I cannot tell you how exactly that happened, but at some point, German innovated a neuter plural ending -er which triggers umlaut. There are plenty such neuter plurals, such as Häuser 'houses', Bücher 'books' and Löcher 'holes'.Zju wrote: ↑Mon Nov 13, 2023 9:43 am Probably a long shot, but does anyone know how did Proto-Germanic *ajjō 'eggs' become Proto-West Germanic *aijiʀu 'id.'? Going off wiktionary here:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstr ... manic/ajją
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstr ... rmanic/aij
I guess I'm ultimately curious why German has Eier instead of *Eie or sth, given that the PIE neuter plural ending is *-eh₂.
German questions
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Re: German questions
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Re: German questions
I thought it was pretty well established that this alternation was generalised from the relatively small class of Proto-Germanic z-stem nouns which continue the PIE athematic acrostatic neuter declension with *-os/-es alternation.WeepingElf wrote: ↑Mon Nov 13, 2023 10:26 amI cannot tell you how exactly that happened, but at some point, German innovated a neuter plural ending -er which triggers umlaut. There are plenty such neuter plurals, such as Häuser 'houses', Bücher 'books' and Löcher 'holes'.
E.g. PIE *h₁l̥h₁onbʰos/*h₁l̥h₁onbʰes- > PGmc *lambaz/*lambiz- > PWGmc *lamb/*lambiʀ- > OHG lamb/lembir-, Mod.Ger. Lamm/Lämmer.
The generalising tendency is already on display in the Proto-West-Germanic period and only gains steam in OHG and MHG due to the large number of neuter nouns inherited without distinctive N/A plural endings. (This contrasts with English where the -s ending was generalised instead and Swedish which was content to leave the vast majority of these nouns without distinctive plurals. Cf. Eng. lamb/lambs, Sw. lamm/lamm.)
Re: German questions
And here was I thinking that German and English plural markers -er and -s were cognates, what with rhotacism and such.
/j/ <j>
Ɂaləɂahina asəkipaɂə ileku omkiroro salka.
Loɂ ɂerleku asəɂulŋusikraɂə seləɂahina əɂətlahɂun əiŋɂiɂŋa.
Hərlaɂ. Hərlaɂ. Hərlaɂ. Hərlaɂ. Hərlaɂ. Hərlaɂ. Hərlaɂ.
Ɂaləɂahina asəkipaɂə ileku omkiroro salka.
Loɂ ɂerleku asəɂulŋusikraɂə seləɂahina əɂətlahɂun əiŋɂiɂŋa.
Hərlaɂ. Hərlaɂ. Hərlaɂ. Hərlaɂ. Hərlaɂ. Hərlaɂ. Hərlaɂ.
- WeepingElf
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