Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/frauwjā

This Proto-West 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-West Germanic

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *frawjǭ.

Noun

*frauwjā f^[1]

lady, wife of a lord (woman of high standing)

Inflection

ōn-stem
	Singular
Nominative	*frauwjā
Genitive	*frauwjōn
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	*frauwjā	*frauwjōn
Accusative	*frauwjōn	*frauwjōn
Genitive	*frauwjōn	*frauwjōnō
Dative	*frauwjōn	frauwjōm, frauwjum
Instrumental	*frauwjōn	frauwjōm, frauwjum

Alternative reconstructions

*frawā

Related terms

*frauwjō

Descendants

Old English: frōwe
>? Old English: frēo
Old Frisian: frōwe, frouwe
- West Frisian: frou
Old Saxon: frouwe, (> *frawā) frūa, frūe
- Middle Low German: vrûwe, vrouwe
  - Low German: Fru, Frau
    - German Low German: Froo
  - Plautdietsch: Fru, Frü
  - → Finnish: rouva
- → Old Norse: frú, frúa, frúva
  - Icelandic: frú
  - Faroese: frúgv, frú
  - Norwegian: fru, frue
  - Swedish: fru, fruga
  - Danish: frue, fru
Old Dutch: frouwa, vrouwa
- Middle Dutch: vrouwe
  - Dutch: vrouwe (“lady”), vrouw (“woman”)
    - Afrikaans: vrou
      - → English: vrou
    - Negerhollands: vro, vrou, frou, fru, vrow
      - → Virgin Islands Creole: fru (dated)
    - → Aukan: folow
    - → English: vrouw
    - → Sranan Tongo: frow
    - → Indonesian: perawan (“virgin”)
  - Limburgish: Vro, vrów
  - West Flemish: vrouwe
  - Zealandic: vrouwe
  - → English: frow
Old High German: frouwa, frowa
- Middle High German: vrouwe, vrowe, frouwe, frowe, vrou, frou, vro, fro (before proper names)
  - Alemannic German: Frau
    - Alsatian: Fràui, Fràù, Frài, Froi, Fròi, Fraù, Frœy, Fráw, Frá
    - Walser: frou
  - Bavarian: Frau
    - Cimbrian: brau, vrau
  - Central Franconian: Fraa
    - Hunsrik: Fraa
    - Luxembourgish: Fra
  - East Central German: Fraa
    - Silesian East Central German: Froo
  - German: Frau, Fr. (abbreviation), Fraue (archaic), Frauw, Fraw, Frawe (obsolete)
    - Unserdeutsch: Frau
    - → English: frau
    - → Russian: фра́у (fráu)
  - Rhine Franconian: Fraa
    - Pennsylvania German: Fraa
    - Palatine German: Fraa
  - Vilamovian: fraoj
  - Yiddish: פֿרוי (froy)

References

^ Agee, Joshua (2018), “A Glottometric Subgrouping of the Early Germanic Languages (MA thesis)”, in Department of Linguistics and Language Development, San Jose State University, →DOI, page 109: “PGmc *frawjǫ̂ ‘lady’ > PWGmc *frawwǫ̂ > *frauwǫ̂ > OHG frouwa”

[1] Agee, Joshua (2018), “A Glottometric Subgrouping of the Early Germanic Languages (MA thesis)”, in Department of Linguistics and Language Development, San Jose State University, →DOI, page 109: “PGmc *frawjǫ̂ ‘lady’ > PWGmc *frawwǫ̂ > *frauwǫ̂ > OHG frouwa”

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