*ārundī

Reconstruction

Ringe and Taylor reconstruct *ārundī "message, errand" for Proto-West Germanic,^[1] and Wiktionary has the same form.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *airundiją (“message, errand”),^[2][3] which Köbler writes *airundija-, *airundjam.^[3][4] Wiktionary takes the monophthongization of *ai to *ā before *r for regular and shared with North Germanic.^[2] Ringe and Taylor list *ārundī among the lexemes found only in West Germanic, which are more or less isolated etymologically, and say that Old Norse eyrindi is somehow connected, but with sound correspondences that are not all regular.^[1] In West Saxon the word went through *ǣrundī, *ārundī by retraction, and *ǣryndī by i-umlaut to ǣrende, while pre-Anglian *ērundī gave Mercian and Northumbrian ⟨ērend-⟩.^[5][6]

Morphology

A neuter ja-stem.^[7][4] EWA counts it among the few Germanic formations in *-t- extended with ⟨-ja-⟩, and compares the varying vowels of the suffix with those of the word for "thousand".^[7]

Evidence

The noun is attested in Old English ǣrende, Old Frisian ērende, Old Saxon ārundi and Old High German ārunti.^[1] Old Saxon has it only in the Heliand.^[7] In Old High German it is frequent in glosses, and Otfrid, who has it fifteen times, measures the first vowel as long, as Notker writes it.^[7] Middle High German has ⟨ārant⟩ in rhyme, but mostly forms with a short umlauted first vowel, which point to older *arindi beside *arundi.^[7] Old Norse has erendi, also with ⟨ǫ-⟩, ⟨ø-⟩ and ⟨ey-⟩; only Gothic has no counterpart.^[7]

Competing analyses

The first vowel cannot be traced to one Proto-Germanic sound: Old High German and Old Saxon ⟨ā-⟩, Old Frisian ⟨ē-⟩ and Old English ⟨ǣ-⟩ go back to Proto-Germanic *ǣ-, Middle High German ⟨e-⟩ and Old Norse ⟨e-⟩, ⟨ǫ-⟩ to *a-, and the ⟨ai-⟩ of Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌿𐍃 (airus, “messenger”) to *ai-.^[7] Kroonen likewise finds that the forms point to proto-forms that cannot be reconciled with each other or with *airu- "messenger": Old English, Old Saxon and Old High German point to *ērundja-, Old Norse to *arundja-, which, supported by a Germanic loanword in Old Church Slavonic, he thinks most likely to be Proto-Germanic; the variant eyrindi could formally come from *airundja-.^[8] Köbler also sets up *erundja- and calls its origin unknown.^[9] Wiktionary derives Proto-Germanic *airundiją from a derivative or compound of *airuz "messenger".^[10]

Kluge once took the word for a compound of a prefix ⟨ā-⟩ and the verb "to send", which EWA rejects on grounds of accent and vowel grade; if it is a compound with *ǣ-, EWA suggests rather a second part from the verb "to run", "that which has gone out".^[7] EWA thinks it possible that the Old High German long vowel came in with the Anglo-Saxon mission in the second half of the 8th century, under the influence of the Old English word, on forms with a short ⟨a-⟩ that were current in continental West Germanic and North Germanic.^[7] Berr calls the word of unknown origin.^[11]

Meanings

1. message^[1][2]
2. errand^[1][2]

Old English also used the word for "answer",^[3] and Old High German for "business, affair, command", with the message almost always a divine one.^[7]

Derivatives

• *ārundijan and *ārundijōn "to go on an errand, to announce, to deliver a message", which Wiktionary reconstructs;^[12][13] Old High German has ārunten (“to announce”) once in a gloss,^[14] and Old English ǣrndian.^[3]

Reflexes

• Old English: ǣrende (“message, errand, news, answer”)^[3]
• Old Saxon: ārundi (“message, errand”)^[4]
• Old High German: ārunti (“errand, business, message, command”)^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 126
2. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *ārundī
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. ǣrende
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. ārundi
5. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 200
6. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 253
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ârunti
8. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 36
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *erundja-, *erundjam
10. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *airundiją
11. ^ Berr, Samuel (1971), An Etymological Glossary to the Old Saxon Heliand, Berne / Frankfurt: Herbert Lang, p. 42
12. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *ārundijan
13. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *ārundijōn
14. ^ 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. ârunten