Reconstruction talk:Proto-Germanic/-umnijō

Etymology

The preform would probably have been *-m̥neyeh₂, as the cluster -mny- would presumably have given **-munjō, similar to how it developed in *glitmunjaną. Unless there were two forms *-umnij- and **-munj- depending on whether the preceding syllable was heavy or light, and then the latter was leveled out.

Gothic seems to show different genders, representing *-umnijō and *-umniją. I wasn't really sure whether to reconstruct both, or if Gothic shows independent development of one earlier form. Old Saxon fastunnia (“fasting”) reflects the former form, while Old English festen(n) (“fastness; fortress”) reflects the latter. Maybe the former derives action nouns while the latter derives abstracts? Anglom (talk) 23:52, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

@Burgundaz I found a source discussing this which I have listed on the page, but I feel a bit out of my depth when dealing with PIE. So here are some relevant comments:

The source of this suffix is Gmc. *-ubn(i)ja/ō / *-munja/ō from *-mn-yó- / *-mn-yéh2. Dialectal IE *wid-mࣹnyó-, a derivative of *wid-mén- (cf. Ved. vid-mán- ‘wisdom’) to *weid- ‘know’, gave Goth. witubni* (n) ‘knowledge’. The derivation is as follows: *weyd-men-yó- > *wy/id-mn-yó-. The maximize onset principle predicts *wi.dmࣹ.nyó- (with syllabic [mࣹ]). The alternative *wid-mnyó- (with only i and o syllabic) obeys maximize onset for mnyo but leaves a coda in wid, so the only way maximize onset can consistently apply to the entire word is *wi.dmࣹ.nyó-, the source of pre-Gmc. *witumn(i)jan whence, by nasal dissimilation, Gmc. *witubn(i)ja(n). In Germanic, Prokosch’s Law (the preference for heavy initial syllables) came into competition with maximize onset (Riad 1992: 45–62). For Gothic syllabications like [niþ.jis] ‘male cousin’, [nas.jis] ‘you save’, and line-end word divisions like rod-ja ‘I speak’, swis-tar ‘sister’, neþ-los ‘of a needle’, wiþ-rus ‘wether, lamb’, see §§2.11f. (cf. GGS 48; Bennett 1960: 28; Frey 1989; Suzuki 1995). The alternative syllabication is attested in Goth. lauhmuni* (lauhmoni Lk 17:24) ‘lightning; blaze’ (acc lauhmunja Lk 10:18, Bl 2r.12, dat lauhmon[j]ai 2Thess 1:8A) < pre-Goth. *l(a)uh.mun-jō < dialectal IE *l(o)uk-mnࣹ-yéh2 [*leuk- ‘light’] (NWG 277, 279) beside a syllabication *lou.kmࣹ.nyéh2 > Gmc. *lau.hum.nyō > *lau.hub.nyō, which possibly underlies ME levene, levin ‘lightning’ levin (cf. KM 130,AHDR 49).

Hope this is of use. — Mnemosientje (t · c) 09:47, 25 May 2020 (UTC)