Question about the proto-Germanic root hampijaną












1














This question came as I analyzed the origin of the english words "happy" and "happen" and after my research i found the reconstructed proto-germanic root "hampijaną". However i found that this root only appears in the North Germanic languages and was probably adopted into english from Old Norse. Is it common for some roots to be adopted only in one of the germanic branches?How come it completely disappeared in western germanic languages such as German,Dutch,Low Saxon etc.?










share|improve this question





























    1














    This question came as I analyzed the origin of the english words "happy" and "happen" and after my research i found the reconstructed proto-germanic root "hampijaną". However i found that this root only appears in the North Germanic languages and was probably adopted into english from Old Norse. Is it common for some roots to be adopted only in one of the germanic branches?How come it completely disappeared in western germanic languages such as German,Dutch,Low Saxon etc.?










    share|improve this question



























      1












      1








      1


      0





      This question came as I analyzed the origin of the english words "happy" and "happen" and after my research i found the reconstructed proto-germanic root "hampijaną". However i found that this root only appears in the North Germanic languages and was probably adopted into english from Old Norse. Is it common for some roots to be adopted only in one of the germanic branches?How come it completely disappeared in western germanic languages such as German,Dutch,Low Saxon etc.?










      share|improve this question















      This question came as I analyzed the origin of the english words "happy" and "happen" and after my research i found the reconstructed proto-germanic root "hampijaną". However i found that this root only appears in the North Germanic languages and was probably adopted into english from Old Norse. Is it common for some roots to be adopted only in one of the germanic branches?How come it completely disappeared in western germanic languages such as German,Dutch,Low Saxon etc.?







      historical-linguistics






      share|improve this question















      share|improve this question













      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question








      edited 9 mins ago









      Midas

      1,752714




      1,752714










      asked 3 hours ago









      X30Marco

      1255




      1255






















          2 Answers
          2






          active

          oldest

          votes


















          1














          Words die out and become replaced by neologisms at any time. When it happens shortly after a major fork into branches we see only one branch retaining the original word.



          It is not really uncommon to find attestations of a certain word only in some sub-branch of a language family, both North Germanic and West Germanic have words that are absent from the other branch.



          EDIT: For the definition of a branch, shared innovations (neologisms, sound shifts, grammatical innovations) are necessary. Therefore we see new words (of whatever origin, e.g., composition, loan words, new inventions) in each of the branches as well.






          share|improve this answer























          • You might also mention that new words can be picked up by only one branch, either as loans or neologisms. (Though that doesn't seem to be what happened here.)
            – Draconis
            13 mins ago



















          1














          “Happy” and “happen” were both formed within English from the noun “hap” (good fortune). The OED (Oxford English Dictionary, on-line version) indicates the etymology of “hap” as follows:




          Etymology: Probably < early Scandinavian (compare Old Icelandic happ
          (neuter) chance, good luck, success (Icelandic happ), and Norwegian
          happ, Swedish regional happ, both masculine), cognate with Norwegian
          heppa to happen, Old Danish hap (adjective) lucky, Swedish hampa
          (reflexive) to happen (by chance), (regional) happa, habba to happen,
          succeed, Danish happe, and further with Old English gehæp (adjective)
          suitable, convenient, gehæplic (adjective) convenient, orderly,
          probably < the same Indo-European base as Early Irish cob victory
          (rare) and Old Church Slavonic kobĭ destiny.




          If the Celtic and Slavic parallels are correct, it follows that this root is not restricted to North Germanic, but has to be ascribed to proto-Indo-European. Obviously, it has not been preserved in all branches of IE, or even all branches of Germanic. But this is the way that languages work.






          share|improve this answer





















          • Compare hope, as in "there's hope/there's a chance".
            – vectory
            25 secs ago











          Your Answer








          StackExchange.ready(function() {
          var channelOptions = {
          tags: "".split(" "),
          id: "312"
          };
          initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

          StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
          // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
          if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
          StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
          createEditor();
          });
          }
          else {
          createEditor();
          }
          });

          function createEditor() {
          StackExchange.prepareEditor({
          heartbeatType: 'answer',
          autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
          convertImagesToLinks: false,
          noModals: true,
          showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
          reputationToPostImages: null,
          bindNavPrevention: true,
          postfix: "",
          imageUploader: {
          brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
          contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
          allowUrls: true
          },
          noCode: true, onDemand: true,
          discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
          ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
          });


          }
          });














          draft saved

          draft discarded


















          StackExchange.ready(
          function () {
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2flinguistics.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f30081%2fquestion-about-the-proto-germanic-root-hampijan%25c4%2585%23new-answer', 'question_page');
          }
          );

          Post as a guest















          Required, but never shown

























          2 Answers
          2






          active

          oldest

          votes








          2 Answers
          2






          active

          oldest

          votes









          active

          oldest

          votes






          active

          oldest

          votes









          1














          Words die out and become replaced by neologisms at any time. When it happens shortly after a major fork into branches we see only one branch retaining the original word.



          It is not really uncommon to find attestations of a certain word only in some sub-branch of a language family, both North Germanic and West Germanic have words that are absent from the other branch.



          EDIT: For the definition of a branch, shared innovations (neologisms, sound shifts, grammatical innovations) are necessary. Therefore we see new words (of whatever origin, e.g., composition, loan words, new inventions) in each of the branches as well.






          share|improve this answer























          • You might also mention that new words can be picked up by only one branch, either as loans or neologisms. (Though that doesn't seem to be what happened here.)
            – Draconis
            13 mins ago
















          1














          Words die out and become replaced by neologisms at any time. When it happens shortly after a major fork into branches we see only one branch retaining the original word.



          It is not really uncommon to find attestations of a certain word only in some sub-branch of a language family, both North Germanic and West Germanic have words that are absent from the other branch.



          EDIT: For the definition of a branch, shared innovations (neologisms, sound shifts, grammatical innovations) are necessary. Therefore we see new words (of whatever origin, e.g., composition, loan words, new inventions) in each of the branches as well.






          share|improve this answer























          • You might also mention that new words can be picked up by only one branch, either as loans or neologisms. (Though that doesn't seem to be what happened here.)
            – Draconis
            13 mins ago














          1












          1








          1






          Words die out and become replaced by neologisms at any time. When it happens shortly after a major fork into branches we see only one branch retaining the original word.



          It is not really uncommon to find attestations of a certain word only in some sub-branch of a language family, both North Germanic and West Germanic have words that are absent from the other branch.



          EDIT: For the definition of a branch, shared innovations (neologisms, sound shifts, grammatical innovations) are necessary. Therefore we see new words (of whatever origin, e.g., composition, loan words, new inventions) in each of the branches as well.






          share|improve this answer














          Words die out and become replaced by neologisms at any time. When it happens shortly after a major fork into branches we see only one branch retaining the original word.



          It is not really uncommon to find attestations of a certain word only in some sub-branch of a language family, both North Germanic and West Germanic have words that are absent from the other branch.



          EDIT: For the definition of a branch, shared innovations (neologisms, sound shifts, grammatical innovations) are necessary. Therefore we see new words (of whatever origin, e.g., composition, loan words, new inventions) in each of the branches as well.







          share|improve this answer














          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer








          edited 2 mins ago

























          answered 1 hour ago









          jknappen

          10.6k22752




          10.6k22752












          • You might also mention that new words can be picked up by only one branch, either as loans or neologisms. (Though that doesn't seem to be what happened here.)
            – Draconis
            13 mins ago


















          • You might also mention that new words can be picked up by only one branch, either as loans or neologisms. (Though that doesn't seem to be what happened here.)
            – Draconis
            13 mins ago
















          You might also mention that new words can be picked up by only one branch, either as loans or neologisms. (Though that doesn't seem to be what happened here.)
          – Draconis
          13 mins ago




          You might also mention that new words can be picked up by only one branch, either as loans or neologisms. (Though that doesn't seem to be what happened here.)
          – Draconis
          13 mins ago











          1














          “Happy” and “happen” were both formed within English from the noun “hap” (good fortune). The OED (Oxford English Dictionary, on-line version) indicates the etymology of “hap” as follows:




          Etymology: Probably < early Scandinavian (compare Old Icelandic happ
          (neuter) chance, good luck, success (Icelandic happ), and Norwegian
          happ, Swedish regional happ, both masculine), cognate with Norwegian
          heppa to happen, Old Danish hap (adjective) lucky, Swedish hampa
          (reflexive) to happen (by chance), (regional) happa, habba to happen,
          succeed, Danish happe, and further with Old English gehæp (adjective)
          suitable, convenient, gehæplic (adjective) convenient, orderly,
          probably < the same Indo-European base as Early Irish cob victory
          (rare) and Old Church Slavonic kobĭ destiny.




