No idea. Antonsen's suggestion (or rather
shot in the dark) in _The Oldest Runic Inscriptions_ is *er- (*h1er-) 'arise';
he adduces Baltic *erelis/*arelis 'eagle' (one would have to add Slavic *orIlU),
which most people, I think, would connect with Germanic *arn- instead (PGmc.
*h3or-(e)n-), certainly unrelated to *erilaz. The truth is, *er- is too
uncharacteristic to be easily interpretable.
The suffix in the "earl" word is
actually found in different shapes as well (-il-, -ul-, -l-). Similarly, the
"churl" word is *karilaz or *karlaz. We have the same "suffix ablaut" in Gmc.
-in-/-an-/-un-, and in -ung-/-ing-. The unstable medial vowel may have resulted
from the random lexicalisation of what was once inherited apophony (*-elo- or
*-i-lo-, *-l.lo- or *-H-lo-, *-lo-); there is similar random variation
in Slavic diminutives (*-I-k- ~ *-U-k-). The oldest known forms of both
"earl" and "churl" have *-ila- (cf. Fin. karilas 'old man', borrowed from very
early Germanic, Old Runic [virtually = Proto-NW Germanic] erilaz), so it's
arguable that forms like <erl-> and <erul-> are secondary.
PGmc. *erilaz could reflect earlier *er-elo- or *er-i-lo-. An earl was a
"sub-king" in historical times, and I think the contrast with *karilaz may
provide some kind of etymological cue (*er- vs. *kar-), though I don't know what
to make of it yet. *karilaz is thought by some to be related to *g^erh2-
'to age, grow old' and *g^erh2-ont-/*g^erh2-o-s 'old man' (thus in the
EIEC, for example), but the Germanic vocalism is suspect (*g^orh2-elo-s
would be aberrant, IMO). Both words remain somewhat enigmatic.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2002 3:05 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Digest Number 792
Piotr wrote:
>The etymology and original meaning of
*erilaz (< *er-elo-s ?) are
> >uncertain. Old Runic formulaic
<ek erilaz ...> is routinely translated
> >as 'I, the
runemaster, ...' or alternatively as 'I, the >nobleman, ...'.
>Germanic cognates (OE eorl, OM jarl, OSax. erl) are >social rank or
status
>terms ('earl, warrior, high-born'). I suspect >*erilaz formed
an antonymous
>pair with *karilaz 'man, free peasant, >farmer' (ON
karl, OE ceorl.
What do you think is the most likely derivation for the
"*er-"?
~Mark