From: dgkilday57
Message: 71714
Date: 2014-04-18
Ringe is hard to follow, ignores much relevant material (Segestes, Segimundus, Erminones, /e/-reduplication in Ulfilan Gothic Class VII strong verbs, /i/-umlaut of /a/ to /e/ in West Gothic personal names, etc.), and poisons his historical work with ridiculous pseudo-algebraic notation lifted from generative grammar. This last compulsion likely underlies his rejection of Kluge's Law. Collinge is an even bigger GG pusher, and fails to mention KL at all, in his book which covers laws of much lesser extent, such as Aitken's. If generativists cannot easily reduce something to pseudo-algebra, they dump it.
On point 2, Tacitus has Segestes, Veleda, and Venethi (= OHG Winida) but Segime:rus and Segimundus (= Ammian's Sigismundus with a different stem-formation). Evidently the unstressed *e was first raised before nasals. This material is in Streitberg 1896 (p. 55), one of Ringe's sources (indeed one of the best comprehensive sources on Germanic, despite its age).
On point 4, one might expect *Cji
> *Ci on the basis of *Cwu > *Cu, but things are not always
symmetrical. Go. _midjis_ corresponds
nicely to OE _midd_, OS _middi_, OHG _mitti_, ON _miðr_.
On point 3, I arrived at a similar conclusion supporting "late" /i/-umlaut of *e (and *en,C > *in,C), and was forced to regard Fi. _teljo_ and _rengas_ as borrowed from Early NGmc, not Late PGmc, on the basis of studying 'wolf'. The idiosyncratic Germanic labialism of 'four' and 'five' can be explained with one and the same mechanism, as I showed in message #71637 (3 December 2013). It is very reasonable that 'wolf' and 'oven' should get a similar treatment. For 'wolf', this requires syncope of the stem-vowel *-o- in the nom. sg. before it went to *-a-, with later analogical restoration of *-a- in the NGmc nom. sg.
To benefit insomniacs, I include excerpts of a draft on 'wolf' written about a year ago. This project is currently stalled due to complications with 'four' (apart from anlaut) in Germanic, Italic, and Slavic.
*****
I believe the correct condition for producing Germanic *f from expected *xW is juxtaposition with *s, not as an old phonemic contact inherited from the parent speech, but as a new one resulting from either syncope or external sandhi in Proto-Germanic. The sibilant could be juxtaposed on either side of the labiovelar, so occlusion of the latter by a following consonant was not an issue. The presence of another labial in the word was irrelevant, so it was not a matter of distant labial assimilation. It was a process of contact assimilation occurring in a particular epoch of Germanic prehistory.
Indo-European labiovelars lose their labial component in Common Germanic before *-a- only when this *-a- matches *-o- in IE branches which maintain the original phonemic distinction. If the Gmc. *-a- reflects a sonant laryngeal, the labial component is retained. Thus Gmc. *xalsa- 'neck' (Gothic _hals_, etc.) < Proto-Indo-European *kWólh1so- (Latin _collum_), but Gmc. *kWaB-janaN 'to plunge, dip, dive' (Old Norse _kvefja_) < PIE *gW&2/4bH- (Greek _baphênai_ 'to be dipped, dyed'). Similarly the labial component is lost before Gmc. *-o:- only when it represents an /o/-colored long vowel from PIE *-eh3-, *-oh{x}-, or original *-o:-, not an /a/-colored one from PIE *-eh2- or *-eh4-. Thus Gmc. *ko:N acc. 'cow' (Old Saxon _ko:_, Old High German _kuo_, _chuo_) < PIE *gWó:m (Grk. _bôn_, Umbrian _bum_, etc.), but Gmc. *xWo:stan- 'cough' (Old English _hwo:sta_, OHG _h(w)uosto_) < PIE *kWeh2/4s- (Albanian _kollë_ 'cough' < *kWa:s-la:, cf. Sanskrit _ká:sate:_ 'coughs').
[... under revision ...]
