*bʰer-

Reconstruction

The root is *bʰer- in LIV and Matasović,^[1][2] and *bher- in Mallory and Adams, who use it to show how the comparative method reaches a root.^[3]

Morphology

LIV sets up a doubtful amphidynamic root present ?*bʰér-/bʰr-, from Sanskrit भर्ति (bhárti) and Ancient Greek φέρτε (phérte); a thematic present *bʰér-e-; a reduplicated present *bʰi-bʰér/bʰr-, from Sanskrit बिभर्ति (bibhárti); a doubtful sigmatic aorist ?*bʰḗr/bʰér-s-; and an iterative *bʰor-éi̯e-, from Ancient Greek φορέω (phoréō).^[1] LIV treats the perfects of Vedic, Avestan and Gothic as innovations.^[1] Beekes holds that the root was originally limited to the present stem, which is why Greek takes its future and aorist from other roots, and Latin its perfect.^[4]

Evidence

Twelve branches are cited under Reflexes, Tocharian among them, but LIV's list has no Anatolian form.^[1] The thematic present has the longest list of reflexes in LIV.^[1]

Competing analyses

Beekes finds that Ancient Greek φέρτε (phérte), Latin ferte, Latin fert and Sanskrit भर्ति (bhárti) may well be old athematic forms,^[4] while LIV reports Szemerényi's view that all of them are secondary, and itself explains the Latin forms best as syncopated allegro forms.^[1]

Albanian bie (“to fall, to strike”) is a different word: Orel derives it from a separate *bher- "to strike", beside Latin feriō.^[5]

Meanings

1. to carry, to bring^[1]

Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌰𐌽 (bairan) also means "to give birth",^[4] and Slavic has shifted to "gather, take".^[6]

Derivatives

• *bʰor-éi̯e-: Ancient Greek φορέω (phoréō), Albanian m-ban (“holds, carries”).^[1]
• English bairn, literally "one carried in the womb".^[7]
• Proto-Celtic *bero-, Welsh -fer, and Proto-Celtic *boryo-, Old Irish -baire (“bearer”).^[2]

Reflexes

• Tocharian: Tocharian B pär- (“to bear, to carry off”).^[8]
• Indo-Aryan: Sanskrit भरति (bhárati, “carries”).^[4]
• Iranian: Proto-Iranian *bar (“to bring, to carry”).^[9]
• Greek: Ancient Greek φέρω (phérō, “I carry”).^[4]
• Armenian: Old Armenian բերեմ (berem, “to bring, to bear”).^[10]
• Phrygian: Phrygian αββερετ (abberet) and Phrygian μεβερετ (meberet).^[11]
• Italic: Latin ferō (“I carry”).^[4]
• Celtic: Proto-Celtic *ber-o- (“to carry”).^[2]
• Germanic: Proto-Germanic *beran- (“to bear, to give birth”).^[12]
• Slavic: Proto-Slavic *bьrati (“to take”), Old Church Slavonic бьрати (bĭrati, “gather, select”), first person singular Old Church Slavonic берѫ (berǫ).^[6]
• Baltic: Lithuanian berti (“to scatter”), which LIV marks as doubtful.^[13][1]
• Albanian: Albanian bie (“to bring”).^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert, p. s.v. *bʰer-
2. ^ a b c Matasović, Ranko (2009), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic, Leiden: Brill, p. 62
3. ^ Mallory, J. P.; Adams, D. Q. (2006), The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World, Oxford: OUP, p. 44
4. ^ a b c d e f Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. φέρω
5. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (1998), Albanian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden / Boston / Köln: Brill, p. s.v. bie
6. ^ a b Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 73
7. ^ Fortson, Benjamin W., IV (2010), Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, 2nd ed., Malden, MA / Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, p. ch. 15
8. ^ Adams, Douglas Q. (2013), A Dictionary of Tocharian B, 2nd ed., Amsterdam: Rodopi, p. 397
9. ^ Cheung, Johnny (2007), Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Verb, Leiden: Brill, p. 31
10. ^ Martirosyan, Hrach K. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Inherited Lexicon, Leiden: Brill, p. 190
11. ^ Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias, eds. (2017–2018), Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics, 3 vols (HSK 41), Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, p. 1821
12. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 59
13. ^ Derksen, Rick (2015), Etymological Dictionary of the Baltic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden: Brill, p. 102