Proto-Germanic/Pronouns and numbers
Welcome to the first lesson of Proto-Germanic!
Pronouns
[edit | edit source]Personal pronouns
[edit | edit source]First and second person
[edit | edit source]Unlike almost all modern Germanic languages, Proto-Germanic personal pronouns still has dual forms (except those were non-existent for the third person).
| Case | Singular | Dual | Plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | Second | First | Second | First | Second | |
| I | you thou |
we two | you two | we | you | |
| Nominative | *ek | *þū | *wet | *jut | *wīz | *jūz |
| Accusative | *mek | *þek | *unk | *inkw | *uns | *izwiz |
| Genitive | *mīnaz | *þīnaz | *unkeraz | *inkweraz | *unseraz | *izweraz |
| Dative / Instrumental | *miz | *þiz | *unkiz | *inkwiz | *unsiz | *izwiz |
In Gothic, however, ending *-az in the genitive forms are replaced by ones ending in *-ō (yielding *mīnō, *þīnō, *unserō, *izwerō, *unkerō and *inkerō).[1] Unstressed forms of monosyllabic personal pronouns are formed by raising *-e- to *-i-, so *ek yields unstressed *ik, *wet yields *wit, and *mek yields *mik.
Third person
[edit | edit source]The third person pronouns, however, are very diverse throughout the family (Old English he, but Gothic es). The table below, however, are extracted from the corresponding Wikipedia article about the grammar of Proto-Germanic.
| Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| he | she | it | they | |||
| Nominative | *iz | *sī | *it | *īz | *ijôz | *ijō |
| Accusative | *inǭ | *ijǭ | *inz | |||
| Genitive | *es | *ezōz | *es | *ezǫ̂ | ||
| Dative | *immai | *ezōi | *immai | *emaz | ||
| Instrumental | *ina (?) | *ezō | *ina (?) | *imiz | ||
Numbers
[edit | edit source]List
[edit | edit source]| 1 | *ainaz | 11 | *ainalif | 30 | *þrīz tigiwiz |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | *twō | 12 | *twalif | 40 | *fedwōr tigiwiz |
| 3 | *þrīz | 13 | *þritehun | 50 | *fimf tigiwiz |
| 4 | *fedwōr | 14 | *fedurtehun | 60 | *sehs tigiwiz |
| 5 | *fimf | 15 | *fimftehun | 70 | *sebun tigiwiz *sebuntēhundą |
| 6 | *sehs | 16 | *sehstehun | 80 | *ahtōu tigiwiz *ahtōutēhundą |
| 7 | *sebun | 17 | *sebuntehun | 90 | *newun tigiwiz *newuntēhundą |
| 8 | *ahtōu | 18 | *ahtōutehun | 100 | *hundą *hundaradą *tehuntēhundą |
| 9 | *newun | 19 | *newuntehun | 1000 | *þūsundī |
| 10 | *tehun | 20 | *twai tigiwiz | ||
Derivatives
[edit | edit source]- Cardinal: Usually formed by the suffix *-dô, however, it instead becomes *-tô after voiceless consonants (*fimf "five" → *fimftô "fifth"). Some numbers have irregular forms:
- *ainaz → *frumô "first"
- *twō → *anþeraz "second"
- *þrīz → *þridjô "third"
- *fedwōr → *fedurþô "fourth"
- *sehs → *sehtô "sixth"
- *ahtōu → *ahtudô "eighth"