mösse

See also: mosse and Mosse

Central Franconian

Alternative forms

• mosse, moße (Ripuarian; older forms)
• misse, mieße, muße, moße (Moselle Franconian)

Etymology

From Middle High German muozen, from Old High German muozan, from Proto-West Germanic *mōtan. The now predominant Ripuarian form with -ö- is influenced by German müssen.

The past tense mot- is peculiar. It has replaced the expected forms, which in the singular would have become homophonous with the respective present forms (*moss, *moß). Original -st- seems to have been irregularly reduced to -t-. However, the pronunciation /mɔːt/ alongside /moːt/ hints at an influence by (regularly explainable) past tense forms of mugge, müjje (“may; to like”). The two verbs can be semantically close in negation; compare English I must not ≈ I may not.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmøsə/

Verb

mösse (third-person singular present moss, past tense mot, past participle jemot or jemoss)

1. (Ripuarian, auxiliary) must; to have to; should

   Du moss dich ens wäsche, du rüchs e bessje.

   You should wash yourself, you have a bit of a smell.

Descendants

• Hunsrik: misse
• Luxembourgish: mussen