Active Voice
Indicative Present
| 1st sing. | wrītō |
| 2nd sing. | wrītizi |
| 3rd sing. | wrītidi |
| 1st dual | wrītōz |
| 2nd dual | wrītadiz |
| 1st plur. | wrītamaz |
| 2nd plur. | wrītid |
| 3rd plur. | wrītandi |
Indicative Past
| 1st sing. | wrait |
| 2nd sing. | wraist |
| 3rd sing. | wrait |
| 1st dual | writū |
| 2nd dual | writudiz |
| 1st plur. | writum |
| 2nd plur. | writud |
| 3rd plur. | writun |
Subjunctive Present
| 1st sing. | wrītaų |
| 2nd sing. | wrītaiz |
| 3rd sing. | wrītai |
| 1st dual | wrītaiw |
| 2nd dual | wrītaidiz |
| 1st plur. | wrītaim |
| 2nd plur. | wrītaid |
| 3rd plur. | wrītain |
Subjunctive Past
| 1st sing. | writį̄ |
| 2nd sing. | writīz |
| 3rd sing. | writī |
| 1st dual | writīw |
| 2nd dual | writīdiz |
| 1st plur. | writīm |
| 2nd plur. | writīd |
| 3rd plur. | writīn |
Imperative
| 2nd sing. | wrīt |
| 3rd sing. | wrītadau |
| 2nd dual | wrītadiz |
| 2nd plur. | wrītid |
| 3rd plur. | wrītandau |
Passive Voice
Indicative
| 1st sing. | wrītai |
| 2nd sing. | wrītazai |
| 3rd sing. | wrītadai |
| 1st plur. | wrītandai |
| 2nd plur. | wrītandai |
| 3rd plur. | wrītandai |
Subjunctive
| 2nd sing. | wrītaizau |
| 3rd sing. | wrītaidau |
| 1st plur. | wrītaindau |
| 2nd plur. | wrītaindau |
| 3rd plur. | wrītaindau |
Participles
| Present | wrītandz |
| Past | writanaz |
Etymology
1. Of unclear origin.
2. Kroonen derives the root from a Proto-Indo-European *wreyd-, with no known cognates outside of Germanic. The only one who has since attempted to find cognates in this vein is Matasović, who links this root to Latin rīdeō (“to laugh”).
3. Pokorny and Lehmann suggest that the root is a d-extension of a Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to cut, scratch”), for which see Old Armenian գիր (gir, “letter; writing”) for more possible cognates. Latin rīma (“cleft, crack”) may also continue this same root. However, as with the unrelated *wlītaną (q.v.), the extension may have been with a different dental consonant than *d in the case of back-influence from iterative *writtōną.
4. Compare typologically Latin scribō, Ancient Greek σκάριφος (skáriphos) < Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreybʰ-; Ancient Greek γράφω (gráphō) < Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ-; Russian начерта́ние (načertánije), черти́ть (čertítʹ) << Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-. See: Latin '
rīdeō'.
Verbs referencing "wrītaną"
English
write, German, old spelling
reißen, Old English
writan, Old Saxon
writan, Faroese
rita, Icelandic
rita, Norwegian, nynorsk
rita, Latin
rideo, Dutch
wrijten, Old English
awritan.
Cognates
-