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)
• *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 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.

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈswɑm.mɑz/

Noun

*swammaz m

1. sponge
2. fungus, mushroom
3. swamp

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)