hwæs

Hwæs is an Old English word that serves as the genitive singular form of the interrogative/relative pronoun hwa, and it translates to the modern English word whose. It is used to indicate possession in noun phrases where the possessor is not specified. For example, in a phrase like hwæs cyning, hwæs marks that the following noun cyning (king) belongs to someone else. The form is part of the hwa paradigm, which includes the nominative hwa (who) and other case forms.

Historically, hwæs derives from Proto-Germanic *hwas- and is a common feature in Old English, appearing in both poetry and prose from roughly the 9th to the 11th centuries. It is a linguistic ancestor of the modern English whose and has cognates in other Germanic languages, reflecting shared Germanic roots.

In modern English, the word whose is used in similar situations; hwæs is no longer used in contemporary language except in linguistic or philological discussions of Old English. The spelling variants and manuscript spellings may vary, and glossaries may list hwæs under the broader entry for hwa.

See also: Old English grammar; Beowulf; Proto-Germanic language; Relative pronouns.

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