.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *ek (“I”),^[4][5] which Kroonen cites as *ek(a) and Orel as *eka.^[4][5] The pronoun had a stressed form *ek and an unstressed *ik, and where both were inherited it was usually the unstressed form that survived in West Germanic.^[1] EWA too holds that the West Germanic forms with i- generalised the weakly stressed realisation of Proto-Germanic *e-,^[6] and Düwel, Nedoma and Oehrl derive *ik from the weakly stressed form of *ek, *ekan.^[3] Hogg and Fulk take *ik for the unstressed form, whose vowel was carried into the stressed form, so that among the Germanic languages only Old Norse ek kept the original stressed vowel.^[7]

Morphology

The personal pronoun of the first person singular.^[8] Ringe and Taylor reconstruct the singular accusative *mek ~ *mik and dative *miz, the dual nominative *wit and oblique *unk, and the plural nominative *wiz and oblique *uns; the genitive was supplied by the possessive adjective *mīn.^[1] The non-singular accusative and dative had become one form, the shorter accusative one, since the first-person forms show no i-umlaut.^[1]

Evidence

The pronoun is attested in all the West Germanic languages: Old English ic, Old Frisian ik, Old Saxon ik, Old Dutch ik and Old High German ih.^[9] Old High German has it from the 8th century,^[6] and ONW's first Old Dutch record is the Old Dutch pen trial of 1083–1110.^[10] Old Saxon also has the forms ⟨ek⟩ and ⟨ec⟩,^[11] and Ringe and Taylor find it unclear whether ⟨ec⟩ continues the stressed form.^[1] The bow brooch UFO I, named "Bateman" after its first owners and said to have been found in Kent, dated to about 510–535, has ⟨ik⟩ followed by a woman's name, read as pre-Old High German ik.^[12] The belt mount of Heilbronn-Böckingen, of about 585–610, may begin with the same pronoun, but the reading is uncertain.^[13]

Competing analyses

Most of the daughters have non-singular accusatives with an added ending *-ik, as Old High German unsih and Anglian Old English ūsiċ.^[1][14] Ringe and Taylor think this almost certainly a parallel development, since the ending never causes i-umlaut.^[1] Hogg and Fulk take the ending to be borrowed from the stressed accusative singular *mik.^[14] Krogh explains these forms as the transfer of the singular contrast between *-ik and no ending to the plural.^[15] Kortlandt treats the addition of *-ik as an innovation of the dialect that became Old High German, which spread to the Anglian dialects and left traces in Old Saxon and Old Low Franconian, but not in West Saxon or Kentish, whose speakers had apparently already left the continent.^[16]

Meanings

1. I^[3][2]

Reflexes

• Old English: ic (“I”)^[17]
• Old Frisian: ik (“I”)^[18]
• Old Saxon: ik (“I”)^[11]
• Old Dutch: ik (“I”)^[10]
• Old High German: ih (“I”)^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *ik
3. ^ a b c Düwel, Klaus; Nedoma, Robert; Oehrl, Sigmund (2020), Die südgermanischen Runeninschriften, 2 vols, Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 119, Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. §4.3.1.1
4. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 115
5. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 83
6. ^ a b c 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. ih
7. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. 203
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. ik
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *ek-, *ik-
10. ^ a b Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. ik
11. ^ a b Tiefenbach, Heinrich (2010), Altsächsisches Handwörterbuch / A Concise Old Saxon Dictionary, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. s.v. ik
12. ^ Düwel, Klaus; Nedoma, Robert; Oehrl, Sigmund (2020), Die südgermanischen Runeninschriften, 2 vols, Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 119, Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. SG-121
13. ^ Düwel, Klaus; Nedoma, Robert; Oehrl, Sigmund (2020), Die südgermanischen Runeninschriften, 2 vols, Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 119, Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. SG-50
14. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. 204
15. ^ Krogh, Steffen (1996), Die Stellung des Altsächsischen im Rahmen der germanischen Sprachen, Studien zum Althochdeutschen 29, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
16. ^ Kortlandt, Frederik (1986), The origin of the Old English dialects, in: Dieter Kastovsky, Aleksander Szwedek (eds), Linguistics across Historical and Geographical Boundaries I, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 437–442 (Leiden repository hdl 1887/1889)
17. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. ic
18. ^ Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. ik