𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃

Forms

𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (meins), the possessive pronoun of the first person singular, inflected as a strong adjective (a-stem); the feminine is 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰 (meina), the neuter 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽 (mein) or 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰𐍄𐌰 (meinata).^[1][2][3] The Wulfila project counts 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰 (meina) 71 times, 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌼𐌼𐌰 (meinamma) 56, 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌹 (meinai) 54, 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽 (mein) 40, 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (meins) 35, 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌽𐌰 (meinana) and 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌹𐌼 (meinaim) 24 each, 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌹𐍃 (meinis) 22, 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌹𐌶𐍉𐍃 (meinaizos) 10, 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍉𐍃 (meinos) 8, 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌽𐍃 (meinans) 6, and 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌹𐌶𐌴 (meinaize), 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰𐍄𐌰 (meinata) and 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌹𐌶𐍉 (meinaizo) 4 each.^[4] Balg notes that it follows only the strong inflection.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *mīnaz (“my, mine”),^[5][6][7] like Old Norse minn, Old English mīn, Old Frisian mīn, Old Saxon mīn and Old High German mīn.^[6][8] Feist and Orel take the Germanic adjective as a derivative in -no- of the locative or secondary stem Proto-Indo-European *mei of the first-person pronoun Proto-Indo-European *me-, the suffix turning the adverbial form into an adjective;^[8][7] Kroonen gives the preform as Proto-Indo-European *h₁meino-.^[6] Lehmann also starts from the uninflected genitive of the pronoun, with dialectal forms in -no- and -ne, and compares the genitives of the first-person pronoun in Indo-Iranian, Baltic and Slavic.^[9] It belongs with the oblique forms of 𐌹𐌺 (ik, “I”),^[10][11] and the same formation is seen in 𐌸𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (þeins, “your”) and 𐍃𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (seins, “his own”).^[9]

Attestation

The Wulfila project counts 362 tokens (45 of them ambiguous), Köbler 331, PROIEL 303 in the Gospels and Epistles.^[4][12][13] It occurs in all four Gospels (107 times in John), in the Pauline epistles, in Nehemiah, twice in the Skeireins and four times in the signatures of the documents listed under the siglum Naples.^[4] Most tokens are in manuscript CA (211), then A (78) and B (57), with a few in D, C, E, Lat5750 and Speyer.^[4] The first is attins meinis at Matthew 7:21.^[4] Matthew 7:24 reads ƕazuh nu saei hauseiþ waurda meina jah taujiþ þo, "whoever then hears my words and does them".^[14]

Meanings

1. my, mine: it renders forms of Ancient Greek ἐγώ (egṓ) 220 times and Ancient Greek ἐμός (emós) 60 times in PROIEL's alignment, once Ancient Greek ἐμαυτοῦ (emautoû).^[2][1][13]

Related words

• 𐌹𐌺 (ik, “I”)
• 𐌸𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (þeins, “your”)
• 𐍃𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (seins, “his own”)

Usage notes

Balg lists three uses: on its own, with the article, and with a noun, before or after it, with or without the article.^[3] Most of PROIEL's alignments are with forms of the personal pronoun ἐγώ rather than with the possessive ἐμός.^[13] The Gothic text of two papyri has the phrase handau meinai, "with my hand".^[15]

References

1. ^ a b Streitberg, Wilhelm (1910), Die gotische Bibel, II: Gotisch-griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. meins
2. ^ a b Regan, Brian T. (1974), Dictionary of the Biblical Gothic Language, Phoenix: Wulfila House, p. 109
3. ^ a b c Balg, G. H. (1887–1889), A Comparative Glossary of the Gothic Language, with Especial Reference to English and German, Mayville, Wis.: the author, p. 275
4. ^ a b c d e 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
5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃
6. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 369
7. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 273
8. ^ a b Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. meins
9. ^ a b 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. meins
10. ^ Uhlenbeck, C. C. (1900), Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 2nd ed., Amsterdam: Müller, p. 109
11. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Gotisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter, p. 70
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Gotisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. meins
13. ^ a b c 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
14. ^ 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 7:24
15. ^ Francovich Onesti, Nicoletta (2005), I nomi gotici dei papiri di Napoli e di Arezzo, Linguistica e Filologia 21