What this delabialization means for the present investigation is that the stem-vowel of PIE /o/-stems must still have been *-o- when it underwent syncope in the nom. sg. masc. at some stage of Proto-Germanic. The loss of the labial component had to occur when *xWo- and *xWa- were still distinct, since only the former eventually became *xa-. But if the stem-vowel *-o- had become *-a- before syncope, the nom. sg. masc. *wúlxWos 'wolf' would have already become *wúlxos before it became *wúlxas, and the resulting *wúlxs would have had no labial component to produce *wúlfs.
This would seem to be at odds with the Finnish borrowings _kuningas_ 'king' and _rengas_ 'ring'. The difficulty can be overcome by assuming that these words were not borrowed from Common Germanic, but from Pre-Runic Norse *kunin,gaz and *hren,gaz with the stem-vowel (which by that time was *-a-) restored to the nom. sg. by analogy with /i/-stems and /u/-stems (and some other /a/-stems, as explained below). Conventional wisdom holds that the raising of *-e- to *-i- before nasal plus consonant occurred in Common Gmc., thus *xren,gaz 'ring' > *xrin,gaz (after the Finnish word was borrowed). However, the alternative assumption, that this raising occurred (or went to completion) independently in NGmc and WGmc (and Gothic is ambiguous regarding its occurrence) poses little trouble, and accords with the raising observed in WGmc borrowings from Latin (e.g. OHG _zins_ < Lat. _census_). Similarly, conventional wisdom holds that the raising of *-e- to *-i- before a high front vocoid (*i, *i:, *j) was Common Gmc., with Fi. _teljo_ 'cross-beam of a ship' borrowed before this raising (thus Late PGmc) against ON _þilia_, OHG _dilla_, and Middle English _thille_. However, it is no great stretch to assume that this raising had only begun at the latest stage of PGmc, and was completed independently in NGmc and WGmc, with Fi. _teljo_ borrowed from Early NGmc, that is Pre-Runic Norse *þeljo:(N).
Beside the consonantism, it is necessary to address the matter of /a/-umlaut in 'wolf'. Gothic _wulfs_ is ambiguous, since it could continue either *wulfs or *wolfs. Of the other older Gmc. forms, OHG _wolf_, Old Frisian _wolf_, and ON _-olfr_ (in compound names) have the lowered root-vowel expected to result from umlaut by the following stem-vowel. Otherwise we have OE _wulf_, OS _wulf_, Middle Low German _wulf_, and ON _ulfr_ from Runic Norse *wulfaR (cf. Late RN gen. sg. _Hari-wulfs_). Middle Dutch has both _wolf_ and _wulf_.
Conventional wisdom holds
that *wulx(W)az, the expected outcome of Grimm's and Verner's Laws, somehow
became *wulfaz, which regularly underwent /a/-umlaut to *wolfaz. Following syncope of *-a- in EGmc and WGmc,
the Gothic and OHG forms are as expected, but some of the others have somehow
restored -u- from *-o-. This has
sometimes been (poorly) explained as a sporadic raising in Low WGmc between a
labial and *l, since OE, OS, and OFris all have _full_ 'full', not *foll. But counterexamples like OE _folgian_ 'to
follow', _folc_ 'folk', and _bolt_ 'bolt' retain -o- in this position. Thus we are expected to accept optional *x(W)
> *f to get *wulfaz, which undergoes strictly regular /a/-umlaut to *wolfaz,
but then the *o undergoes optional raising back to *u in Low WGmc (and NGmc)
between a labial and *l.
To resolve this confusion, it becomes convenient to introduce hypothetical paradigms in tabular form. If labialization of inherited labiovelars under particular conditions was regular, the relevant soundlaw should not be separated from the panorama of PGmc soundlaws, including Verner's. To illustrate the latter I include *xunDa- 'hound'. Years ago I argued that this word has nothing to do with the PIE for 'dog' represented by Greek _kúo:n_, or with Latin _canis_, which as I argued separately is unrelated to _kúo:n_.
Specifically, I connect *xunDa- with the Gmc. verb *xenþ- (st. III) found in Gothic _fra-hinþan_, _-hanþ_, _-hunþans_ 'to capture, imprison', Swedish _hinna_ 'to obtain, reach', and dialectal Danish _hinne_ 'id.', for which the original sense of the simplex is thought to be 'capture'. Here however we should consider the force of Go. _fra-_ with verbs of motion. While _baíran_ means simply 'to bear', _frabaíran_ signifies 'to bear to the end, endure'. The corresponding Skt. _pra-_ can similarly indicate the motion going to completion: _pad-_ 'fall'; _prapad-_ 'fall to'; _ks.ip-_ 'throw', _praks.ip-_ 'throw into'; _i-_ 'go', _pre:-_ 'go to the end, die'. This allows us to see *xenþ- as the regular Gmc. reflex of PIE *k^ent- 'prick, goad, incite', whence Greek _kentéo:_ 'I prick, goad, sting' (earlier *kénto:, Epic 1st aor. inf. _kénsai_), _kéntron_ 'point, sting, goad, spur', _kontós_ 'pike-shaft, pole'; Latvian _si:ts_ 'hunting spear'; etc. The original sense of Gmc. *xenþ- in this view is 'incite, urge into motion, chase', and of Go. _frahinþan_ 'to chase to the end', i.e. 'to catch'. The Sw. and Dan. verbs cited were presumably extracted from the NGmc equivalent of _frahinþan_ with the prefix reinterpreted as intensive rather than completive.
Now if Gmc. *xunDa- is derived from PIE *k^ent-, it cannot represent a /tó/-participle *k^n.ttó-, but must continue a simple zero-grade oxytone *k^n.tó- parallel to *jugó- 'yoke' (Skt. _yugám_, Grk. _zugón_, Gmc. *joka-, etc.) from *jeug- 'join'. The yoke is what facilitates joining oxen, and the hound is what facilitates chasing game, flushing it out of the brush toward a spot where it can be caught or killed.
I also include in the paradigms Gmc. *selxa- 'seal' (PIE *sélko-) to illustrate a plain velar in root-auslaut, and *exwa- 'horse' (*h1ék^wo-) for the diphonemic cluster contrasting with a labiovelar. Stages are numbered for reference later. For brevity, steps between stages incorporate more than one soundlaw or analogical process, as explained in notes preceding the tables.
1. The late stage of the northwestern dialect of Old Western IE, the common ancestor of Germanic, Celtic, Italic, Venetic, and Ligurian, has not yet undergone the Lautverschiebung. It is a centum language, no longer distinguishing *k^ from *k, but its inherited labiovelar phoneme *kW remains distinct from the cluster *kw. I reconstruct inst. pl. and dat. pl. suffixes corresponding to Skt. _-bhis_ and _-bhyas_ with *bH replaced by *m, but the stem-vowel unmodified (against e.g. Skt. _ás've:bhyas_ with the stem-vowel of the inst. sg. _ás've:na_). The loc. sg. *-ei comes from the pronominal declension, replacing *-oi proper to the /o/-declension, and the loc. pl. *-osu again does not modify the stem-vowel (against Skt. _ás've:s.u_).
Noun: 'seal' 'horse' 'wolf' 'hound'
Nom. Sg. *sélkos *h1ékwos *wl´.kWos *kn.tós
Voc. Sg. *sélke *h1ékwe *wl´.kWe *kn´.te
Acc. Sg. *sélkom *h1ékwom *wl´.kWom *kn.tóm
Inst. Sg. *sélko: *h1ékwo: *wl´.kWo: *kn.tó:
Dat. Sg. *sélko:i *h1ékwo:i *wl´.kWo:i *kn.tó:i
Gen. Sg. *sélkosjo *h1ékwosjo *wl´.kWosjo *kn.tósjo
Loc. Sg. *sélkei *h1ékwei *wl´.kWei *kn.téi
Nom. Pl. *sélko:s *h1ékwo:s *wl´.kWo:s *kn.tó:s
Voc. Pl. *sélko:s *h1ékwo:s *wl´.kWo:s *kn´.to:s
Acc. Pl. *sélkons *h1ékwons *wl´.kWons *kn.tóns
Inst. Pl. *sélkomis *h1ékwomis *wl´.kWomis *kn.tómis
Dat. Pl. *sélkomjos *h1ékwomjos *wl´.kWomjos *kn.tómjos
Gen. Pl. *sélkohom *h1ékwohom *wl´.kWohom *kn.tóhom
Loc. Pl. *sélkosu *h1ékwosu *wl´.kwosu *kn.tósu
2. Early Proto-Germanic has undergone the first act of the Lautverschiebung, vocalization of syllabic resonants, conversion of final *-m to *-n, shortening of long diphthongs, elimination of prevocalic laryngeals, and compensative lengthening due to postvocalic and intervocalic laryngeals. The Lautverschiebung did not shift inherited tenues immediately preceded by *s (including *skW), and labiovelars occluded by a following consonant lost their labial component (thus *kWs > *xs not *xWs).
Nom. Sg. *sélxos *éxwos *wúlxWos *xunþós
Voc. Sg. *sélxe *éxwe *wúlxWe *xúnþe
Acc. Sg. *sélxon *éxwon *wúlxWon *xunþón
Inst. Sg. *sélxo: *éxwo: *wúlxWo: *xunþó:
Dat. Sg. *sélxoi *éxwoi *wúlxWoi *xunþói
Gen. Sg. *sélxosjo *éxwosjo *wúlxWosjo *xunþósjo
Loc. Sg. *sélxei *éxwei *wúlxWei *xunþéi
Nom. Pl. *sélxo:s *éxwo:s *wúlxWo:s *xunþó:s
Voc. Pl. *sélxo:s *éxwo:s *wúlxWo:s *xúnþo:s
Acc. Pl. *sélxons *éxwons *wúlxWons *xunþóns
Inst. Pl. *sélxomis *éxwomis *wúlxWomis *xunþómis
Dat. Pl. *sélxomjos *éxwomjos *wúlxWomjos *xunþómjos
Gen. Pl. *sélxo::n *éxwo::n *wúlxWo::n *xunþó::n
Loc. Pl. *sélxosu *éxwosu *wúlxWosu *xunþósu
3. Final short *-e and *-o suffer apocope, with resulting *-xw realized as *-xu, but *-xW remaining a labiovelar fricative, while *-sj becomes a geminated palatal sibilant *-SS which merges phonemically with the apical sibilant, thus *-ss. Final unstressed *-os suffers syncope to *-s, with resulting *-ws and *-js realized as *-us and *-is. Thus the inst. pl. and dat. pl. fall together in the /o/-declension.
Nom. Sg. *sélxs *éxus *wúlxWs *xunþós
Voc. Sg. *sélx *éxu *wúlxW *xúnþ
Acc. Sg. *sélxon *éxwon *wúlxWon *xunþón
Inst. Sg. *sélxo: *éxwo: *wúlxWo: *xunþó:
Dat. Sg. *sélxoi *éxwoi *wúlxWoi *xunþói
Gen. Sg. *sélxoss *éxwoss *wúlxWoss *xunþóss
Loc. Sg. *sélxei *éxwei *wúlxWei *xunþéi
Nom. Pl. *sélxo:s *éxwo:s *wúlxWo:s *xunþó:s
Voc. Pl. *sélxo:s *éxwo:s *wúlxWo:s *xúnþo:s
Acc. Pl. *sélxons *éxwons *wúlxWons *xunþóns
I.D. Pl. *sélxomis *éxwomis *wúlxWomis *xunþómis
Gen. Pl. *sélxo::n *éxwo::n *wúlxWo::n *xunþó::n
Loc. Pl. *sélxosu *éxwosu *wúlxWosu *xunþósu
4. The labiovelar *xW loses its labial component before *-u(:) and *-o(:) and in absolute final position. When adjacent to *s, it becomes *f. Otherwise it falls together with the cluster *xw. This is the stage in which the counting-form of 'four' acquires /f/-anlaut, and that of 'five' /f/-auslaut, through external sandhi with the /s/-auslaut of 'three' (for animates, including livestock serving as currency and subject to frequent counting) and the /s/-anlaut of 'six'. Of the four nouns tabulated here, only 'wolf' is affected.
