er

Forms

er^[1] The spelling ih- in ihm and ihn was introduced in Early New High German to keep them apart from im and in.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German ër, inherited from Old High German ër, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *iʀ, inherited from Proto-Germanic *iz.^[2][1][3] The same pronoun is Gothic 𐌹𐍃 (is).^[4][5] Kluge derives the Germanic form, which he writes *eiz, from Proto-Indo-European *eis, which matches Old Irish é and the relic form Latin eis; without the -s it corresponds to Sanskrit अयम् (ayám).^[2] Before Old High German the diphthong must have been contracted and then shortened.^[2] is and Lithuanian jìs are related.^[4][6]

The pronoun was built on a stem meaning “the”, extended with a particle -i into an anaphoric pronoun, which is why stems with e and with i stand side by side in the Indo-European languages.^[2][4] The e of the masculine and the neuter comes from i, which is kept in ihm, ihn and ihr.^[6] The feminine and plural sie come from another stem.^[6]

In the north the pronoun had an initial h-: Franconian hër, like Old Saxon hē, Old English hē and English he.^[3][1] According to Pfeifer and the revised Grimm, the unstressed form was weakened in these languages and then propped up with the h- of a demonstrative stem, the one in heute.^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German er is one of the commonest words of the earliest texts: Isidor writes ir, Otfrid er, and the Franconian Hildebrandslied, Tatian and the Ludwigslied have her.^[3][8] It meant “he” and stood for any masculine noun.^[8][7]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century Er became a form of polite address, at first referring back to a title such as der Herr.^[6][2] Pfeifer ascribes it to French and Italian courtesy.^[4] It was at first more respectful than the older Ihr, but lost value when the plural Sie came into use in the 18th century, and until the middle of that century it was used to people of lower rank.^[6][4] Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm and Büchner's Woyzeck still show it.^[6]

As a noun, ein Er means a male, especially of animals.^[6][9] In the north of the German-speaking area Low German he, hei stands against High German er.^[7]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German er appears in the earliest texts.^[8][3]
• 1060–1080 – Middle High German er is used in the Early Middle High German Genesis.^[10]
• 17th century – Er comes into use as a form of polite address.^[6][4]
• 18th century – Sie replaces Er as the polite address, and Er is left for people of lower rank.^[4][6]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. He; it; the third person singular masculine, standing for a masculine noun that names a person, animal or thing: hier ist dein Hut, er lag auf dem Schrank “here is your hat, it was on the cupboard”.^[9][1]
2. (colloquial) It, of a computer or other machine treated as a person.^[1]
3. (obsolete, capitalised) You: a form of address to an inferior, or to a person of higher rank addressed by a title.^[9][1]

Word family

• Er

Related words

• es
• ihm
• ihn
• ihr
• English he

Usage notes

In Early New High German er was also a short form of Herr before names and titles, as in Luther's lieber er doctor “dear Mister Doctor”.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 252
3. ^ a b c d Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 1092
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
5. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
7. ^ a b c Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, Neubearbeitung (1965–2018), ed. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 9 vols. (A–F), Leipzig / Stuttgart: Hirzel, p. 8, 1570
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 692