hvat

Faroese

Etymology

From Old Norse hvat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷód, *kʷod.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kvɛaːʰt/

Pronoun

hvat n

1. what

Declension

singular	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	hvør	hvør	hvat
accusative	hvønn	hvørja
dative	hvørjum	hvørjari / hvørji	hvørjum
genitive	hvørs	(hvørjar)	hvørs
plural	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	hvørjir	hvørjar	hvørji
accusative	hvørjar
dative	hvørjum
genitive	hvørja

Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *hwat (“what”), neuter nominative of *hwaz (“who, what”). Cognate with Old English hwæt, Old Frisian hwet, Old Saxon hwat, Old Dutch wat, Old High German waz, Gothic 𐍈𐌰 (ƕa).

Pronoun

hvat

1. what (nominative and accusative singular neuter interrogative pronoun)
2. what (nominative and accusative singular neuter relative pronoun)
3. something
   • c. 850, Þjóðólfr ór Hvíni, Haustlǫng

     hvat kvað hapta snytrir · hjalmfaldinn því valda

     the helmet-capped instructor of the gods [= Óðinn] said something was causing this

Declension

Declension of hvar

singular	masculine	neuter
nominative	*hver, *hvar	hvat
accusative	*hven	hvat
dative	hveim	hví
genitive	hves	hves

Descendants

• Icelandic: hvað
• Faroese: hvat
• Norwegian Nynorsk: kva, kvat; (dialectal) k(v)att, kåt, ka, ke, ko, kø, hot, høt, hø, ho
• Jamtish: hut, hvuð
• Old Swedish: hvat, hvadh
  • Swedish: vad, hvad (pre-1906 spelling)
• Old Danish: hwat
  • Danish: hvad
    • Norwegian Bokmål: hva

Further reading

• Zoëga, Geir T. (1910) “hvat”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press; also available at the Internet Archive