Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/swammaz

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

*swambaz
*swambô, *swamp(p)ô[1]

Etymology

Seemingly related to Ancient Greek σομφός (somphós, “spongy, porous (esp. of wood)”), with which it is traditionally derived from Proto-Indo-European *swombʰ- (“sponge; tree-fungus”), but the Greek cannot be of inherited Indo-European origin given its lack of the expected shift *sw > *hw. Likely ultimately of substrate[2] or wanderwort origin. Such a substrate word may speculatively be related to the substrate sources of similar words in other languages, including Latin fungus (“mushroom, fungus”), Ancient Greek σπόγγος (spóngos)/σφόγγος (sphóngos, “sponge; tonsil”), Old Armenian սունկն (sunkn, “tree fungus”) and perhaps Proto-Balto-Slavic *gúmˀbas (“bulged, bloated”) (whence Lithuanian gum̃bas (“bulge”) and Proto-Slavic *gǫba (“fungus, mushroom; sponge; lip”)), which cannot be reconciled in terms of Proto-Indo-European.[1] See also the variant *sumpaz (“swamp”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈswɑm.mɑz/

Noun

*swammaz m

sponge
fungus, mushroom
swamp

Inflection

masculine a-stemDeclension of *swammaz (masculine a-stem)
	singular	plural
nominative	*swammaz	swammōz, swammōs
vocative	*swamm	swammōz, swammōs
accusative	*swammą	*swammanz
genitive	swammas, swammis	*swammǫ̂
dative	*swammai	*swammamaz
instrumental	*swammō	*swammamiz

Related terms

*sumpaz

Descendants

Proto-West Germanic: *swamm
- Old English: swamm
  - Middle English: swam
    - (Scots: swaam)
    - (English: swamp)
- Old Frisian: *swam, *swom
  - Saterland Frisian: Swom, Swam
  - West Frisian: swam
- Old Saxon: swamm, swam
  - Middle Low German: swam
    - German Low German: Swamm
- Old Dutch: *swamm
  - Middle Dutch: swamme, swam
    - Dutch: zwam
      - Afrikaans: swam
- Old High German: swamb, swam, swamp
  - Middle High German: swam, swamme, swamp
    - German: Schwamm
    - Luxembourgish: Schwamp
    - Yiddish: שוואָם‎ (shvom), שוועמל‎ (shveml)
Old Norse: svǫppr, soppr, svampr
- Icelandic: sveppur, svampur
- Faroese: soppur, svøppur, svampur
- Norwegian: svamp, sopp
- Westrobothnian: sópp, sapp
- Old Swedish: svamper, *sopper
  - Swedish: svamp, sopp
- Old Danish: swamp, *sop
  - Danish: svamp, svomp, sop
Gothic: 𐍃𐍅𐌰𐌼𐌼𐍃 (swamms)

References

Kroonen, Guus (2013), “*swamb/ppan-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 495
van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “zomp”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

[EDPG-1] Kroonen, Guus (2013), “*swamb/ppan-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 495

[2] van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “zomp”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute