Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/mann-

This Proto-Germanic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Germanic

Etymology

    From Proto-Indo-European *mon- (“man”) or *men- (“to mind; to stay”).[1][2][3] Alternatively, Kroonen, following Berneker[4] (apud Kluge[5]), favors the word splitting off from Proto-Indo-European *(dʰ)ǵʰmō, *(dʰ)ǵʰmon- (“human”) in the cases where the -m- wasn't syllabic (which otherwise gave *gum-, see *gumô); since the initial cluster would have been unpronounceable in Germanic, the result would be a reduced *(-)man-.[6]

    Noun

    *mann- m

    1. human, human being, person, individual
    2. man
    3. (Runic alphabet) name of the rune ᛗ (m)

    Inflection

    This noun was inflected as a consonant stem, but the daughter languages disagree on the form of the nominative singular. The Gothic form points to a nominative *man(n)ô, as does the rare Old English nominative manna. The north and west Germanic forms, on the other hand, indicate *mannz. Judging from Gothic evidence, the original compounding form was *mana(n)- with only a single -n-, as in 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌰𐍃𐌴𐌸𐍃 (manasēþs, “mankind”); however, note also 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌺𐌰 (manleika, “portrait”).

    Several ideas have been proposed to explain the unusual morphology of this word, particularly the geminate -nn-. One proposal is that its stem was manwa- (wa-stem) or manu- (u-stem), where -nw- would have become -nn- through regular sound change in Germanic. This explains the relationship of the noun to cognates elsewhere in Indo-European, but crucially it does not explain the consonant stem inflection.

    A more recent proposal is that the noun reflects a root man- to which n-stem endings have been added.[7][8] These n-stem endings were not the usual type found in Germanic, but a rarer type that lacked a vowel between the root and the stem suffix in some of the forms. This is also seen in *uhsô (which has the stem *uhsn- in the plural), *arô (with *arn-), *berô (with *bern-) and Latin carō (with carn-). The stem without a vowel would have then been *man-n-, to which consonant stem endings would have been added, as n-stems were consonant stems in origin. If this is the case, it would explain the geminate -nn-, the consonant stem endings, and would also account for the n-stem nominative singular found in Gothic and Old English.

    Declension of *mann- (consonant stem)
    singular plural
    nominative *mann-, *manô, *mannô *manniz
    vocative *mann *manniz
    accusative *mannų *mannunz
    genitive *manniz *mannǫ̂
    dative *manni *mannumaz
    instrumental *mannē *mannumiz

    Synonyms

    Derived terms

    • *Mannz (“Mannus, the mythical ancestor of the Germanic peoples”)

    Descendants

    References

    1. ^ Vladimir Orel, A Handbook of Germanic Etymology (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 260.
    2. ^ Wolfram Euler, Das Westgermanische: Von der Herausbildung im 3. bis zur Aufgliederung im 7. Jahrhundert (Berlin: Inspiration Unlimited, 2013), 92.
    3. ^ Donald Ringe, From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, 2nd edn. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 165.
    4. ^ Erich K. Berneker, Indogermanische Forschungen 9 (1898): 360-1.
    5. ^ Elmar Seebold, ed., Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 23rd edn., orig. Friedrich Kluge (Berlin/NY: W. de Gruyter, 1995), 538.
    6. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), “*mannan-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 353-4
    7. ^ Alfred Bammesberger, ‘Urgermanisch *mann-: Etymologie und Wortbildung’, Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia 5 (2000): 7-12.
    8. ^ Karl-Heinz Mottausch, Der Nominalakzent im Frühurgermanischen (Hamburg: Kovač, 2011), 73.
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