Nom. Sg. *wúlfs
Voc. Sg. *wúlx
Acc. Sg. *wúlxon
Inst. Sg. *wúlxo:
Dat. Sg. *wúlxoi
Gen. Sg. *wúlxoss
Loc. Sg. *wúlxwei
N.V. Pl. *wúlxo:s
Acc. Pl. *wúlxons
I.D. Pl. *wúlxomis
Gen. Pl. *wúlxo::n
Loc. Pl. *wúlxosu
5. Inherited *a: becomes *o:, and *o becomes *a unless it is unstressed and directly followed by *m. The root-vowel *u is lowered to secondary *o by *a or *o: in the next syllable unless a nasal combination or a high front vocoid intervenes (/a/-umlaut).
Nom. Sg. *sélxs *éxus *wúlfs *xunþás
Voc. Sg. *sélx *éxu *wúlx *xúnþ
Acc. Sg. *sélxan *éxwan *wólxan *xunþán
Inst. Sg. *sélxo: *éxwo: *wólxo: *xunþó:
Dat. Sg. *sélxai *éxwai *wólxai *xunþái
Gen. Sg. *sélxass *éxwass *wólxass *xunþáss
Loc. Sg. *sélxei *éxwei *wúlxwei *xunþéi
Nom. Pl. *sélxo:s *éxwo:s *wólxo:s *xunþó:s
Voc. Pl. *sélxo:s *éxwo:s *wólxo:s *xúnþo:s
Acc. Pl. *sélxans *éxwans *wólxans *xunþáns
I.D. Pl. *sélxomis *éxwomis *wólxomis *xunþámis
Gen. Pl. *sélxo::n *éxwo::n *wólxo::n *xunþó::n
Loc. Pl. *sélxasu *éxwasu *wólxasu *xunþásu
6. Paradigmatic levelling operates first between the nom. sg. and voc. sg. On the model of *sélx against *sélxs, the voc. sg. of 'wolf' becomes *wúlf. Since there are no oxytone polysyllabic vocative forms, *xúnþ does not become *xunþá on the model of *éxu against *éxus (or original /u/-stems or /i/-stems). Instead the accent of the nom. sg. is retracted to match the voc. sg., creating *xúnþas. This also occurs with the nom. pl. of 'hound', making it identical to the voc. pl. *xúnþo:s.
Presumably the same thing happens with the inherited _de:vi:_-type feminine 'she-wolf', the accent of the nom. sg. *wulxwí: being retracted to match the voc. sg. *wúlxwi:, while the oblique cases such as acc. sg. *wulxjó:n (earlier *wulxjá:n < *wulxWjá:n < Late OWIE *wl.kWjá:m < PIE *wl.kWjéh2m) remain oxytone.
The confusion in the singular paradigm of 'wolf' is resolved by spreading *wulf- to all the cases. In the plural, *wolx- predominates for a time, but is eventually contaminated with *f from the singular, creating *wolf-. In western dialects of Proto-Germanic, *f similarly spreads to the feminine, replacing nom. sg. *wúlxwi:, acc. sg. *wulxjó:n, etc. with *wúlfwi:, *wulfjó:n, etc.
Nom. Sg. *wúlfs *xúnþas
Voc. Sg. *wúlf *xúnþ
Acc. Sg. *wúlfan *xunþán
Inst. Sg. *wúlfo: *xunþó:
Dat. Sg. *wulfai *xunþái
Gen. Sg. *wúlfass *xunþáss
Loc. Sg. *wúlfei *xunþéi
N.V. Pl. *wólfo:s *xúnþo:s
Acc. Pl. *wólfans *xunþáns
I.D. Pl. *wólfomis *xunþámis
Gen. Pl. *wólfo::n *xunþó::n
Loc. Pl. *wólfasu *xunþásu
7. Simple fricatives between voiced sounds or in word-final position become voiced unless the immediately preceding syllable is stressed (Verner's Law). Final *-ss is then reduced to *-s. 'She-wolf' becomes *wúlfwi:, *wulBjó:n, etc. in western PGmc dialects and *wúlxwi:, *wulGjó:n, etc. in northern. Meanwhile the northern and westernmost dialects generalize *wulf- to the plural of 'wolf' (as shown below); further east *wolf- is generalized from the plural to the singular. (These eastern Proto-WGmc dialects with *wolf- are ancestral to High German, Frisian, and part of Dutch. Old Norse names in _-olfr_ are presumably based on OHG models if not actually borrowed from prehistoric OHG.)
