Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/-ā

Inherited from Proto-Germanic *-ǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *-ō(n) and Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂.

*-ā

1. Forms feminine agent nouns; -ess

• Old English: -e
• Old Frisian: -e
• Old Saxon: -a
• Old Dutch: -a
• Old High German: -a

A conflation of two different suffixes:

• In the accusative singular, from Proto-Germanic *-ǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *-ā́m, from *-eh₂ (eh₂-stem suffix) +‎ *-m (accusative singular suffix).
• In the genitive singular, from Proto-Germanic *-ōz, from Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂s (eh₂-stem genitive singular ending), from *-eh₂ (eh₂-stem suffix) +‎ *-s (genitive singular suffix).

*-ā

2. Forms the accusative singular of ō-stem nouns.

   ‎*gebu (“gift”) + ‎-ā → ‎*gebā (“gift”)

4. Forms the genitive singular of ō-stem nouns.

   ‎*gebu (“gift”) + ‎-ā → ‎*gebā (“gift's”)

• Old English: -e (early -æ)
  • Middle English: -e (extended to the nominative)
• Old Frisian: -e (extended to the nominative)
• Old Saxon: -a (extended to the nominative)
• Old Dutch: -a (extended to the nominative)
• Old High German: -a (extended to the nominative)

• Fulk, R[obert] D. (September 2018), “Nouns”, in A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages (Studies in Germanic Linguistics; 3)‎^[1], Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →DOI, →ISBN, →LCCN, § 7.15, pages 155-156.
• Ringe, Donald; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English (A Linguistic History of English; 2), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 376

Inherited from Proto-Germanic *-anz, from Proto-Indo-European *-oms (eh₂-stem accusative plural ending), from *-os (o-stem suffix) +‎ *-ms (accusative plural suffix).

*-ā

1. Forms the accusative plural of masculine a-stem nouns.

   ‎*stain(a) (“stone”) + ‎-ā → ‎*stainā (“stones”)

• *-ą̄

• Old Saxon: -a (rare)
  • Middle Low German: -e
    • German Low German: -e
• Old Dutch: -a
  • Middle Dutch: -e
• Old High German: -a, -ā
  • Middle High German: -e (Alemmanic -ā)
    • Alemannic German:

      Walser German: -a, -ä

    • German: -e
    • East Central German: -e
    • Rhine Franconian:

      Hessian: -e (Northern)

• Fulk, R[obert] D. (September 2018), “Nouns”, in A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages (Studies in Germanic Linguistics; 3)‎^[2], Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →DOI, →ISBN, →LCCN, § 7.8, page 148.
• Ringe, Donald; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English (A Linguistic History of English; 2), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 114-116

Inherited from Proto-Germanic *-ōz, from Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂m̥s (eh₂-stem accusative plural ending), from *-eh₂ (eh₂-stem suffix) +‎ *-ms (accusative plural suffix).

*-ā

1. Forms the accusative plural of ō-stem nouns.

   ‎*gebu (“gift”) + ‎-ā → ‎*gebā (“gifts”)

• Old English: -e (early -æ)
  • Middle English: -e (early)
• Old Frisian: -e
• Old Saxon: -a
  • Middle Low German: -e
• Old Dutch: -a
• Old High German: -a, -ā
  • Middle High German: -e (Alemmanic -ā)
    • Alemannic German:

      Walser German: -a; -ä, -e (possibly; either from jō- or ī/jō-stems or borrowed from Romance)

• Fulk, R[obert] D. (September 2018), “Nouns”, in A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages (Studies in Germanic Linguistics; 3)‎^[3], Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →DOI, →ISBN, →LCCN, § 7.15, pages 155-156.
• Ringe, Donald; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English (A Linguistic History of English; 2), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 376