Water
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Root
-vhudza
to wet, to soak, to moisten (Ndau -vhuza, Karanga -vudza; base -vhu- damp, wet earth)
Water descends from Shona vhudza, to wet, to soak, to moisten
- Confidence
- 61/100
- Root language
- Shona
- Descent begins
- waterEnglish
The consensus position
Mainstream comparative linguistics derives English water from Old English wæter, Proto-Germanic *watar, and Proto-Indo-European *wodr̥ (oblique *uden-), a heteroclitic noun securely reconstructed from Hittite watar/wetenas and Greek hudōr/hudatos. No relationship to Bantu is recognised.
The working behind this.
The full descent — 7 links from the attested form down to the root — the segment-by-segment correspondences, the phonological breakdown and the case for the derivation are behind an account.
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