*mīn

Reconstruction

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

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *mīnaz (“my”),^[2][3] which Kroonen cites by its stem *mīna- and Orel as *mīnaz.^[4][5]

Morphology

A possessive pronoun of the first person singular.^[6][4] As in Proto-Germanic, the genitive of the personal pronouns was supplied in Proto-West Germanic by the possessive adjectives: singular *mīn, *þīn, reflexive *sīn, dual *unkar, *inkwar, plural *unsar, *iuwar.^[1]

Evidence

The pronoun is found in all the West Germanic languages: Old English mīn, Old Frisian mīn, Old Saxon mīn and Old High German mīn,^[4] and Old Dutch mīn in the Wachtendonck psalms of the 9th century.^[7] Old High German has it in glosses and many texts from the last quarter of the 8th century.^[3]

Competing analyses

Hogg and Fulk set up the genitive singular *mīnō: the adjective suffix *-īn-, as in stǣnen (“made of stone”), was added to the root *me-, presumably giving *mein- > *mīn-, and then an adjective ending, perhaps the neuter plural *-ō.^[8] Fulk instead derives the forms from Proto-Germanic *mīnē < *meinē, with the directional suffix *-nē on a locative *mei, so that "mine" comes from "with me", after Seebold; the stem *mīn- was then reanalysed as the base of the possessive.^[9] He notes that Ringe, on the contrary, derives all the genitive personal pronouns from the possessive adjectives.^[9]

Meanings

1. my, mine^[1][2]

Reflexes

• Old English: mīn (“my”)^[10]
• Old Frisian: mīn (“my”)^[11]
• Old Saxon: mīn (“my”)^[6]
• Old Dutch: mīn (“my”)^[12]
• Old High German: mīn (“my”)^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *mīn
3. ^ 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. mîn
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 369
5. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 273
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. mīn
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altniederfränkisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. mīn
8. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. §5.25
9. ^ a b Fulk, R. D. (2018), A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages, Studies in Germanic Linguistics 3, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins, p. 183
10. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. mīn
11. ^ Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. mīn
12. ^ Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. mīn