LL-L: "Etymology" [E] LOWLANDS-L, 19.MAY.1999 (03)

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From: Christian Chiarcos <myrddin at cs.tu-berlin.de>
Subject: Etymology

Greetings to all,

I am searching for an etymology of Low.G. beer "boar",
Mid.L.G. beer or beier (still in place-names), E. boar,
German Ber (18th c.), OHG. beer.

I only know from my NHG. etymological dictionary, that
it is   n o t   familar with E. bear, G. Ba%r and it is
said to have no extra-Germanic etymology. Does anyone
know something more ?

Are there Northern Germanic forms or Dutch ones ?

May anybody help ?

Christian

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at geocities.com>
Subject: Etymology

Dear Lowlanders,

Here is my own postscript to Christian's inquiry above.

Please bear in mind that the German-based spelling of _Beer_ above is
misleading.  The _ee_ stands for a diphthong which is pronounced [EI] or [aI],
depending on the dialect.  So it should really be spelled _beir_ or _beier_,
because it is not pronounced with a long [e:] sound.

Low Saxon (Low German) _bei(e)r_ denotes 'male pig' in general as well as
'communally owned boar.'  A castrated male pig tends to be referred to as _borg_
[bOVX] (pl. _boerg_ (_Börg_) [b9VC]).  (Other words for 'boar' are _ever_ and
_hauer_.)  To make things even more interesting, 'piglet' is _birge_ ~ _bigge_
in Eastern Friesland Low Saxon, but I assume that is a Frisian loan.  It is
_farken_ [fa:kN] elsewhere.

Regards,

Reinhard/Ron

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