< Reconstruction:Proto-Finnic

Reconstruction:Proto-Finnic/hän

This Proto-Finnic 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-Finnic

Etymology

From Proto-Finno-Ugric *sän, *sen. The initial sound change *s > *h is irregular; a similar sound change is regular between the second and third syllables, and the relative lack of sentence stress given to personal pronouns appears to have motivated a similar change (also seen in *hek).[1] Cognate with Proto-Samic *sonë.

Pronoun

*hän

  1. he, she
  2. (possibly) it, for inanimate objects

Inflection

Descendants

In Southern Finnic (Estonian, Livonian, South Estonian incl. Võro, Votic), the pronoun has been repurposed as a reflexive pronominal stem, while *tämä is used as the third-person pronoun.

  • Estonian: enda (< partitive singular *häntä, later reanalyzed), enese (< genitive singular + possessive suffix, *hänensäk)
  • Finnish: hän
  • Ingrian: hää, (dialectal) hän, hään
  • Karelian:
  • Livonian: eņtš (< with partitive and possessive endings, *häntänsäk)
  • Livvi: häi
  • Ludian: häin
  • Veps: hän
  • Võro: hindä (< with partitive and inessive endings, *häntähen, later reanalyzed)
  • Votic: (inflected forms of ize) ene

References

  1. Junttila, Santeri, Kallio, Petri, Holopainen, Sampsa, Kuokkala, Juha, Pystynen, Juho, editors (2020–), “hän”, in Suomen vanhimman sanaston etymologinen verkkosanakirja (in Finnish)
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