An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/singen

by Friedrich Kluge

singen, verb, ‘to sing, chant,’ from the equivalent Middle High German singen, Old High German and Old Saxon singan; a common Teutonic verb occurring in the same sense in all the dialects; compare Gothic seggwan, Old Icelandic syngva, Anglo-Saxon singan, English to sing, Dutch zingen (yet Gothic also ‘to read,’ Old High German also ‘to crow’). The Teutonic root singw, which appears also in Sang, &c., is only doubtfully related to some terms in the non-Teutonic languages; it is said to be primitively allied to sagen (Teutonic root sag, from Aryan seq), and to this there is no phonetic objection. It is more probably connected with Greek ὀμφή, ‘voice, speech, oracle,’ if a pre-historic root sengh be assumed. Compare sengen, and, for other Teutonic artistic expressions, Lied and Harfe.