𐌹𐍃

Forms

𐌹𐍃 (is), the anaphoric pronoun of the third person; the feminine is 𐍃𐌹 (si) and the neuter 𐌹𐍄𐌰 (ita).^[1][2][3] Lehmann gives the accusative 𐌹𐌽𐌰 (ina), the nominative plural 𐌴𐌹𐍃 (eis) and the relative form 𐌹𐌶𐌴𐌹 (izei).^[4] Feist adds the feminine accusative 𐌹𐌾𐌰 (ija).^[5] The Wulfila project counts these forms under the lemma: 𐌹𐌼𐌼𐌰 (imma, 596 times), 𐌹𐍃 (is, 500), 𐌹𐌽𐌰 (ina, 457), 𐌹𐌼 (im, 370), 𐌹𐌶𐌴 (izē, 126), 𐌹𐌽𐍃 (ins, 83), 𐌴𐌹𐍃 (eis, 59), 𐌹𐌶𐌰𐌹 (izai, 52), 𐌹𐌶𐍉𐍃 (izōs, 26), 𐌹𐍄𐌰 (ita, 21), 𐌹𐌾𐌰 (ija, 10), 𐍃𐌹 (si, 8), 𐌹𐌾𐍉𐍃 (ijōs, 2), 𐌹𐌶𐌴𐌹 (izei, 1) and 𐌹𐌶𐍉 (izō, 1).^[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *iz (“he”),^[7][8] which also gave Old Norse es, Old Frisian er, Old Saxon is and Old High German er, with the neuter iz.^[9][4] Lehmann traces the paradigm to the pronoun stems Proto-Indo-European *e-, *ey- and *i-, which were combined in the anaphoric pronoun.^[4] The cognates outside Germanic include Latin is, with the neuter id, Lithuanian jis (“he”), Ancient Greek ἴν (ín) (an accusative, "this one") and Old Irish é (“he”).^[5][10][9] Orel equates the Gothic neuter with the Latin one.^[9] Feist explains the final vowel of the neuter and of the masculine accusative as a particle added to the old ending, so that the accusative without it matches the Greek one.^[5]

Attestation

It is one of the commonest words of the corpus: the Wulfila project counts 2,312 tokens (520 of them ambiguous), and Köbler 2,178 records.^[6][8] It occurs in all four Gospels, in the Epistles, in Nehemiah and in the Skeireins, in manuscripts CA, A, B, C, D, E, Car, Speyer and Lat5750.^[6] The first record in canonical order is Matthew 5:25.^[6] In PROIEL's alignment it renders Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós) 1,841 times, the article ὁ (ho) 80 times and ἐκεῖνος (ekeînos) six times.^[11] At Matthew 5:29 the neuter stands for the eye that offends: usstagg ita jah wairp af þus, "pluck it out and throw it away from you".^[12]

Meanings

1. he, she, it; in the plural they: the third-person personal pronoun, for Greek autós.^[2][7][11]
2. that one, he; an anaphoric pronoun pointing back to someone already named.^[1][8]

Word family

• 𐌹𐌶𐌴𐌹 (izei, “who, which”)

Usage notes

The same spelling 𐌹𐍃 (is) is also "thou art", the second person singular of the verb "to be", 𐍅𐌹𐍃𐌰𐌽 (wisan).^[13][14][7] Kroonen sets it beside 𐌹𐌼 (im) and 𐌹𐍃𐍄 (ist), from Proto-Germanic forms of the root "to be".^[15]

References

1. ^ a b Streitberg, Wilhelm (1910), Die gotische Bibel, II: Gotisch-griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. is
2. ^ a b Regan, Brian T. (1974), Dictionary of the Biblical Gothic Language, Phoenix: Wulfila House, p. 90
3. ^ Braune, Wilhelm; Heidermanns, Frank (2004), Gotische Grammatik, mit Lesestücken und Wörterverzeichnis, 20th ed., Sammlung kurzer Grammatiken germanischer Dialekte A 1, Tübingen: Niemeyer, p. 284
4. ^ a b c Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. is
5. ^ a b c Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. is
6. ^ a b c d De Herdt, Tom (2004–2026), Project Wulfila: digital edition of the Gothic Bible with lemma and morphological annotation, data release 2026-09-03, wulfila.be
7. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. 𐌹𐍃
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Gotisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. is
9. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. s.v. *iz
10. ^ Uhlenbeck, C. C. (1900), Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 2nd ed., Amsterdam: Müller, p. 90
11. ^ a b Haug, Dag T. T. et al., PROIEL Treebank: The Gothic Bible (gothic-nt), 2023 release, Pragmatic Resources in Old Indo-European Languages, University of Oslo
12. ^ De Herdt, Tom (2004–2026), Project Wulfila: digital edition of the Gothic Bible with lemma and morphological annotation, data release 2026-09-03, wulfila.be, p. Mt 5:29
13. ^ Wright, Joseph (1910), Grammar of the Gothic Language, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. is
14. ^ Lambdin, Thomas O. (2006), An Introduction to the Gothic Language, Eugene, Or.: Wipf and Stock
15. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 582