Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/-ōnō

This Proto-West 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-West Germanic

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Germanic *-ōnǫ̂, from *-ō (ō-stem suffix) +‎ *-anǫ̂ (an-stem genitive plural suffix).

Suffix

*-ōnō

Forms the genitive plurals of ōn-stem nouns^[1]
‎*sagā (“story”) + ‎-ōnō → ‎*sagōnō (“stories', of stories”)

Usage notes

This suffix replaced its masculine/neuter counterpart *-anō in all descendant languages.^[1]^[2]

Related terms

*-anō
*-īnō
*-nō

Descendants

Old English: -ena (early -ana, -na)
- Middle English: -ene, -an, -en, -yn, -yne, -ena, -enne (Early Middle English, rare)
Old Frisian: -ana, -ena
- West Frisian: -ene (fossilised)
Old Saxon: -ono, -uno, -onu
- Middle Low German: -en
Old Dutch: -ono
- Middle Dutch: -en
Old High German: -ōno (late -eno, -ōne, -ōn)
- Middle High German: -en (Alemannic -ōn)
  - Alemannic German:
    Walser German: -o, -u, -e
  - German: -en

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Ringe, Donald; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English (A Linguistic History of English; 2), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 118: “In the oblique cases of the plural OHG has generalized the fem. suffix, but it seems unlikely that that had already happened in PWGmc; I accordingly reconstruct *-an- for the masc. and neut. paradigms (with dat.-inst. pl. *-um, apparently < *-a(m)maz and *-a(m)miz).”
^ 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, § 7.31, page 153.

[Ringe-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Ringe, Donald; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English (A Linguistic History of English; 2), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 118: “In the oblique cases of the plural OHG has generalized the fem. suffix, but it seems unlikely that that had already happened in PWGmc; I accordingly reconstruct *-an- for the masc. and neut. paradigms (with dat.-inst. pl. *-um, apparently < *-a(m)maz and *-a(m)miz).”

[2] 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, § 7.31, page 153.

[1]

[2]