annarr

Forms

annarr (feminine ǫnnur, neuter annat; masculine plural aðrir)^[1][2] Viking Age runic spellings: anar and onar for the nominative, anan for the accusative, onart for the neuter and antriR for the plural.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *anþeraz (“second, other”).^[4][5] The Proto-Germanic word is Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌸𐌰𐍂 (anþar), Old English ōþer, Old Frisian ōther, Old Saxon ōthar and Old High German andar in the other old languages.^[5][6]

Orel equates it with Lithuanian antras (“other, second”) and Proto-Slavic *vъtorъ (“second”).^[5] De Vries and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon explain it as a comparative in *-tero- to the pronoun stem Proto-Indo-European *ono- (“that”), which is in *onъ (“that one”).^[7][8] De Vries thinks the adverb *an (“there”) a less likely base.^[7] Its first meaning was thus “one of two”, like Latin alter beside alius.^[9][10]

Before ⟨r⟩ the ⟨nn⟩ became ⟨ð⟩, so the plural is ⟨aðrir⟩ beside the singular ⟨annarr⟩.^[11] The ⟨r⟩ of the stem fell before ⟨n⟩ and ⟨t⟩ in the accusative ⟨annan⟩ and the neuter ⟨annat⟩ already in the oldest manuscripts, while the Rök stone of about 900 still writes ⟨onart⟩.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

On the Swedish Rök stone, which Rundata dates to the 800s, the neuter is used as an ordinal: Þat sôgum annat “that I tell as the second”.^[13][3] Another Swedish runestone, Vg 197, has the sense “the other (of two)”: Er varð dauðr vestr, en annarr austr “one died in the west, the other in the east”.^[14] ONP's first dated manuscript record is in a homily fragment of 1150, in the same sense: annan af gýþingom en annan af heíþnom þíoþom “one from the Jews and the other from the heathen peoples”.^[15]

Semantic evolution

ONP keeps the pronoun, with the senses “one of two”, “another of many” and “one more”, apart from the ordinal “second”, which it gives an article of its own.^[15] From “second” came “next following”, as in á ǫðru hausti “the next autumn”, and “next in rank”.^[16][1] Fritzner notes the use of annarr with a farm's name for the half of a farm settled later.^[17]

The mainland languages kept the accusative: Swedish annan and Danish anden go back to annan, while the plural andra continues aðrir.^[10][9]

Timeline

• 800s – annat “second” on the Rök runestone.^[13]
• 1150 – annan “the one … the other” in a homily fragment.^[15]
• 1175 – aþra “other” in the Elucidarius.^[15]
• 1200 – the sense “different, other” in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[15]
• 1212 – the ordinal “second”: dag allan oc aɴan oc eɴ þriþia “all that day and the second and the third”.^[15]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. one of two, the other (of two).^[15][16]
2. another of many, other.^[15]
3. one more, in the plural further, additional.^[15]
4. different, not the same: ǫl er annarr maðr “a drunk man is another man”.^[16][2]

Numeral

1. second.^[15][16]
2. the next following, next in rank.^[16][1]

Word family

• ǫðruvís
• annarrhvárr
• annarrhverr

Descendants

• Icelandic annar^[4]
• Faroese annar^[4]
• Norwegian Nynorsk annan^[4]
• Swedish annan^[4]
• Danish anden^[4]
• Norwegian Bokmål annen^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 21
2. ^ a b Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 21
3. ^ a b Peterson, Lena (2006), Svenskt runordsregister, 3rd rev. ed., Runrön 2, Uppsala: Institutionen för nordiska språk
4. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 21
6. ^ Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 13
7. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 10
8. ^ Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. annar
9. ^ a b Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. anden
10. ^ a b Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. annan
11. ^ Noreen, Adolf (1923), Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik, 4th ed., Halle, p. § 261
12. ^ Noreen, Adolf (1923), Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik, 4th ed., Halle, p. § 300
13. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Ög 136
14. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Vg 197
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. annarr
16. ^ a b c d e Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. annarr
17. ^ Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. annarr