Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.1985, Qupperneq 105

Reflexes of I.-E. *suH2nto-/-on 103
the sun and the sunbeams. Such *suH2ntön would result in Gmc.
*sunþð in the manner described above.
Olcel. sól ‘sun’ and Goth. sauil represent I.-E.*seH2ula or *seH2ueI,
whose weak stem *sH2un-/*suH2n- is generally assumed to have pro-
duced Gmc. *sunnö, the other Germanic word for the sun, represented
by Goth. sunno, Olcel. sunna, OE., OFris. sunne, OS., OHG. sunna,
all fem., whereas OE. sunna, OS., OHG. sunno as well as Goth. dat.sg.
sunnin are masc. The geminate -nn- has usually been explained as due
to a generalization of the weak case stem with a zero grade of the
n-suffix, i.e. an original nom.sg. *sunö was replaced by *sunnö on the
analogy of the gen.sg. *sun-n-ez (e.g. Brugmann 1906:303, Feist
1939:347, Benveniste 1962:12, cf. also Benediktsson 1967:12 who
characterizes the derivational history of this word as problematic
(loc.cit., ftn. I)).5 Furthermore, it has been pointed out that the same
process may have taken place in Gmc. *brunnö ‘well’ (Pedersen
1893:256, Brugmann loc.cit., Benediktsson op.cit., p. 11).
However, Gmc. *sunnö and *sunþa- might be brought closer to each
other and their relationshíp cleared, if *sunnö is understood as having
replaced not a *sunö but an earlier *sunþö from I.-E. *suH2ntön, a
formation explained above.6 Gmc. *sunþö would then have been re-
placed by *sunnö on the basis of the gen.sg. *sunþnez which was
simplified to *sunnezf'8
lated for *sunnö. However, Prof. Hreinn Benediktsson has pointed out to me that OHG.
hunno can hardly be a very old formation, at least not old enough to have ever had such
an archaic ablauting flexion as implied by a gen.sg. *hundnez. This example, therefore,
cannot be taken as parallel to *sunnö. See also Braune/Mitzka (1967:235) who (citing
Kluge) derive hunno OHG. *huntno.
8 Sarauw (1921:80) observes that beside regular siinnendach ‘sunday’, Middle Low
German also knows the forms sonendach and söneldach. If original, these forms must
derive from a pre-form with a single -n- but not a geminate. In Middle High Germnan
the same feature is seen in sunewende ’summersolstice’ beside sunnewende (also sunn-
and sun-).
However, these late forms are not necessarily original. MLG. sonendach beside siinn-
endach may have a single -n- on the analogy of mánendach ‘monday’, and it should be
noted that beside MLG. kennebacke ‘jaw’ there is also found kenebacken which hardly
preserves an original single -n-.
In Middle High German sunnewende, sunnwende (syncope) and sunwende (simplifi-
cation) were all regular forms. It is conceivable that sunewende was secondarily created
as a result of the proportion sunnwende: sunnewende=sunwende: X.