Thoughts on the etymologies of enn and hinn in Nordic

Bibliographic Data

ID20377561
AuthorsEric T Lander (0000-0001-8898-5307, University of Gothenburg, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume47
Issue2
Pages254-264
Publication date2024-10-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNordic Journal of Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0332-5865 • E-ISSN: 1502-4717
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0332586522000270
OpenAlexW4316466447
LanguageEN
References cited10

This contribution focuses on Stroh-Wollin’s (2020 in NJL ) etymologies of the Nordic definite articles enn and hinn and contrastive hinn / hitt . While I do not contest her central claim that Old Icelandic enn and Mainland Scandinavian hinn have separate historical origins, I do argue that her etymologies should not be accepted over more conventional ones already present in the literature. First, the etymology of enn should, along traditional lines, be connected to Germanic cognates such as Gothic jain -, German jen -, and English yon (rather than derived from an ancient PIE * eno -). 1 Furthermore, contrastive hinn / hitt and definite hinn / hit should be considered a doublet, both ultimately deriving from a distal/contrastive element (rather than the article having separate origins in an innovated Proto-Nordic proximal demonstrative)

Art · Contrastive analysis · Demonstrative · Etymology · German · Icelandic · Inflection · Linguistics · Literature · History · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy