ThisProto-Germanic entry containsreconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directlyattested, but are hypothesized to have existed based oncomparative evidence.

FromProto-Indo-European*né(“not”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ne/

*ne^[2]

1. not

• This word was a general negation particle, and always preceded the word that it negated. If a verb with an adverbial prefix needed to be negated, the word was normally inserted between the prefix and the main verb stem.

• *ni(unstressed)

• *niitjaną

• *nehw
• *un-

This word does not survive in its original use in any modern language. Over time it usually became strengthened by other words, creating phrases such as "never", "not at all" or "not a thing". Eventually these phrases became the normal way of negating phrases, and this word fell into disuse. SeeJespersen's Cycle on Wikipedia for more.

• Proto-West Germanic:
  • Old English:ne
    • Middle English:ne,ny,ni(rare)
      • English:ne(obsolete)
      • Scots:ne(obsolete)
  • Old Frisian:ne,ni
  • Old Saxon:ne,ni
    • Middle Low German:ne,en
  • Old Dutch:ne,ne-
    • Middle Dutch:ne
      • Dutch:n-(prefix)
  • Old High German:ni,ne
    • Middle High German:ne
      • German:nee(dialectal)
• Proto-Norse:ᚾᛁ(ni)(unstressed)
  • Old Norse:ne,né
• Gothic:𐌽𐌹(ni)

• Proto-Germanic terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
• Proto-Germanic terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
• Proto-Germanic terms with IPA pronunciation
• Proto-Germanic lemmas
• Proto-Germanic particles

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