*klokkā

Reconstruction

Wiktionary reconstructs *klokkā "bell" for Proto-West Germanic.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin clocca (“bell”).^[1][2] Green finds that clocca replaced Latin signum for the church bell in northern France in the 7th century, and that the new word also entered West Germanic.^[3] Its earliest record is the Hiberno-Latin word in Adomnán's Life of Columba, of the late 7th century;^[3] Green takes the Latin word to be the source of the continental forms, but holds that this first record is not enough to show that the Latin word is of Irish origin.^[2] EWA takes Medieval Latin clocca for a certain borrowing of Old Irish cloc (“bell”), recorded from the 5th century.^[4]

Morphology

A feminine n-stem in Old High German,^[4][5] a feminine in Old Frisian,^[6] and a weak feminine in Old English.^[7]

Evidence

The word is attested as Old English clucge,^[8] which EWA reports as recorded only once,^[4] Old Frisian klokke^[6] and Old High German glocka, the last from the 9th century in glosses and in Notker.^[4] EWA records the Old Saxon word from a single manuscript, in the form Old Saxon glogga.^[4] According to EWA the Old High German spellings show that the word was borrowed only after the High German consonant shift, and the initial g- is probably due to an Upper German lenition found from the 10th century.^[4] Green reports two variants in Germany, one with ⟨cl-⟩ in the Low and Middle German dialects and one with ⟨gl-⟩ in the south, for which two separate entries have been suggested.^[3] The Old Norse words are borrowings from Middle Low German.^[4]

Competing analyses

EWA derives Old High German glocka either directly from Old Irish cloc or, because of its feminine gender, from Medieval Latin clocca, and the Old Saxon, Old Frisian and Old English words likewise from either.^[4] Holthausen derives Old English clucge from Old Irish, with a question mark,^[8] and Köbler calls the Old High German and Old Frisian words borrowings from Old Irish.^[5][9] Green rejects the view that the Irish missionaries brought the word to Germany: none of them was active in northern Germany, where the ⟨cl-⟩ form is found, and the Latin word is spread too widely to be tied to Irish transmission.^[2] He also reports the proposal of a Latin or Romance origin, from a verb "to strike", which would rule out an Irish source, and which rests on the argument that an Irish word would be too late for the palatalisation of the Italian and Iberian dialect forms.^[10]

Meanings

1. bell^[1][6]

Old High German used the word for the church bell and for a bell as a musical instrument.^[4]

Reflexes

• Old English: clucge (“bell”)^[8]
• Old Frisian: klokke (“bell”)^[6]
• Old High German: glocka (“church bell, bell”)^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *klokkā
2. ^ a b c Green, D. H. (1998), Language and History in the Early Germanic World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 327–328
3. ^ a b c Green, D. H. (1998), Language and History in the Early Germanic World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 327
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. glocka
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. glocka
6. ^ a b c d Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. klokke
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. clucge
8. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. clucge
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altfriesisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. klokke
10. ^ Green, D. H. (1998), Language and History in the Early Germanic World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 328