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, *swampaz (West Germanic)
*swambô, *swamp(p)ô (whence *sumpô, *sumpaz)^[1]
*swampuz (North Germanic)

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 probably cannot be of inherited Indo-European origin given its lack of the expected shift *s- > *h- (but see σῦς (sûs) for a possible exception). 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 *sumpaz (“swamp”). This along with the variants *swambaz (Old High German swamb) and *swampuz (Old Norse sǫppr, svǫppr, svampr) perhaps point to an original n-stem *swambô ~ *sumppaz.^[3]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈswɑm.mɑz/

Noun

*swammaz m

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, *swamb
- 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
    - Bavarian: Schwåmm, Schwammerl
    - German: Schwamm
    - Luxembourgish: Schwamp
    - Yiddish: שוואָם (shvom), שוועמל (shveml)
Old Norse: svǫppr, soppr, svampr
- Icelandic: sveppur, svampur
- Faroese: soppur, svøppur, svampur
- Norwegian: svamp, sopp
- Old Swedish: svamper, *sopper
  - Swedish: svamp, sopp
- Old Danish: swamp, *sop
  - Danish: svamp, svomp, sop
Gothic: 𐍃𐍅𐌰𐌼𐌼𐍃 (swamms)

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Guus Kroonen (2013) “*swamb/ppan-”, in Alexander Lubotsky, editor, 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
^ Kroonen, Guus (2011) “*swambō, *sump^paz ‘sponge, mushroom’?”, in The Proto-Germanic n-stems: A study in diachronic morphophonology, Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, →ISBN, pages 223–225

[EDPG-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Guus Kroonen (2013) “*swamb/ppan-”, in Alexander Lubotsky, editor, 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

[3] Kroonen, Guus (2011) “*swambō, *sump^paz ‘sponge, mushroom’?”, in The Proto-Germanic n-stems: A study in diachronic morphophonology, Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, →ISBN, pages 223–225

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