hwa

See also: hwa¹

Translingual

Symbol

hwa

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Wané.

See also

• Wiktionary's coverage of Wané terms

Middle English

Pronoun

hwa

1. (Early Middle English) Alternative form of who (“who”, nominative)

Northern Sotho

Etymology

From Proto-Bantu *-kúa.

Verb

hwa

1. to die

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *hwaʀ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xwɑː/, [ʍɑː]

Pronoun

hwā

1. who (interrogative)
   • c. 990, Wessex Gospels, John 5:13

     Sē þe þǣr ġehǣled wæs nysse hwā hit wæs: sē Hǣlend sōðlīċe bēag fram þǣre ġaderunge.

     The person who was healed didn't know who it was: Jesus had withdrawn from the crowd.

2. anyone, someone

Usage notes

• In the first sense, hwā refers to a person who is not yet known: Hwā forstæl mīnne fodan? ("Who stole my food?"). When enquiring further about a known person's identity, hwæt is used: Hwæt eart þū? ("Who are you?").
• Unlike the broader relative pronoun use of Modern English "who", hwā typically only forms relative clauses that function as indirect questions. For example, the relative clause introduced by hwā in the statement Hēo nāt hwā þā twā bēċ write ("She doesn't know who wrote the two books") implies the direct question hwā write þā twā bēċ? ("Who wrote the two books?"). For relative clauses that are not indirect questions, the usual strategies of using sē and/or þe are overwhelmingly preferred: Hēo is sēo þe wrāt þā twā bēċ ("She is the one who wrote the two books"). However, this is only a generalisation.

Declension

Declension of hwā/hwæt

	Masculine and feminine	Neuter
Nominative	hwā	hwæt
Accusative	hwone	hwæt
Genitive	hwæs	hwæs
Dative	hwām, hwǣm	hwām, hwǣm
Instrumental	hwȳ, hwon	hwȳ, hwon

Descendants

• Middle English: who, ȝwo, ho, hoo, huo, quo, qwo, qwho, whoo, wo, woo, qua, wha, hwa, hwo, hwoa
  • English: who
  • Geordie English: whe
  • Scots: wha
  • Yola: fho, fo, vo

Old Frisian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhwaː/
• (Late Old Frisian) IPA^(key): /ˈwaː/

Etymology 1

From Proto-West Germanic *hwaʀ. Cognates include Old English hwā and Old Saxon hwē.

Pronoun

hwā

2. (interrogative) who?
3. (relative) who, that

   Synonyms: thī, thiu

4. (indefinite) whoever, anyone

   Synonyms: hwāsā, ēnich

Descendants

• West Frisian: wa

Etymology 2

From Proto-West Germanic *hą̄han. Cognates include Old English hōn and Old Saxon hāhan.

Alternative forms

• huā

Verb

hwā

2. (transitive) to hang

References

• Bremmer, Rolf H. (2009) An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN

Tarifit

Etymology

Borrowed from Moroccan Arabic هوى (hawa).

Verb

hwa (Tifinagh spelling ⵀⵡⴰ)

1. (intransitive) to go down, to come down, to descend

Conjugation

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Derived terms

• Verbal noun: hekkʷu
• Causative: sehwa (“to lower”)
  • Verbal noun: asehwa