Abstract
This article proposes new Indo-European etymologies for three primarily Alemannic dialect words: Swiss German Cheib âcadaverâ, Felb âchaffâ and Nidel âcreamâ. Through the identification of cognates in Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian languages, their Proto-Germanic forms are reconstructed and interpreted within a broader Indo-European framework. The analysis demonstrates how conservative Alemannic vocabulary can inform Germanic and Indo-European etymology.
Introduction
Within Germanic, the Alemannic dialects of the southwestern High German area are often noted for their relatively conservative character. Although they display numerous innovations, their phonologies, morphologies and vocabularies preserve elements of the Middle and Old High German linguistic phases that are not retained in Standard German. For this reason, Alemannic dialectal material occasionally sheds light on questions related to Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo-European etymology. This article addresses the etymological origins of three primarily Alemannic words, Swiss Cheib âcadaverâ, Felb âchaffâ and Nidel âcreamâ. The Alemannic distribution of these words is demonstrated by their attestations in Alsatian and Swiss German, the latter represented by common Swiss, Sense Swiss (âSenslerdeutschâ) of the Canton of Fribourg and Valais Swiss of Wallis. By adducing previously unrecognized cognates from Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian, the Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo-European etymologies of these dialect words are resolved. The resulting comparisons additionally contribute to the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European pastoral and agricultural vocabulary.
1 Proto-Germanic *kaiban-
Various Alemannic dialects exhibit a word corresponding to standardized High German Keibe (dw 4, 431), cf. Alsatian Keib m. âcarrion, corpse; bad horse, cow; scoundrelâ (wem 1, 416b), common Swiss Cheib âbovine disease; carrion, corpse; rogueâ (Id. 3, 100â103), Sense Chiib m. âcarrion, carcassâ (Schmutz & Haas 2004: 105) and Valais Cheib m. âguy, chap; rascalâ (Wipf 1908: 49; Grichting 2006: 48). It continues the Middle High German weak noun keib(e) m. âcarrion, cadaver; criminal deserving the death penaltyâ (Lexer 1, 1535). Premodern Swiss sources further attest a meaning âcattle diseaseâ, also reflected in the derived adjective Middle High German keibic adj. âdiseasedâ (Lexer 1, 1535). By extension, the noun is used as a slur in the modern language and as a strengthening prefix, cf. common Swiss cheibe güet, Valais cheibo güet âvery goodâ.
Despite an apparent lack of intra-Germanic cognates, the above forms can be straightforwardly derived from Proto-Germanic *kaiban-. The antiquity of this word is further supported by potential Baltic parallels. These are Lithuanian geÄ©bti âto be sickly, weakened, be ailing, to die (derog., of animals)â, Latvian Ä£eibt âto perish, dieâ (with secondary Ä£), both reconstructed to a root *geibÊ°- (Fraenkel 1962: 143; Smoczynski 2018: 324). Additional formations include géibÄti âto be in death throesâ and nu-geibénti âto die (derog., of animals). Contrary to Wood (1914: 503), this Baltic etymological cluster does not necessarily belong to the root *geibÊ°- âto sway, bend, stoopâ (cf. iew 354â355), for which cf. Norwegian keiv adj. âslanted, crooked, wrongâ < *kaiba-. Although a semantic shift âto bendâ > âto succumbâ > âto perishâ is conceivable, no such shift is required to accept the cognacy of the Baltic and Germanic forms; the fact that both branches associate the root with the dying of animals, perhaps in the context of a murrain, supports a verbal isogloss with precisely this semantic connotation.
2 Proto-Germanic *fel(e/a)wÅ-
Another word apparently confined to the Alemannic area is common Swiss Felb f. âchaffâ (Id. 1, 797), Sense Fälbe f.pl. âchaff, waste from threshing (used as animal fodder)â (Schmutz & Haas 2004: 158), Valais Fälwe f.pl. âchaff, husks, glumesâ (Wipf 1908: 102; Grichting 2006: 76). This lexeme has traditionally been derived from the semantically similar Old High German hel(a)wa, Middle High German hel(e)we, Modern German Helbe (Id. loc. cit.). The change h > f is ad hoc, however, which leaves the comparison unsubstantiated.
Instead, the Alemannic word is readily derived, without formal complications, from Proto-Germanic *fel(e/a)wÅ-. Although no other Germanic reflexes are known, it is formally and semantically compatible with several Indic and Balto-Slavic words for âchaffâ, viz. Sanskrit palÄÌva- m. âchaffâ, Lithuanian pẽlÅ«s, Latvian pÄlus, Old Prussian pelwo, Old Church Slavonic plÄvy, Serbocroatian pljÈ va, Russian pelëva, polova (cf. iew 802). These closely related formations may continue an original uhâ-stem *pel(H)-uhâ, gen. *pel(H)-uehâ-s (cf. Nussbaum 1997: 197), or a collective formation created to an original u-stem, e.g. *pelH-u-hâ or *pelH-Åu-hâ. Acknowledging the suffixal ablaut, Pokorny (iew 802) simply reconstructs an amphidynamic u-stem *pelá¹us, *pelu̯-ós. Proto-Germanic *fel(e/a)wÅ-, which continues *pelH-(e/o)u-ehâ-, is reconcilable with all of these proposals.
3 Proto-Germanic *nīþla/Å(n)-
A third word with a markedly Alemannic distribution (cf. Schwyzer 1907) is Alsatian German Nidle m.(/f.) (wem 1, 760a), common Swiss Nidel m.(/f.) â(whipped) cream, cream layer on raw milkâ (Id. 4, 671â674), Sense Nydla f. âid.â (Schmutz & Haas 2004: 356), Valais Niidla f. âcreamâ (Wipf 1908: 111, 131; Grichting 2006: 144). Its etymology has so far remained unclarified. Deutsches Wörterbuch (13, 741) calls it âein dunkles schweizerisches wortâ and the Idiotikon (loc. cit.) âfast nur schweizerischâ. In view of a similar word for âbuttermilkâ in Ladin, cf. Selva nÃda, Arraba, Pozzale nÄ«Ìda, etc., apparently from *nÄ«ta, the word has been suspected to be a pre-Roman Alpine word (Jud 1924: 201â203), possibly of Celtic origin (Lötscher 2019: 689). These forms, however, lack the l of Swiss Nidel.
From the Germanic perspective, the evidence is suggestive of a Proto-Germanic *nīþla/Å(n)-. Although no further Germanic cognates are known, this formation can be connected, without formal problems and with transparent semantics, to a Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian verbal root *neihâ- meaning âto churnâ, cf. Latvian niÌt (niju) âto churn; to threadâ, Sanskrit nÄ«ta- âchurnedâ, Shughni, Yazghulami nay- âto churnâ (ewa 2, 25; Cheung 2007: 279). This root is further present in several nominal derivations, including Latvian pa-niÅas f.pl. âbuttermilkâ quasi-Indo-European < *hâpo-niH-niehâ-, Sanskrit (náva-)nÄ«ta-, Khotanese nÄ«yaka- âfresh butterâ < *(naua-)niH-ta- and Persian panÄ«r âcheeseâ < *pati-naiH-ra- (cf. Bailey 1979: 184). Fitting into this evidence for an ancient dairying practice, Nidel may thus continue *n(e)ihâ-tlehâ-, i.e. a nomen abstractum created to the root *neihâ- with the suffix *-tlehâ-.
Within Indo-European, the root *neihâ- arose by laryngeal metathesis from older *nehâ-i- âto (make) turn, lead; to tieâ, which also explains the Latvian meaning âto threadâ (Kloekhorst & Lubotsky 2014). These semantics recall the technique of churning by whirling the churning stick with a cord, a technique known from India and famously also featuring in the Hindu theme of the churning of the ocean (cf. Kuiper 1979: 65). The Sanskrit word for the cord of a churning stick is nÄtra- (MBh.), which continues an instrumental noun *neihâ-tlo- to this same root. If the etymology of *nīþla/Å(n)- presented here is correct, the same churning technique may have been known to speakers of the Northern European Indo-European dialect ancestral to Germanic. Furthermore, if the *nÄ«ta underlying the Ladin forms is indeed a Celtic loan, the same would be true for the prehistoric speech community ancestral to that branch.
Conclusion
In this short study, I have presented new Indo-European etymologies for three Alemannic lexical formations. These formations can be shown to have cognates in Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian or both, although it cannot be excluded that additional evidence will surface in the future. The Indo-European family is now widely understood to have its origins on the Eastern European Steppe in the 4th millennium bce (Allentoft et al. 2015; Haak et al. 2015). Genomically, the populations ancestral to the Germanic, Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian speech communities have in recent years been shown to derive their Steppe ancestry from the population of the Corded Ware complex (3000â2350 bce), which itself received it from the Steppe pastoralists of the Eastern European Yamnaya culture (Malmström et al. 2019; Allentoft et al. 2024; Gretzinger et al. 2025). Corded Ware economy varied regionally but appears to have been based on a mixed economy consisting of herding and small-scale farming (Rowley-Conwy 1985; Hecht 2007; Müller et al. 2009; Sjögren, Price & Kristiansen 2016; GarcÃaâDÃaz 2017). While the present study does not in any way pretend to offer an exhaustive linguistic reconstruction of the economy of the speech community ancestral to Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian and Germanic, the etymologies proposed here do not contradict the archaeological reality of the Northern and Central European 3rd millennium bce.
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