Part of speech: relative pronoun
Gender: feminine
who, that, which (vid saei)
Paradigm
3.6. Relative pronouns
Relative pronouns in Gothic are derived by means of the addition of the part -ei to the demonstrative pronouns: saei (who, that, which) (masc), þatei (which; that) (neut) and soei (who, that, which) (fem). This derived form is declined in the same way as the plain demonstr pron, with the part -ei being added to the case endings of the demonstr pron in question. cf masc, Nom saei, Gen þizei, Dat þammei, Acc þanei, etc; fem, Nom soei, Gen þizozei, Dat þizaiei, Acc þoei etc rel pron-s saei, þatei, soei are often used in Gothic, introducing subordinate clauses.
Alongside masc sing Nom saei, Gothic often uses the form izei (< pers pron is (3 pers, sing, masc) + part -ei). izei was often used in subordinate clauses as a kind of petrified relative pronoun; cf þaim izei qimand at izwis ((those) who come to you( (Matth. 7:15); niu mahta sa izei uslauk augona þamma blindin ... (could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind …) (Jhn. 11:37). Similarly, alongside rel pron soei (fem sing Nom) there is used rel pron sei (< pers pron si (3 pers, sing, fem) + part -ei). Remarkably, sei is used exclusively in Nom, sing.
Go to Pronoun paradigms
