Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/klaiw

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

Unknown; possibly from an original z-stem^[1] *klaiw ~ *klaiwiʀi, perhaps of substrate origin.^[2]

De Vaan, Foerste, and others connect this to *klaij (“clay”), German Kleie and *klīban (“to stick to”). Their common Germanic root would be *klei- ~ *klai-^[3] (from Proto-Indo-European *gley- (“to stick”) for at least "clay" and Kleie, according to Kroonen).

Noun

*klaiw n

clover

Inflection

z-stem
	Singular
Nominative	*klaiw
Genitive	*klaiwiʀi
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	*klaiw	*klaiwiʀu
Accusative	*klaiw	*klaiwiʀu
Genitive	*klaiwiʀi	*klaiwiʀō
Dative	*klaiwiʀi	*klaiwiʀum
Instrumental	*klaiwiʀi	*klaiwiʀum

Derived terms

*klaibrā

Descendants

Old Saxon: klē
- Middle Low German: klê
Old Dutch: *klēo
- Middle Dutch: clee
  - Dutch: klee (dialectal)
  - Limburgish: klee, kliè
Old High German: chlēo, klēo
- Middle High German: klē
  - Central Franconian: Klee, Klie
  - Cimbrian: khlea
  - German: Klee
  - Luxembourgish: Kléi
  - Rhine Franconian: Klee, Kleje, Klie, Kläi
  - Vilamovian: kłej

References

^ Guus Kroonen (2013) “*klaiwiz-”, in Alexander Lubotsky, editor, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎^[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 291-292
^ Schrijver, Peter (1997) “Animal, vegetable and mineral: some Western European substratum words”, in Lubotsky, A., editor, Sound Law and Analogy‎^[2], Amsterdam/Atlanta, pages 293–316
^ De Vaan, Michiel (2017) The Dawn of Dutch: Language contact in the Western Low Countries before 1200 (NOWELE Supplement Series), volume 30, John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, pages 483-487

[1] Guus Kroonen (2013) “*klaiwiz-”, in Alexander Lubotsky, editor, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎^[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 291-292

[2] Schrijver, Peter (1997) “Animal, vegetable and mineral: some Western European substratum words”, in Lubotsky, A., editor, Sound Law and Analogy‎^[2], Amsterdam/Atlanta, pages 293–316

[3] De Vaan, Michiel (2017) The Dawn of Dutch: Language contact in the Western Low Countries before 1200 (NOWELE Supplement Series), volume 30, John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, pages 483-487

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