# The Word for Mother in Germanic Languages



## LilianaB

I am interested in the word mother in Germanic languages, including Old Germanic languages, and Old English, as being one of them. I found this word _accenicge_ and _cennestre _for mother in Old English. Could someone comment on this, please. What is the origin of those words. How did mother come into use in Modern English?


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## Alxmrphi

A quick jump around the modern Germanic languages shows that it would have been a "m-r" word.
The postulated form in Proto-Germanic is _*mothær.

_From that you can arrive at the current descendent of the word in (I believe) all Germanic languages.


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## LilianaB

What about cennestre in OE?


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## entangledbank

_Cennestre_ is "one who gave birth to", with a feminine agent suffix (as in _spinster_) on the verb _cennan_, related to common Indo-European *_gen-_. From the quotes in this Anglo-Saxon dictionary, it looks like it was only used for the mother/bearer of God: http://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/041551 The same root gave the even rarer _á-cennicge_: http://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/037426


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## LilianaB

Was there another word for mother in Old English. I studied basic Old English, but I forgot a lot. I am also puzzled by this Gothic ai ei for mother.


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## Alxmrphi

It was _modor_.

The middle sound became a fricative later on (as it did in fader->father)


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## francisgranada

_Mother _(Mutter etc.) come from the Protogermanic *mothær and this from PIE *mater-.


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## LilianaB

Thank you. Do OE acenincge and Gothic ai ei also come from IE?


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## berndf

LilianaB said:


> I am also puzzled by this Gothic ai ei for mother.


The Gothic word you mean is _aiþei_.


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## LilianaB

I found it in some dictionaries as ai ei, in others as aithei. Thank you. Is it of Indo-European origin?


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## berndf

LilianaB said:


> I found it in some dictionaries as ai ei


That sounds weird. Are those read paper dictionaries or scanned version? If so, it might simply be a problem with the "þ".


LilianaB said:


> , in others as aithei.


Yes, some use "th" as a transcription for the letter "þ".


LilianaB said:


> Is it of Indo-European origin?


Dunno. Some authors surmise it is a child's word, like _mama, papa_. Grimm relates it to_ oath _(Gothic _aiþs,_ PGm _aiþaz_).


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## LilianaB

Thank you. They were online dictionaries. Maybe there was a problem with the letter I cannot type myself with my keyboard.


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## ahvalj

I can repeat my reference to the recent etymological dictionary available online: http://turuz.info/Sozluk/0349-A Ha...0Etymology.pdf
"*Aiþīn" is derived from "*aiþaz", 'oath' there. The pdf is searchable.


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## LilianaB

Hi, Ahvalj. The word form mother is Aithei. Would aithin be the same? It is very hard to search the dictionary because the search function does not work, at least with my program. Could you quote this small portion about the word mother. 
Thank you.


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## ahvalj

LilianaB said:


> Hi, Ahvalj. The word form mother is Aithei. Would aithin be the same? It is very hard to search the dictionary because the search function does not work, at least with my program. Could you quote this small portion about the word mother.
> Thank you.


Both words are discussed on the page 10. Unfortunately, the text, if pasted here, looses most of its formatting. The Gothic "aiþei" was pronounced something like [ε:þi:], at least in Wulfila's times, and "*aiþīn" is the reconstructed Common Germanic form for approximately the 1st century BC, i. e. 3-4 centuries before Wulfila. Comparing to this proto-form, the Gothic of the 4th century had lost the final "n" and monophthongized the former "ai".


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## LilianaB

Thank you.


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## berndf

LilianaB said:


> Hi, Ahvalj. The word form mother is Aithei. Would aithin be the same? It is very hard to search the dictionary because the search function does not work, at least with my program. Could you quote this small portion about the word mother.





> **ai*þ*ì**n *sb.f.: Goth _ai_þ_ei _‘mother’, OHG
> _fuotar-eid__i _‘nanny’. Cf. also _*ai_þ_o__n _‘mother’
> > ON _ei__a__a_. Derived from _*ai_þ_az _(MEZGER _KZ _LXXVI 85–86: a legally
> acknowledged mother as opposed to a
> concubine-mother). UHLENBECK _Btrg._
> _Gesch. _XXVII 115 (to Basque _aita_
> ‘father’); GRIENBERGER _Goten _16 (to Gk
> fut. Ù¤sv ‘to carry’); TORP-FALK 2; FEIST
> 28, _PBB _LIII 397–400 (from non-existent
> Illyr OHYH ‘mater Dea’); KRAHE _PBB_
> LVII 426–428 (against FEIST); VRIES
> _ANEW _95; ZALIZNIAK I 157; LEHMANN
> _GED _20.



(It is a normal pdf which you can open and search with the normal pdf viewer).


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## LilianaB

Thank you.


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