andera 'woman' Celtic ?

[Larry Trask]

Well, I'm no IEist, but I confess myself baffled by Vennemann's
suggestion (if it is his) that Greek <aner> `man' continues a "Vasconic"
stem also continued in Basque <andere> `lady'.

First, it seems clear that the /d/ in the oblique stem of the Greek
word, as in genitive <andros>, is epenthetic, just like the /d/ in
English `thunder', and that <andros> must be secondary for original
*<anros>.

Second, all of the admittedly limited sources available in my office
agree that the Greek word is straightforwardly derivable from a PIE stem
*<ner->, or perhaps *<Hner->.  The sense of this stem is disputed, and
both `man' and `strong' have been proposed, at least.

This stem is taken as the source of all the following:

Greek <aner> `man'
Oscan/Umbrian <ner-> `man of rank'
Latin <Nero> (personal name)
Middle Welsh <ner> `chief, master'
Old Irish <nert> `strength'
Sanskrit <nar(a)-> `man'
Avestan <nar-> `man'
Albanian <njeri> `man'
Armenian <ayr> `man'

As far as I -- a non-specialist -- can see, the IE status of the word is
demonstrated, and there is no problem to be solved by appealing to an
implausible "Vasconic" influence.  And anyway Basque <andere> has both
the wrong form and the wrong meaning.

Any comments from the specialists?

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk