*wiʀ

Reconstruction

Wiktionary reconstructs *wiʀ for Proto-West Germanic,^[1] and Ringe and Taylor write *wiz.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *wīz (“we”),^[2] which Ringe and Taylor write *wīz ~ *wiz, Kroonen *wīz, Orel *wez, and Köbler *wiz, *wez, *wēz, *weiz.^[2][3][4][5] Word-final *z in monosyllables developed differently in the northern and southern West Germanic dialects: in the north it was lost with compensatory lengthening, and in Old English the *i was also lowered, while in the south it survived and became r.^[2] Ringe and Taylor place this loss before the merger of *z with *r, and note that it did not apply throughout West Germanic.^[6] Hogg and Fulk likewise trace Old English wē to Northwest Germanic *wiz, with lengthening under stress.^[7]

Morphology

The nominative of the first person plural personal pronoun.^[8][9] Hogg and Fulk give the Proto-Germanic plural as nominative *wīz, accusative and dative *uns, genitive *unserō.^[9] Ringe and Taylor explain the Northwest Germanic second person plural *jiz, which replaced Proto-Germanic *jūz, as taking its *i from the first person plural *wiz and dual *wit.^[10]

Evidence

The pronoun has lost the final consonant in Old English wē, Old Frisian wī and Old Saxon wī, but kept it as r in Old High German wir.^[2] Old Dutch has both forms: Köbler records ⟨uui⟩ and ⟨uuir⟩ in the Old Franconian psalms,^[11] and ONW has ⟨[uu]e⟩ in the pen trial of 1083–1110 beside ⟨wir⟩ in Williram's commentary of 1100.^[12]

Competing analyses

Ringe and Taylor reject the view that such words lost *-z because they were unstressed: it accounts neither for Old English mā (“more”) and cū (“cow”) nor for the survival of *-z in Old High German.^[2] Fulk holds that Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐍃 (weis) and the Old East Norse form continue *wīz, while the other Germanic forms continue *wez, raised to *wiz when unstressed and lengthened when stressed again, and he finds no compelling reason to take either *wīz or *wez as the older form.^[13] He reports that others, such as Krahe and Meid, derive the Old West Norse and West Germanic forms from *wiz, shortened from *wīz under low stress, and objects that the lowering of the vowel in Old English would then be hard to explain.^[13] Orel takes the final *-z for secondary, by analogy with plural forms.^[4]

Meanings

1. we^[2][1]

Reflexes

• Old English: wē (“we”)^[14]
• Old Frisian: wī (“we”)^[15]
• Old Saxon: wī (“we”)^[8]
• Old Dutch: wī (“we”)^[11][12]
• Old High German: wir (“we”)^[16]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *wiʀ
2. ^ 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. 86
3. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 590
4. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 460
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *wiz
6. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 67
7. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. 206
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. wī
9. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. 203
10. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 23
11. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard, Altniederfränkisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. wī
12. ^ a b Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. wi
13. ^ a b Fulk, R. D. (2018), A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages, Studies in Germanic Linguistics 3, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins
14. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. wē
15. ^ Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. wī
16. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. wir