Indo-European Lexicon
PIE Etymon and IE Reflexes
Below we display: a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) etymon adapted from Pokorny, with our own English gloss; our Semantic Field assignment(s) for the etymon, linked to information about the field(s); an optional Comment; and Reflexes (derived words) in various Indo-European languages, organized by family/group in west-to-east order where Germanic is split into West/North/East families and English, our language of primary emphasis, is artificially separated from West Germanic. IE Reflexes appear most often as single words with any optional letter(s) enclosed in parentheses; but alternative full spellings are separated by '/' and "principal parts" appear in a standard order (e.g. masculine, feminine, and neuter forms) separated by commas.
Reflexes are annotated with: Part-of-Speech and/or other Grammatical feature(s); a short Gloss which, especially for modern English reflexes, may be confined to the oldest sense; and some Source citation(s) with 'LRC' always understood as editor. Keys to PoS/Gram feature abbreviations and Source codes appear below the reflexes; at the end are links to the previous/next etyma [in Pokorny's alphabetic order] that have reflexes.
All reflex pages are currently under active construction; as time goes on, corrections may be made and/or more etyma & reflexes may be added.
Pokorny Etymon: dn̥g̑hū, dn̥g̑hu̯ā 'tongue'
Semantic Field(s): Tongue
Indo-European Reflexes:
| Family/Language | Reflex(es) | PoS/Gram. | Gloss | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Celtic | ||||
| Old Irish: | tengae | n | tongue | GED |
| Middle Breton: | teaut | n | tongue | GED |
| Old Cornish: | tauot | n | tongue | GED |
| Middle Welsh: | tauawt | n | tongue | GED |
| English | ||||
| Old English: | tunge | n.wk.fem | tongue | GED |
| wyrm-tunge | n.wk.fem | bitter-spoken person | LRC | |
| Middle English: | language | n | language | W7 |
| languet | n | languet | W7 | |
| tunge | n | tongue | W7 | |
| English: | bilingual | adj | re: two tongues/languages | AHD/W7 |
| biltong | n | jerked meat | AHD/W7 | |
| language | n | community use of vocal sounds/written symbols to communicate | AHD/W7 | |
| languet | n | something resembling tongue in form/function | AHD/W7 | |
| ligula | n | strap-shaped/tongue-like structure (esp. in insects) | AHD | |
| ligule | n | scale-like plant projection | AHD/W7 | |
| lingo | n | strange/incomprehensible speech/language | AHD/W7 | |
| lingua | n | tongue, tongue-like organ | AHD | |
| linguine, linguini | n | long, flat, thin pasta strand(s) | AHD | |
| linguist | n | language specialist | AHD | |
| linguistic | adj | re: language | LRC | |
| linguistics | n | study of language(s) | LRC | |
| tongue | n | fleshy movable sensory organ of lower jaw | AHD/W7 | |
| Wormtongue | prop.n | epithet for Grima in Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings | LRC | |
| West Germanic | ||||
| Old Frisian: | tunge | n.wk.fem | tongue | GED |
| Middle Dutch: | tonghe | n | tongue | AHD |
| Dutch: | tong | n | tongue | TLL |
| Afrikaans: | biltong | n | biltong | W7 |
| tong | n | tongue | W7 | |
| Old Saxon: | tunga | n.wk.fem | tongue | GED |
| Old Low German: | tunga | n.fem | tongue | ASD |
| Old High German: | zunga | n.wk.fem | tongue | GED |
| German: | Zunge | n.fem | tongue | LRC |
| North Germanic | ||||
| Old Norse: | tunga | n.wk.fem | tongue | LRC |
| Old Icelandic: | tunga | n.wk.fem | tongue | GED |
| Icelandic: | tunga | n.fem | tongue | ASD |
| Danish: | tunge | n | tongue | TLL |
| Swedish: | tunga | n | tongue | TLL |
| East Germanic | ||||
| Gothic: | tuggo | n.fem | tongue | GED |
| Italic | ||||
| Old Latin: | dingua | n | tongue | GED |
| Latin: | bilinguis | adj | bilingual | W7 |
| ligula | n.fem.dim | small tongue, strap | W7 | |
| lingua, linguae | n.fem | tongue, language | LRC | |
| New Latin: | ligula | n.fem.dim | part of insect's labium | W7 |
| Old French: | langua | n.fem | tongue, language | W7 |
| language | n.masc | language | W7 | |
| Middle French: | langue | n.fem | tongue | W7 |
| languete | n.fem.dim | small tongue | W7 | |
| Provençal: | lingo | n.masc | tongue | W7 |
| Italian: | linguina | n.dim | small tongue | AHD |
| Baltic | ||||
| Lithuanian: | liežùvis | n | tongue | GED |
| Slavic | ||||
| Old Church Slavonic: | językъ | n.masc | tongue, language, nation | LRC |
| Armenian | ||||
| Classical Armenian: | lezu | n | tongue, language | LRC |
| Tocharian | ||||
| Tocharian B: | käntwā | n | tongue | GED |
| Tocharian A: | käntu | n.pl | tongues | GED |
Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:
| Abbrev. | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| adj | = | adjective |
| dim | = | diminutive |
| fem | = | feminine (gender) |
| masc | = | masculine (gender) |
| n | = | noun |
| pl | = | plural (number) |
| prop | = | proper |
| wk | = | weak (inflection) |
Key to information Source codes (always with 'LRC' as editor):
| Code | Citation | |
|---|---|---|
| AHD | = | Calvert Watkins: The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, 2nd ed. (2000) |
| ASD | = | Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller: An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (1898) |
| GED | = | Winfred P. Lehmann: A Gothic Etymological Dictionary (1986) |
| LRC | = | Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin |
| TLL | = | Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944) |
| W7 | = | Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963) |
