Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/mann-

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

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *mon- or *men-. Alternatively, Kroonen favors the word splitting off from Proto-Indo-European *(dʰ)ǵʰmō, *(dʰ)ǵʰmon- in the cases where the -m- wasn't syllabic (which otherwise gave *gum-, see *gumô), the initial cluster would have been unpronounceable in Germanic, giving a reduced *(-)man-.[1]

Noun

*mann- m

human, human being, person, individual
man
(Runic alphabet) name of the M-rune (ᛗ)

Inflection

This noun was inflected as a consonant stem, but the daughter languages disagree on the form of the nominative singular. The Gothic form points to a nominative *man(n)ô, as does the rare Old English nominative manna. The north and west Germanic forms, on the other hand, indicate *mannz. Judging from Gothic evidence, the original compounding form was *mana(n)- with only a single -n-, as in 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌰𐍃𐌴𐌸𐍃 (manasēþs, “mankind”); however, note also 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌺𐌰 (manleika, “portrait”).

Several ideas have been proposed to explain the unusual morphology of this word, particularly the geminate -nn-. One proposal is that its stem was manwa- (wa-stem) or manu- (u-stem), where -nw- would have become -nn- through regular sound change in Germanic. This explains the relationship of the noun to cognates elsewhere in Indo-European, but crucially it does not explain the consonant stem inflection.

A more recent proposal is that the noun reflects a root man- to which n-stem endings have been added. These n-stem endings were not the usual type found in Germanic, but a rarer type that lacked a vowel between the root and the stem suffix in some of the forms. This is also seen in *uhsô (which has the stem *uhsn- in the plural), *arô (with *arn-), *berô (with *bern-) and Latin carō (with carn-). The stem without a vowel would have then been *man-n-, to which consonant stem endings would have been added, as n-stems were consonant stems in origin. If this is the case, it would explain the geminate -nn-, the consonant stem endings, and would also account for the n-stem nominative singular found in Gothic and Old English.

consonant stemDeclension of *mann- (consonant stem)
	singular	plural
nominative	mann-, manô, *mannô	*manniz
vocative	*mann	*manniz
accusative	*mannų	*mannunz
genitive	*manniz	*mannǫ̂
dative	*manni	*mannumaz
instrumental	*mannē	*mannumiz

Synonyms

(man): *gumô, *weraz

Derived terms

*gawjamann-
*kaupamann-
*manakunją
*manauliją
*manlausaz
*manlīkô
*manniskaz
*mannōną
*Markōmann-
*Nurþrōmann-
*skipamann-

Descendants

Proto-West Germanic: *mann
- Old English: mann, ᛗ (m), man, monn, mon, manna
  - Middle English: mon, man, manne, mæn, monne
    - English: man
      - Tok Pisin: man
      - → Chinese: man
      - → Chinook Jargon: man
      - → Korean: 맨 (maen)
      - → Spanish: man
      - → Thai: แมน (mɛɛn)
      - → Volapük: man
    - English: -man
      - Sranan Tongo: -man
      - → French: -man
      - → Japanese: マン (-man)
      - → Welsh: -mon
    - Scots: man
    - Yola: man
- Old Frisian: man, mon
  - North Frisian: maan
  - Saterland Frisian: Mon
  - West Frisian: man
- Old Saxon: mann
  - Middle Low German: man
    - German Low German: Mann
      - Plautdietsch: Maun
- Old Dutch: man
  - Middle Dutch: man
    - Dutch: man
    - Limburgish: man
    - Zealandic: man
- Old High German: man
  - Middle High German: man
    - Alemannic German: ma, mà, Maa, Mann, Mànn, mo, ma'
      Swabian: Ma, Mâ, Mô, Mâo, Mâu
    - Bavarian: mon, mònn, moon, ma'
      Cimbrian: man, mann, månn
      Mòcheno: mònn
    - Central Franconian:
      Hunsrik: Mann
    - East Central German:
      Silesian German: Moan
    - German: Mann, man
    - Luxembourgish: Mann
    - Transylvanian Saxon: Mouen, Mäun
    - Rhine Franconian:
      Pennsylvania German: Mann
    - Yiddish: מאַן‎ (man)
Old Norse: maðr
- Icelandic: maður
- Faroese: maður
- Norn: mann
- Norwegian Nynorsk: mann; (dialectal) mann’e, man
- Jamtish: mǫnn (1000s Runic ᛘᚭᚦᚱ (mąþr))
- Elfdalian: mað (accusative mann)
- Westrobothnian: mænn
- Old Swedish: maþer, madher, mander, man
  - Swedish: man
- Old Danish: man
  - Scanian: manð
  - Danish: mand
    - Norwegian Bokmål: mann
- Old Gutnish: maþr, mandr
  - Gutnish: man
Gothic: 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌽𐌰 (manna)

References

Kroonen, Guus (2013) Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN

[1] Kroonen, Guus (2013) Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN