*jērą

Reconstruction

The word is *jērą in Wiktionary,^[1] *jēra- in Kroonen and Köbler,^[2][3] who also gives *jǣra-, and *jēran in Orel.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year, harvest season”).^[1] Kroonen reconstructs a static PIE paradigm, nominative *ióh₁-r, genitive *iéh₁-n-s, after Schindler, because Avestan keeps an archaic heteroclitic inflection and the dialects show e/o-ablaut.^[2]

Morphology

A neuter a-stem.^[2][3] Most of the related languages show an r-suffix, while Avestan preserved the heteroclitic r/n inflection.^[2]

Evidence

The word is attested in all three branches: Gothic 𐌾𐌴𐍂 (jer), Old Norse ár, Old English gēar, Old Frisian jēr, Old Saxon jār and Old High German jār.^[4] Gothic has it at Luke 4:19 for a single year; several years were counted with another word, "winters".^[5]

Krause gives the early Proto-Norse name of the j-rune as *jāra "(good) year"; when Norse lost initial j- around the middle of the 6th century, the name lost its j- too and the rune came to stand for a.^[6] Nielsen sees the same change in the Blekinge inscriptions, where descendants of the j-rune write a.^[7] The rune also stood alone as a sign for the word: Krause and Jankuhn read the small j-rune on the brooch of Aquincum as an ideograph for the Gothic word or Proto-Norse *jāra "good year", and find the same sign on the Beuchte brooch and the Stentoften stone.^[8] Looijenga dates the Stentoften stone to the 7th century and reads the single rune at the end of its text as "harvest, prosperity", standing for "a good year".^[9]

Outside Germanic, Orel compares Ancient Greek ὥρᾱ (hṓrā, “season”),^[4] and Kroonen also Latin hornus (“of this year”),^[2] a connection Feist only asked about.^[10]

Meanings

1. year^[2][4][1]
2. good year, harvest^[3][1]
3. name of the j-rune^[3][1]

Old Norse also used the word for "fertility" and "spring".^[11]

Derivatives

• Compounds in Orel: *jēra-mēnōþz "month of the year", *jēra-talan "reckoning by years" and *missa-jērjan "season, half-year".^[4][12]

Reflexes

• Gothic: 𐌾𐌴𐍂 (jer, “year”)^[10]
• Old Norse: ár (“year, good year, fertility”)^[11]
• Old English: gēar (“year”)^[13]
• Old Frisian: jēr (“year”)^[14]
• Old Saxon: jār (“year”)^[15]
• Old High German: jār (“year, calendar year”)^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *jērą
2. ^ a b c d e f Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 273
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *jēra-
4. ^ a b c d e Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 206
5. ^ Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. 238
6. ^ Krause, Wolfgang (1971), Die Sprache der urnordischen Runeninschriften, Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Nielsen, Hans Frede (2000), The Early Runic Language of Scandinavia: Studies in Germanic Dialect Geography, Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Krause, Wolfgang; Jankuhn, Herbert (1966), Die Runeninschriften im älteren Futhark, Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, phil.-hist. Klasse, 3. Folge 65, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
9. ^ Looijenga, Tineke (2003), Texts and Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 181
10. ^ a b Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. jer
11. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. ár
12. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 272
13. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. gēar
14. ^ Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. jēr
15. ^ Tiefenbach, Heinrich (2010), Altsächsisches Handwörterbuch / A Concise Old Saxon Dictionary, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. s.v. jār
16. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. s.v. jār