Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/-as

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 *-as. Based on the voiceless *s, Ringe argues that this ending was analogically taken from the genitive singular determiner *þas, from *tósyo.^[1]

Suffix

*-as

masculine/neutral genitive singular a-stem noun ending
‎*hund (“dog”) + ‎-as → ‎*hundas (“dog's”)
masculine/neutral genitive singular strong a-stem adjective ending
used in formation of adverbs

Descendants

Old English: -es, -æs — early
- Middle English: -es, -s (mostly Late Middle English), -is, -ys (Northern, Early Scots), -us (West Midland)
  - English: -'s
  - Middle Scots: -is, -s
    - Scots: -'s
- ⇒ Middle English: -es, -s
  - English: -s, -st, -ce (as in once, since)
  - Middle Scots: -is, -s
    - Scots: -s, -st, -ce (as in ance/yince)
Old Frisian: -es, -s
- West Frisian: -s, -'s, -e
Old Saxon: -es
- Middle Low German: -es, -s
  - Low German: -s, -es
    - Plautdietsch: -s
Old Dutch: -es, -is
- Middle Dutch: -s, -es
  - Dutch: -s, -es
    - Afrikaans: -s
Old High German: -es
- Middle High German: -es, -s
  - German: -s, -es, -s-, -'s
  - Luxembourgish: -s
  - Yiddish: ־ס (-s)

References

^ Ringe, Donald (2006), From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (A Linguistic History of English; 1)‎^[1], Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 201

[1] Ringe, Donald (2006), From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (A Linguistic History of English; 1)‎^[1], Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 201

[1]