Nom. Sg. *wúlfs *xúnþaz
Voc. Sg. *wúlf *xúnþ
Acc. Sg. *wúlfan *xunDán
Inst. Sg. *wúlfo: *xunDó:
Dat. Sg. *wúlfai *xunDái
Gen. Sg. *wúlfas *xunDás
Loc. Sg. *wúlfei *xunDéi
N.V. Pl. *wúlfo:z *xúnþo:z
Acc. Pl. *wúlfanz *xunDáns
I.D. Pl. *wúlfomiz *xunDámiz
Gen. Pl. *wúlfo::n *xunDó::n
Loc. Pl. *wúlfazu *xunDásu
8. The voiced fricative *D is generalized to the nom. and voc. of 'hound', and similarly with most other oxytones affected by Verner's Law. [... under revision ...] Then the accent of the oblique cases is retracted to match not only the nom. and voc., but the oblique cases of the majority of nouns. Final *-n in unstressed syllables is lenited to mere nasalization *-N.
The latest stage of Proto-Germanic has been reached. In Proto-NGmc, the nom. sg. 'she-wolf' becomes *wúlGi: after the oblique cases, then acquires *-z from the majority of non-neuter nom. sg. forms, later leading to Runic Norse *wulgiR, Old Norse _ylgr_. In Proto-WGmc, not only voicing but also /j/-gemination in the oblique cases of 'she-wolf' is transferred to the nom. sg. yielding *wúlBBi:(z), later Proto-High German *wulppi:, OHG _wulpe_; Proto-English *wulbbi:, Early OE *wylb(e), OE _wylf_.
Nom. Sg. *sélxs *éxuz *wúlfs *xúnDaz
Voc. Sg. *sélx *éxu *wúlf *xúnD
Acc. Sg. *sélxaN *éxwaN *wúlfaN *xúnDaN
Inst. Sg. *sélxo: *éxwo: *wúlfo: *xúnDo:
Dat. Sg. *sélxai *éxwai *wúlfai *xúnDai
Gen. Sg. *sélxas *éxwas *wúlfas *xúnDas
Loc. Sg. *sélxei *éxwei *wúlfei *xúnDei
N.V. Pl. *sélxo:z *éxwo:z *wúlfo:z *xúnDo:z
Acc. Pl. *sélxanz *éxwanz *wúlfanz *xúnDans
I.D. Pl. *sélxomiz *éxwomiz *wúlfomiz *xúnDamiz
Gen. Pl. *sélxo::N *éxwo::N *wúlfo::N *xúnDo::N
Loc. Pl. *sélxazu *éxwazu *wúlfazu *xúndasu
9. Different Gmc. branches level out the paradigms of /a/-stem (PIE /o/-stem) nouns in different ways.
[... incomplete ...]
Direct parallels to 'wolf', with nom. sg. *-xWos > *-xWs > *-fs, are very difficult to find. A likely example is OE _u:f_ 'large owl' (Bubo bubo, Bubo maximus, vel sim.), ON _u:fr_, with the weak OHG derivative _u:fo_. This can be equated with the second element of Skt. _úlu:kas_ 'owl', properly 'hoot-owl' or 'screech-owl' with an onomatopoeic first element (probably *h2ul-) found in Grk. _huláo:_ 'I bark, bay', reduplicated in Lat. _ululo:_ 'I howl, yell, shriek', _ulula_ 'screech-owl'. Latin also has _ulucus_ equated with _ulula_ by Servius (ad Ecl. 8:55); the Skt. word, presumably cognate, points to a long vowel, with _ulu:cus_ continuing earlier *ulu:quos. Detaching *(h2)ul- gives us a root with undetermined laryngeals, *huhkWo- 'owl', itself possibly originating in an onomatopoeia for 'hoot' plus a derivational suffix. Whatever the details, this root provides an OWIE nom. sg. *hú:kWos 'owl' > Early PGmc *ú:xWos > *ú:xWs > Late PGmc *ú:fs, whence PNGmc *ú:faz yielding regularly RN *u:faR (possibly identical to the personal name _UbaR_ from Järsberg), ON _u:fr_, and PWGmc *ú:fs giving OE _u:f_, with OHG *u:f replaced by an affective or hypocoristic weak _u:fo_.
