Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/hnīwaną

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

Alternative forms

• *hnīgwaną (early form)
• *hnīganą (Northwest dialectal)

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *kneygʷʰ- (“to bend, to droop”). Perhaps cognate with Latin coniveo (“to close up the eyes; to connive, turn a blind eye”) due to matching phonetics, but the semantic gap is wide.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxniː.wɑ.nɑ̃/

Verb

*hnīwaną

1. to bow

Inflection

Note: The original stem-final consonant gw becomes w, but g next to u.

Conjugation of *hnīwaną (strong class 1)

	active voice			passive voice
present tense	indicative	subjunctive	imperative	indicative	subjunctive
1st singular	*hnīwō	*hnīwaų	—	*hnīwai	?
2nd singular	*hnīwizi	*hnīwaiz	*hnīw	*hnīwazai	*hnīwaizau
3rd singular	*hnīwidi	*hnīwai	*hnīwadau	*hnīwadai	*hnīwaidau
1st dual	*hnīwōz	*hnīwaiw	—	—	—
2nd dual	*hnīwadiz	*hnīwaidiz	*hnīwadiz	—	—
1st plural	*hnīwamaz	*hnīwaim	—	*hnīwandai	*hnīwaindau
2nd plural	*hnīwid	*hnīwaid	*hnīwid	*hnīwandai	*hnīwaindau
3rd plural	*hnīwandi	*hnīwain	*hnīwandau	*hnīwandai	*hnīwaindau
past tense	indicative	subjunctive
1st singular	*hnaiw	*hniwį̄
2nd singular	*hnaiwt	*hniwīz
3rd singular	*hnaiw	*hniwī
1st dual	*hnigū	*hniwīw
2nd dual	*hnigudiz	*hniwīdiz
1st plural	*hnigum	*hniwīm
2nd plural	*hnigud	*hniwīd
3rd plural	*hnigun	*hniwīn
	present	past
participles	*hnīwandz	*hniwanaz

Related terms

• *hnaigwijaną/*hnaiwijaną
• *hnigwijaną/*hniwjaną
• *hnigōną/*hniwōną (?)

Descendants

• Proto-West Germanic: *hnīgan
  • Old English: hnīgan
  • Old Frisian: hnīga
  • Old Saxon: hnīgan
    • Middle Low German: nîgen
  • Old Dutch: *nīgan
    • Middle Dutch: nigen
      • Dutch: nijgen
        • Afrikaans: nyg
      • Limburgish: niege
  • Old High German: nīgan
    • Middle High German: nīgen
      • German: neigen (merged with *hnaigijaną)
• Proto-Norse:
  • Old Norse: hníga
    • Icelandic: hníga
    • Faroese: níga
    • Norwegian Bokmål: nige
    • Old Swedish: nīgha
      • Swedish: niga
        • → Finnish: niiata
• Gothic: 𐌷𐌽𐌴𐌹𐍅𐌰𐌽 (hneiwan)