*ph₂tḗr

Reconstruction

The nominative singular is reconstructed as *ph₂tḗr, accusative *-tér-m, genitive *-tr-ós by de Vaan,^[1] and as *ph₂tēr, genitive *ph₂tr-ós by Martirosyan.^[2] NIL heads the stem *ph₂tér-,^[3] Kroonen writes *ph₂-tér-,^[4] Fortson *ph₂tēr,^[5] and Sihler, with a syllabic laryngeal, *pH̥₂tēr.^[6]

Morphology

Kroonen classes it as a hysterokinetic ter-stem.^[4] The long vowel of the nominative is explained by Szemerényi's Law, under which earlier *ph₂ters became *ph₂tēr with loss of the -s and compensatory lengthening.^[5][7]

Some works divide the word into a root and the suffix *-ter-, which is an agent-noun suffix elsewhere, because a word of this length is not monosyllabic.^[8]

Evidence

The word is secure in Tocharian, Indo-Iranian, Greek, Armenian, Italic, Celtic and Germanic, the eight lines under Reflexes.^[4][2] Balto-Slavic has replaced it: Lithuanian tėvas has ousted the inherited word, as Old Church Slavonic отьць (otĭcĭ) has in Slavic,^[9] and the etymon is unattested in Slavic.^[10] Derksen sees no way of connecting tėvas with it.^[11] The lists of cognates read for this entry name no Anatolian form.^[4][12]

Competing analyses

A problem remains in the laryngeal: Zair does not know why such sequences developed as [pəh₂tēr], giving Ancient Greek πατήρ (patḗr) and Sanskrit पिता (pitā́), rather than with the vowel after the laryngeal.^[13]

Meanings

1. father^[14]

Beekes describes the word as the term for the father as head of the family.^[14] It stands beside the formula "father Sky", *Diḗus *ph₂ter, continued in Sanskrit, Greek and Latin.^[15][3]

Derivatives

• *ph₂tr-ou̯-: Ancient Greek πάτρως (pátrōs).^[3]
• *ph₂tr-(i)i̯o/ah₂-: Latin patrius, Ancient Greek πάτριος (pátrios).^[3]
• *ph₂tr-iH-: Ancient Greek πατρίς (patrís).^[3]
• *ph₂tr-u-, "father's brother": Latin patruus.^[1]

Reflexes

• Tocharian: Tocharian B pācer (“father”), reflecting the nominative *ph̥ₐtḗr exactly, as Adams has it.^[12]
• Indo-Aryan: Sanskrit पितृ (pitár-, “father”).^[2][4]
• Iranian: Avestan ptā (“father”), Avestan pita and Old Persian 𐎱𐎡𐎫𐎠 (pitā).^[4]
• Greek: Ancient Greek πατήρ (patḗr, “father”), Mycenaean Greek pa-te.^[14]
• Armenian: Old Armenian հայր (hayr, “father”).^[2]
• Italic: Latin pater (“father”), Oscan patir.^[1]
• Celtic: Proto-Celtic *fatīr (“father”), Old Irish athir.^[16]
• Germanic: Proto-Germanic *fader- (“father”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌳𐌰𐍂 (fadar).^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. pater
2. ^ a b c d Martirosyan, Hrach K. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Inherited Lexicon, Leiden: Brill, p. 401
3. ^ a b c d e Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. ph₂tér-
4. ^ a b c d e f g Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 121
5. ^ a b Fortson, Benjamin W., IV (2010), Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, 2nd ed., Malden, MA / Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 3.38
6. ^ Sihler, Andrew L. (1995), New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, New York: OUP, p. § 101
7. ^ Ringe, Don (2017), From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Clackson, James (2007), Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction, Cambridge: CUP, p. ch. 3
9. ^ Hock, Wolfgang, et al. (2015), Altlitauisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (ALEW), online and Hamburg: Baar, p. s.v. tėvas
10. ^ 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. 1540
11. ^ Derksen, Rick (2015), Etymological Dictionary of the Baltic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden: Brill, p. 478
12. ^ a b Adams, Douglas Q. (2013), A Dictionary of Tocharian B, 2nd ed., Amsterdam: Rodopi, p. 390
13. ^ Zair, Nicholas (2012), The Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Celtic, Leiden: Brill, p. 6
14. ^ a b c 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. πατήρ
15. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2011), Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction, 2nd ed., revised by Michiel de Vaan, Amsterdam: Benjamins, p. 40
16. ^ Matasović, Ranko (2009), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic, Leiden: Brill, p. 129