ek

Forms

ek^[1] Proto-Norse runic ek on the Gallehus horn, the Tune stone and the Valsfjord rock, and ik on a bracteate from Denmark.^[2][3][4][5] Proto-Norse ekA on the Stentoften stone, and the enclitic -eka in hAiteka “I am called” on the Lindholmen amulet.^[6][7][8] Old Norwegian and Shetland iak beside ek,^[9] and the enclitic -k (-g after a verb ending in g).^[10]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Norse ᛖᚲ (ek, “I”),^[1] from Proto-Germanic *ek (“I”).^[11][12] The pronoun has the same shape across Germanic: Gothic 𐌹𐌺 (ik), Old English ic, Old Frisian ik, Old Saxon ik and Old High German ih.^[11][13] Outside Germanic it matches Latin ego and Ancient Greek ἐγώ (egṓ), which go back with the Sanskrit pronoun to Proto-Indo-European *eǵh₂óm (“I”);^[1] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon explains the variation between the plain stop of Latin and Greek and the aspirate of the Sanskrit form by an old alternation of the root, which some trace to a laryngeal.^[13]

Wiktionary and Hellquist give an earlier *eka, seen in runic ⟨ekA⟩;^[1][14] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon reconstructs a full form *ekan for the Old Norwegian and Old Swedish ⟨iak⟩, while the unstressed form after the verb was reduced to (e)k(a).^[13] Hellquist and de Vries derive ⟨iak⟩ by breaking from *eka; de Vries notes that if Old Icelandic “ek” goes back to the same form, the breaking failed to happen in weakly stressed position.^[14][12] Noreen records ⟨iak⟩ beside “ek” in Old Norwegian and in Shetland, and a Danish-influenced ⟨iek⟩ in the fifteenth century.^[9]

The pronoun was often attached to the verb as “-k”: “emk” “I am”, “sák” “I saw”, and with a preceding “g” assimilated, “hykk” “I think”.^[10] This enclisis is already Proto-Norse, as in ⟨hAiteka⟩ “I am called” at Lindholmen.^[8][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is among the best-attested in Proto-Norse: Noreen notes that the first person is the only personal pronoun on record from that period.^[9] Rundata dates the Gallehus horn, with ek Hlewagastiz Holtijaz horna tawido “I, Hlewagastiz Holtijaz, made the horn”, to 375/400–460/470, after Imer;^[2][15][16] Nedre Hov, Rö and Kårstad, all with ek, fall in 160–375/400 or earlier by the same dating.^[2][15][16] In Old Norse proper, Menota's earliest dated nominative is on the Norwegian runic inscription N 861, of 1066–1099.^[17] ONP's earliest manuscript citation, from the Old Icelandic homilies of about 1150, already shows the enclitic doubling: Ec em sa engell. es feórec beóner yþrar goþe “I am the angel who brings your prayers to God”.^[18]

Semantic evolution

Enclitic -k was the rule in poetry before 1200 and still common in the thirteenth century, and appears in prose too,^[8] where ONP records doubled ek … -k and the negative -ka, -kat as in sáka “I did not see”.^[18][10] Rhymes in the skaldic verse show that the suffixed form was the usual one in the older poetry.^[19] Cleasby and Vigfússon date the spelling eg to manuscripts of the fifteenth century.^[20]

Modern Icelandic has ég (written eg), Faroese and Nynorsk eg, while Swedish jag and Danish jeg continue the broken form.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 160–375/400 – Proto-Norse ek on the Rö stone, by Imer's dating.^[16]
• 375/400–460/470 – ek Hlewagastiz on the Gallehus horn, by Imer's dating.^[2]
• 375/400–520/530 – ek Wiwaz on the Tune stone, by Imer's dating.^[3]
• 520/530–700 – the fuller form ekA on the Stentoften stone, by Imer's dating.^[6]
• 1066–1099 – ek on the Norwegian runic inscription N 861.^[17]
• 1150 – Ec em sa engell in the Old Icelandic homilies (Hóm237).^[18]
• 1175 – reit ek … ok sendak in the Elucidarius manuscript (Eluc674).^[18]
• 15th century – the spelling eg in Icelandic manuscripts.^[20]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. I, the first-person singular personal pronoun.^[18][10]
2. (chiefly poetic and early prose) as an enclitic -k attached to a verb, also beside a full ek: emk “I am”, ek sék “I see”.^[10][21]
3. with the negative suffix: -ka, -kat, veitka “I do not know”.^[10][18]

Descendants

• Icelandic ég^[1]
• Faroese eg^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk eg^[1]
• Swedish jag^[1]
• Danish jeg^[1]
• Old Swedish iak^[1]
• Old Danish iak^[1]

Usage notes

The form ek is also the first person singular present of the verb aka “to drive”; dictionaries keep the two apart.^[10][22] In the laws the writer sometimes speaks in the first person, and the pronoun is common in oaths and legal formulas.^[23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. DR 12
3. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N KJ72
4. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N KJ55
5. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. DR IK341
6. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. DR 357
7. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. DR 261
8. ^ a b c Noreen, Adolf (1923), Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik, 4th ed., Halle, p. § 465
9. ^ a b c Noreen, Adolf (1923), Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik, 4th ed., Halle, p. § 464
10. ^ a b c d e f g Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. ek
11. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
12. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 98
13. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. eg
14. ^ a b c Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. jag
15. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N KJ39
16. ^ a b c Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Bo KJ73
17. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 861
18. ^ a b c d e f Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. ek
19. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 105
20. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 124
21. ^ Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. ek
22. ^ Faulkes, Anthony (2011), A New Introduction to Old Norse III: Glossary and Index of Names, 4th ed., London: Viking Society for Northern Research, p. s.v. ek
23. ^ Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 154