ni (Danish)
Where does "ni" come from?
The Danish word 'ni' for the number nine traces its roots back to the Proto-Indo-European *h₁néwn̥. It evolved through Proto-Germanic as *newun and later emerged in Old Norse as níu, from which the modern form eventually descended. This simple numerical term reflects a linguistic lineage spanning thousands of years across Germanic languages.
Full etymology tree
- ni (Danish), 'nine'
- inherited níu (Old Norse), 'nine'
- inherited *ᚾᛁᚢ (niu) (Proto-Norse), 'nine'
- inherited *newun (Proto-Germanic), 'nine'
- inherited *negwunt (Pre-Germanic)
- inherited *newunt (Proto-Germanic)
- influence *tehun (Proto-Germanic), 'ten'
- inherited *h₁néwn̥ (Proto-Indo-European), 'nine'
- contraction *néwos (Proto-Indo-European), 'new'
- contraction *en (Proto-Indo-European)
- contraction *h₁enu- (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited *newun (Proto-Germanic), 'nine'
- inherited *ᚾᛁᚢ (niu) (Proto-Norse), 'nine'
- inherited níu (Old Norse), 'nine'
Ancestors
- níu (Old Norse)
- *newun (Proto-Germanic)
- *h₁néwn̥ (Proto-Indo-European)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris