Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/nasō

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 *néh₂s (“nose”). Compare Latin nāsus.

May, in Proto-Germanic, have been a plurale tantum, whose nominative ending *-ō goes back to the Proto-Indo-European thematic nominative dual ending *-oh₁, while the other cases displayed consonant-stem plural endings -ǭ, -miz, -unz. This presupposes a Proto-Germanic consonant stem *nas- (“nostril”).

Griepentrog prefers to reconstruct, following Rasmussen, the original Proto-Indo-European paradigm as an acrostratic paradigm with rare ablaut a ~ ā: nom. sg. *Hnā́s-s, acc. sg. *Hnā́s-m̥, gen. sg. *Hnás-s (> *Hnás-os), dat. sg. *Hnás-ey, nom. du. *Hnā́s-h₁, nom. pl. *Hnā́s-es, acc. pl. *Hnás-m̥s.

Griepentrog also considers the zero-grade form *nus- instead of **uns- regular, adducing parallels. Forms in *nus- may be additionally analogically influenced by a Proto-Indo-European verb *news- (“to sniff”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnɑ.sɔː/

Noun

*nasō f

1. nose

   Synonym: *nabją

Inflection

ō-stemDeclension of *nasō (ō-stem)
	singular	plural
nominative	*nasō	*nasôz
vocative	*nasō	*nasôz
accusative	*nasǭ	*nasōz
genitive	*nasōz	*nasǫ̂
dative	*nasōi	*nasōmaz
instrumental	*nasō	*nasōmiz

Derived terms

• *nasją

Descendants

• Proto-West Germanic: *nasu
  • Old English: nasu, naso
    • Middle English: nase, nasse, nease
  • Old Frisian: *nase
    • North Frisian: naas
  • Old Dutch: *nasa
    • Middle Dutch: nase
  • Old High German: nasa
    • Middle High German: nase
      • Alemannic German: Nase, Naase (Basel, Aargau, Lucerne, Zug, Schwyz, Uri)
        • Swabian: Nas
      • Bavarian: Nosn
      • Central Franconian: Nas, Noas, Nos (western Moselle Franconian)
        • Hunsrik: Naas
        • Luxembourgish: Nues
      • East Franconian: Nous
      • German: Nase
      • Rhine Franconian: Noos
        • Pennsylvania German: Naas
      • Vilamovian: nōs, nōz
      • Yiddish: נאָז (noz)
• Old Norse: nǫs
  • Icelandic: nös f
  • Faroese: nøs f
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: nos f, nase m
    • → Norwegian Bokmål: nos m or f, nase m
  • Norwegian: (dialectal) nøs, nåss f; nåså, næsa, nasa m; nasa, nase f
  • Norwegian Bokmål: nese m or f
  • Old Swedish: nos f, næsa f
    • Swedish: nos c, näsa c
  • Old Danish: næsæ f
    • Danish: næse c
  • Gutnish: nos f