aš

Lithuanian

Alternative forms

• ašai

Etymology

From Old Lithuanian eš, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *ēˀźun, *eś; compare Latvian es, Old Prussian es/as, Sudovian es, Proto-Slavic *(j)azъ. From Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵ-, *h₁eǵHom (“I”). Compare Sanskrit अहम् (aham), Ancient Greek ἐγώ (egṓ), Old Armenian ես (es), Latin egō. The final *-ś in Baltic is perhaps a result of sandhi or final obstruent devoicing.

Notable parallels of the vowel change observed in Lithuanian eš > aš include:

• Old Lithuanian ešva, cf. modern ašvà (“mare”), Old Prussian aswinan (“mare's milk”)
• Lithuanian ẽglė, cf. dialectal aglė, Old Prussian addle (“fir tree”).

These forms were perhaps carried on from dialects where *e- regularly gives a-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɐʃ/

Pronoun

àš

1. (first-person singular) I

Declension

• The genitive in -ęs is from an accusative stem *manen + the genitive ending -s.
• The dative form is from an earlier mãni, with compensatory acute accuentation (compare Latvian man).
• The accusative continues Proto-Balto-Slavic *mene; compare Latvian acc. sg. mani, Old Prussian acc. sg. mien, Proto-Slavic gen. sg. *mene.

Derived terms

See mano;

• mandings
• aiman

See also

References

Serbo-Croatian

Conjunction

aš

1. (Chakavian) because

   Synonym: jer