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E 0987 (TO) WEAN
The verb " to wean " is of
Germanic origin .
H 1054 ק נ י
Concept of root : sucking
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Hebrew word
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pronunciation
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English meanings
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ק נ י
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yanaq
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to suck
(by baby)
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Related English words
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to wean
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Comparison between European words and
Hebrew
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Languages
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Words
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Pronunciation
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English meanings
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Similarity in roots
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Hebrew
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ק נ י
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yanaq
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to suck ( by baby )
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y. n . q <
*w .
n . q
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Old Saxon
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wennian
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giwennian
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wennian;
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giwennian
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to feed, suckle;
to get used
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w . n .
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Old English
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wenian
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to wean,
to train,
to accustom
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w . n
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English
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to wean
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to wean
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w . n
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Dutch
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wennen
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wennen
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to wean ;
*to suckle
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w . n
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Proto-Semitic *YANAQ < * WANAQ < *WANÀ --- *WĂN- Proto-Germanic
The Old English verb " wenian " , partially on the track of Old Saxon , had two basic meanings, one that of " to wean " and the other " to accustom " both transitive and intransitive as it seems . Modern English has availed itself of Latin roots, as so often , with the exception of some traditional expressions as " to wean us from the love of the World ..". A comparison with both Old Saxon and Dutch seems useful to understand the development :
The main use of the verb "wennen " in Dutch is that of "to get used to, familiarize with". This "wennen" has an equivalent in "gewennen". But, possibly of different origin, there is also a second verb "wennen" that says "to wean" . The particular aspect in this is that "to wean" is near the opposite of "to suck".
But in Dutch this "wennen" is in fact an abbreviated form of "ontwennen" that really means "to wean" . This irregular development may be due to the influence of the other more important verb "wennen ". Really "to wean" means that a baby must get used ( wennen ) to artificial drinking, while he has to disuse (ontwennen ) from natural sucking. We do not know if a similar development as in Middle Dutch can have taken place in English. Old English "wenian" had the same group of meanings as Dutch "wennen" : "to accustom, get used".
Old Saxon clears the matter with its two words , that seem to confirm that such a change has taken place also on the road to English.
Note:
- Hebrew and Germanic. One sees that Hebrew has added a third consonant, Q , that is not found in English or Dutch. There is no decisive evidence that the first two, "Y + N", already carried the same message, as Y + N + Q is nearly the only root that begins with Y + N .
We see in Hebrew a verb "yaną = to oppress" and it is hard to link this to the words of this entry. But there is also a " yanon = to sprout, increase ", that may be a far relative . A possible common origin with Germanic supposes that "yanaq" comes from an older "*wan". We find two words though, that do not have the initial "Y", and that therefore probably not have been developed out of a root with initial "W". These are "nun = to degenerate " and " nin = to sprout, increase ( like "yanon") ; offspring" . This would perhaps indicate that indeed the initial "Y" may be a prefix , that then originally may have been a "W". But if the "W" is a prefix, the similarity is fortuitous, or Germanic should also have used such a prefix, which can hardly be supposed.
Note:
- Proto-Semitic is seen with the same root "* י נ ק , Y . N . Q" used by Hebrew, that is also found in Aramaic " י נ ק , yenaq = to suck". Ugaritic uses the same root for the same meaning. Akkadian has "enēqu = to suck". Thus the possible developments mentioned in the previous note would have taken place in very old times. The "Q" as a third consonant diversifies from a concept of "sprout, offspring" to the more specific one of a "baby", with shifts between active and causative senses. Anyhow it is more probable that Proto-Semitic used a predecessor "* ו נ ק , W . N . Q". In our view this three-consonant root may have come from an older two-consonant root "*W . N". We add this hypothesis, but such an origin may lie in very early Proto-Semitic or even go back more.
Note:
- Proto-Germanic . The words for "to accustom" and "to wean" should not be mixed with others like German "Wunsch" = "wish", in which the N is the result of a nasalization. Nor with the Nordic words for "friend" like Danish "ven", that is related to Old English "wine" that also says "friend" but as well "protector, lord".
The information is very limited, with the meanings related to the Hebrew word "yanaq" found just in English, its predecessors and Dutch. Probably Proto-Germanic had "*W È N-" in this sense. But there exist plausible hypotheses for "*W Ō N-" and "*W Ă N-". The last one is used in our comparison.
Note:
- Indo-European. Indications for possible cognates in other groups of Indo-European languages are not available. The comparison stays between Semitic and Germanic.
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| Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 16/12/2012 at 15.43.27 |
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