February theme: Weather ⛈️

Teaser

Nevada, snow

Full Text

• Proto-Indo-European *sneygʷʰ- to snow

  • Proto-Indo-European *snigʷʰ(e)ti (it) snows imperfective ^[1]

    • Balto-Slavic *snigtei

      • East Baltic

        • Lithuanian snigti to snow
      • Finnic *niɣatta to snow? ^[2]

        • Finnic *niɣatos snow drift action result noun

          • Finnish nietos snow drift
    • Hellenic

      • Classical Greek νίφω níphō to snow, to rain
  • Proto-Indo-European *snéygʷʰeti (it) snows imperfective ^[1]

    • Pre-Germanic

      • Germanic *snīwaną to snow

        • North Germanic

          • Old Norse snjófa

            • Icelandic snjóa to snow
        • West Germanic

          • Old English snīwan to snow

            • English snew
          • Old High German snīwan

            • German schneien to snow
      • Finnic *niɣatta-
    • Indo-Iranian

      • Iranian

        • Avestan 𐬯𐬥𐬀𐬉𐬲𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 snaēžaiti (it) snows
  • Proto-Indo-European *sninégʷʰti (it) snows imperfective ^[1]

    • Italic

      • Latin ning(u)it it snows

        • Eastern Romance

          • Romanian a ninge to snow
          • Western Romance

            • Italian nigne to snow dialectic
  • Proto-Indo-European *snigʷʰyéti (it) snows imperfective ^[1]

    • Celtic *snigʷyeti to snow

      • Brythonic

        • Welsh nyfio to snow ^[3]
      • Old Irish snigid to drip, to drop, to flow

        • Irish snigh to pour down, to flow
    • Indo-Iranian

      • Indo-Aryan

        • Sanskrit 𑀲𑁆𑀦𑀺𑀳𑁆𑀬𑀢𑀺 snihyati to be adhesive, to stick, to remain ^[4]
  • Proto-Indo-European *snígʷʰs snow noun

    • Celtic

      • Old Irish snechtae snow

        • Irish sneachta snow
      • Brythonic

        • Welsh nyf snow ^[3]
    • Hellenic

      • Classical Greek νίφα nípha snow
    • Italic *sniks

      • Latin nix snow, white hair stem: niv-

        • Central Romance

          • Italian neve snow
        • Eastern Romance

          • Romanian nea snow
        • Insular Romance

          • Sardinian nii
        • Western Romance

          • Old French noif snow
          • Spanish nieve snow, ice cream
        • Vulgar Latin *nivō I snow

          • Sardinian niai to snow
          • Western Romance

            • Spanish nevar to snow
          • Western Romance *nivicāre to snow

            • French neiger to snow

              • French neige snow
            • Italian nevicare to snow
        • Latin nivātus snowy, snowed on

          • Western Romance

            • Spanish nevada snowy, snowstorm

              • Spanish Sierra Nevada place name: Snowy Mountain Range

                • English Sierra Nevada

                  • English Nevada
    • Tocharian

      • Kushean *śiñce

        • Kushean śiñcatstse snowy
  • Proto-Indo-European *snóygʷʰos snow noun

    • Balto-Slavic *snaigas

      • East Baltic

        • Lithuanian sniẽgas snow
      • Slavic *sně̑gъ snow

        • East Slavic

          • Russian снег sneg snow

            • Russian Снегу́рочка Snegúročka Snow Maiden Aarne-Thompson #703

              • English Snegurochka
        • South Slavic

          • Serbo-Croatian сне̑ијг snijȇg snow
        • West Slavic

          • Polish śnieg snow
      • West Baltic

        • Old Prussian snaygis snow
    • Germanic *snaiwaz snow

      • East Germanic

        • Gothic 𐍃𐌽𐌰𐌹𐍅𐍃 snaiws snow
      • North Germanic

        • Old Norse snær

          • Danish sne snow
          • Icelandic snjór snow
      • West Germanic

        • Old English snāw snow

          • English snow
          • Scots snaw snow
        • Old High German snēo snow

          • German Schnee snow
          • Yiddish שניי shney snow
    • Indo-Iranian

      • Indo-Aryan

        • Sanskrit 𑀲𑁆𑀦𑁂𑀳 sneha oil, grease, viscidity, smoothness, tenderness, fondness, moisture, bodily fluid ^[4]

          • Gandhari Prakrit siṇeha snow ^[4]
          • Pali

            • Thai เสน่ห์ sà-nèe charm, enchantment, fascination ^[4]
          • Telugu స్నేహము snēhamu friendship ^[4]

Visual

Collected English words

snew, Sierra Nevada, Nevada, Snegurochka, snow

Footnotes

1. ^

   There seems to be quite a lot of divergence in late Proto-Indo-European dialects as to how form the imperfective (or, in older but less accurate terminology, "present") form of this verb; four different imperfective forms are reconstructed from different daughter languages:

   A) Simple thematic imperfective (*snigʷʰe-ti),

   B) "Narten"-style thematic imperfective (*snéygʷʰe-ti),

   C) A nasal infix imperfective (*sninégʷʰ-ti). This is morphology for forming an imperfective verb from a root with an inherent perfective aspect, you wouldn't normally expect to see that on the same root as simple imperfectives, which assume a root with an inherent imperfective aspect, and

   D) A yé-imperfective (*snigʷʰyé-ti), which forms intransitive and/or middle-voice imperfectives. Middle voice is when a subject cannot be simply categorized as either agent or patient, but has elements of each. This would be vaguely similar to English "it is snowing", which has referent-less placeholder subject, but an object that has elements of both patient and agent.

2. ^

   For Finnish nietos: "snow drift", I'm following Pystynen: https://twitter.com/jlingpystynen/status/1533068996676919296

3. ^

   A nyf/nyfio are rare words in Welsh. The usual Welsh word for snow is eira, descended from Celtic *argyos: "white" (compare Welsh arian and Latin argentum both meaning "silver").

   So the usual way to say "it is snowing" in Welsh is mae'n bwrw eira: "she is throwing white"!

4. ^

   Strange, strange things happened to the word for "snow" in India.