          If the Celtic and Slavic parallels are correct, it follows that this root is not restricted to North Germanic, but has to be ascribed to proto-Indo-European. Obviously, it has not been preserved in all branches of IE, or even all branches of Germanic. But this is the way that languages work.






          share|improve this answer





















          • Compare hope, as in "there's hope/there's a chance".
            – vectory
            25 secs ago
















          1














          “Happy” and “happen” were both formed within English from the noun “hap” (good fortune). The OED (Oxford English Dictionary, on-line version) indicates the etymology of “hap” as follows:




          Etymology: Probably < early Scandinavian (compare Old Icelandic happ
          (neuter) chance, good luck, success (Icelandic happ), and Norwegian
          happ, Swedish regional happ, both masculine), cognate with Norwegian
          heppa to happen, Old Danish hap (adjective) lucky, Swedish hampa
          (reflexive) to happen (by chance), (regional) happa, habba to happen,
          succeed, Danish happe, and further with Old English gehæp (adjective)
          suitable, convenient, gehæplic (adjective) convenient, orderly,
          probably < the same Indo-European base as Early Irish cob victory
          (rare) and Old Church Slavonic kobĭ destiny.




          If the Celtic and Slavic parallels are correct, it follows that this root is not restricted to North Germanic, but has to be ascribed to proto-Indo-European. Obviously, it has not been preserved in all branches of IE, or even all branches of Germanic. But this is the way that languages work.






          share|improve this answer





















          • Compare hope, as in "there's hope/there's a chance".
            – vectory
            25 secs ago














          1












          1








          1






          “Happy” and “happen” were both formed within English from the noun “hap” (good fortune). The OED (Oxford English Dictionary, on-line version) indicates the etymology of “hap” as follows:




          Etymology: Probably < early Scandinavian (compare Old Icelandic happ
          (neuter) chance, good luck, success (Icelandic happ), and Norwegian
          happ, Swedish regional happ, both masculine), cognate with Norwegian
          heppa to happen, Old Danish hap (adjective) lucky, Swedish hampa
          (reflexive) to happen (by chance), (regional) happa, habba to happen,
          succeed, Danish happe, and further with Old English gehæp (adjective)
          suitable, convenient, gehæplic (adjective) convenient, orderly,
          probably < the same Indo-European base as Early Irish cob victory
          (rare) and Old Church Slavonic kobĭ destiny.




          If the Celtic and Slavic parallels are correct, it follows that this root is not restricted to North Germanic, but has to be ascribed to proto-Indo-European. Obviously, it has not been preserved in all branches of IE, or even all branches of Germanic. But this is the way that languages work.






          share|improve this answer












          “Happy” and “happen” were both formed within English from the noun “hap” (good fortune). The OED (Oxford English Dictionary, on-line version) indicates the etymology of “hap” as follows:




          Etymology: Probably < early Scandinavian (compare Old Icelandic happ
          (neuter) chance, good luck, success (Icelandic happ), and Norwegian
          happ, Swedish regional happ, both masculine), cognate with Norwegian
          heppa to happen, Old Danish hap (adjective) lucky, Swedish hampa
          (reflexive) to happen (by chance), (regional) happa, habba to happen,
          succeed, Danish happe, and further with Old English gehæp (adjective)
          suitable, convenient, gehæplic (adjective) convenient, orderly,
          probably < the same Indo-European base as Early Irish cob victory
          (rare) and Old Church Slavonic kobĭ destiny.




          If the Celtic and Slavic parallels are correct, it follows that this root is not restricted to North Germanic, but has to be ascribed to proto-Indo-European. Obviously, it has not been preserved in all branches of IE, or even all branches of Germanic. But this is the way that languages work.







          share|improve this answer












          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer










          answered 39 mins ago









          fdb

          16.2k12144




          16.2k12144












          • Compare hope, as in "there's hope/there's a chance".
            – vectory
            25 secs ago


















          • Compare hope, as in "there's hope/there's a chance".
            – vectory
            25 secs ago
















          Compare hope, as in "there's hope/there's a chance".
          – vectory
          25 secs ago




          Compare hope, as in "there's hope/there's a chance".
          – vectory
          25 secs ago


















          draft saved

          draft discarded




















































          Thanks for contributing an answer to Linguistics Stack Exchange!


          • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

          But avoid



          • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

          • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


          To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.





          Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.


          Please pay close attention to the following guidance:


          • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

          But avoid



          • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

          • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


          To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




          draft saved


          draft discarded














          StackExchange.ready(
          function () {
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2flinguistics.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f30081%2fquestion-about-the-proto-germanic-root-hampijan%25c4%2585%23new-answer', 'question_page');
          }
          );

          Post as a guest















          Required, but never shown





















































          Required, but never shown














          Required, but never shown












          Required, but never shown







          Required, but never shown

































          Required, but never shown














          Required, but never shown












          Required, but never shown







          Required, but never shown







          Popular posts from this blog

          Morgemoulin

          Scott Moir

          Souastre