The forms of 'oven' to be explained are Go. _aúhns_, OE _ofen_, OHG _ovan_, Old Icelandic _ofn_, Old Norwegian _ogn_, and Old Swedish _oghn_, _ughn_, _omn_, _umn_. These have been plausibly connected with Skt. _ukhás_ m., _ukhá:_ f. 'cooking pot' and Lat. _aul(l)a_ 'id.', whose diminutive _auxilla_ shows that the protoform was *auksla:, the PIE root being *h2/4eukWh1/4-. In order to derive the Gmc. forms, we begin with a zero-grade masc. *h2/4úkWh1/4os 'cooking pot'. (Expected Skt. *úkhas has changed its accent to follow the oxytone fem., originally an adj.) The nom. sg. becomes in Early PGmc (Stage 2 above) *úxWos, after syncope (Stage 3) *úxWs, after /s/-induced labialism (Stage 4) *úfs.
The *-no-suffixed barytone derivative has an occluded labiovelar and becomes Early PGmc *úxnos 'site for cooking pots, oven' in Stage 2, regularly syncopated to *úxn.s in Stage 3. Most of the oblique cases undergo /a/-umlaut in Stage 5. Ovens are seldom addressed, so the vocative has little impact and the nom. sg. is levelled in most dialects to *óxn.s in Stage 6. This then becomes *óxn.z in Stage 7, continues into EGmc, and undergoes word-final devoicing, ending up as Gothic [oxn.s] _aúhns_. But in the meantime, as its usage becomes more general, *óxn.s also takes modifiers and forms the second element of compounds (cf. HG _Backofen_). In such compounds, the accent precedes *-oxn.s and cannot shield the velar from Verner's voicing in Stage 7, yielding *-oGn.z. In Stage 9, western NGmc dialects extract *oGn.z from compounds and produce *oGnaz as explained above; this becomes Runic Norse *ognaR, Early ON *ognr, assimilated to *ognn, ONorw _ogn_ (cf. RN _stainaR_ > *stainr > ON _steinn_).
The locative case of 'oven' is rather frequent, and so the loc. sg. *-uxnei, not subject to /a/-umlaut in Stage 5, could work in concert with the nom. sg. to split the paradigm in eastern PNGmc, yielding a parallel form *-uxn.s without /a/-umlaut in Stage 6, and *-uGn.z in Stage 7, leading to Runic Swedish *ugnaR, OSw _ughn_ (the -gh- being graphy for [G]) beside the umlauted _oghn_.
Meanwhile, the nom./voc. pl. and most of the oblique sg. cases of *úfs undergo /a/-umlaut in Stage 5. Since cooking pots commonly occur in the plural, /o/-vocalism easily triumphs in Stage 6 (unlike the situation with 'wolf'). But exactly as with 'she-wolf', western dialects extend the consonantism of the simplex *ófs 'cooking pot' to its derivative, replacing *óxn.s 'oven' with *ófn.s, which regularly becomes OE _ofen_, OHG _ovan_. Possibly OIce _ofn_ is borrowed from WGmc, originally distinguished from the native word by referring to a movable oven which could be transported aboard ship, as opposed to a fixed oven in a home. On the other hand OSw _omn_ and _umn_ presuppose *-oBna-, *uBn.z, *-uBnei, with *f imported from *úfs becoming *B in compounds.
DGK