Re: *swesor

I do not pretend to be an expert, but my understanding is that this is
one of those times when a historical accident may obscure reality. The
Old Irish "deirfiur" is a contraction of "derb" (true) and
"siur"(sister) and as with "deartháir" (true-brother), the intention
was to distinguish between sisters of blood relations and those of
religious creation. Old Irish "siur", Welsh "chwaer" and Breton
"c'hoar" all developed from the Common Celtic *swesûr and ultimately
from Indo-European *swesôr (sister).

How is that?

Brandon


--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Ben McGarr <celteuskara@...>"
<celteuskara@...> wrote:

> "Glen Gordon" <glengordon01@...> wrote:
> > The word *swesor does appear to be composed of *swe "self" or "of
> > one's own (family)" and *-sor, a feminine ending.
>
> Hello,
> These attempts to get at some sort of PIE phratries or marriage
> pattern system are very interesting [or was it just Torsten who was
> getting at that with his 'over the water' thing? And maybe this
> water is what Glen's *aXwe or whatever has to be 'carried over'?].
>
> But the Sister term made me think of the Irish and Scots
> Gaelic 'deirfiur' [accent over the u] and 'piuthar'. What's going on
> here? Are these really so unusual from the usual
> sestra/soeur/Schwester theme, or is the difference just superficial
> to those who know the etymology?
>
> All the Best,
> Ben