*anþar

Reconstruction

Wiktionary reconstructs *anþar.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *anþeraz (“other”),^[2][3] which Köbler also writes *anþara-.^[4] In the northern West Germanic dialects the nasal was lost before the fricative, so that Ringe and Taylor trace Old English ōþer, Old Frisian ōther and Old Saxon ōthar to *ą̄þar, while Old High German ander keeps the nasal.^[2] Fulk describes the change as a North Sea Germanic loss of a nasal before any voiceless fricative, with nasalization and compensatory lengthening of the vowel; the resulting long nasal ā gave ō in Anglo-Frisian, but either ā or ō in Old Saxon.^[5]

Morphology

An adjective, used as a pronoun and as an ordinal numeral.^[4][6] Ringe and Taylor trace the Old English nominative ōþer and genitive ōþres to *ą̄þær, *ą̄þæræs; genitives such as ōþeres are rare.^[7]

Evidence

Old English ōþer, Old Frisian ōther and Old Saxon ōthar lack the nasal, while Old High German ander has it;^[2] Old Saxon has āthar occasionally and andar rarely.^[2] ONW records Old Dutch andar only as the genitive ⟨andres⟩ in a Malberg gloss of the Pactus legis Salicae, which it dates to 507–768.^[8] Van Helten restores the gloss as *oferof andres strippas and takes *andres for the genitive singular of *ander, rendering Latin aliēnus.^[9] De Vaan finds no old forms without the nasal in Dutch: ander keeps it in all dialects, and the Hollandish ⟨aar⟩ of the 15th century and the pronoun elkaar (“each other”) arose by a later reduction of ⟨nd⟩, as van Haeringen showed, not from a Frisian substrate.^[10][11]

Competing analyses

Ringe and Taylor treat the loss of the nasal as a change of the northern West Germanic dialects,^[2] and Fulk as a North Sea Germanic one, contrasting Old English, Old Frisian and Old Saxon with Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌸𐌰𐍂 (anþar) and Old High German ander.^[5] Fulk also notes that Old High German ander is hard to explain if Proto-Germanic *er had become *ar already in Proto-Germanic, and that on the other side Ringe points to West Germanic *-ar giving Old English ⟨-er⟩; he leaves the question open.^[12]

Meanings

1. other^[2][1]
2. second^[1]

EWA reports Hamp's view that the original meaning was "the other (of two)", while another Indo-European word meant "another (of many)".^[6] Old English also used the word for "next",^[4] and Old Frisian for "further, remaining".^[13]

Derivatives

• Orel reconstructs a Proto-Germanic compound *anþera-līkaz with *līkaz behind Old Saxon ōtharlīk (“otherwise”) and the Old English adverb ōþerlīce.^[3] Köbler lists the Old Saxon compound with ⟨-līk⟩.^[14]

Reflexes

• Old English: ōþer (“other, second, next”)^[4]
• Old Frisian: ōther (“second, other, further”)^[13]
• Old Saxon: ōthar (“other”)^[14]
• Old Dutch: andar (“other”)^[8]
• Old High German: ander (“other, second”)^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *anþar
2. ^ a b c d e f Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 140
3. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 21
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. ōþer
5. ^ a b Fulk, R. D. (2018), A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages, Studies in Germanic Linguistics 3, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins, p. §4.11
6. ^ a b c 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. ander
7. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 266
8. ^ a b Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. andar
9. ^ van Helten, Willem Lodewijk (1900), Zu den malbergischen Glossen und den salfränkischen Formeln und Lehnwörtern der Lex Salica, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 25, 225–542
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2017), The Dawn of Dutch: Language Contact in the Western Low Countries before 1200, NOWELE Supplement Series 30, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins, p. 222
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2017), The Dawn of Dutch: Language Contact in the Western Low Countries before 1200, NOWELE Supplement Series 30, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins, p. 239
12. ^ Fulk, R. D. (2018), A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages, Studies in Germanic Linguistics 3, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins, p. §5.5
13. ^ a b Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. ōther
14. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. ōthar