Vennemann on *w-r- "guard"

Vennemann on *w-r- "guard"
in Europa Vasconica - Europa Semitica
"
10.3.3.2 to ward

Gmc. *ward-e:- 'ausschauen, bewachen' ('to look out, to guard') in
OE weardian, OFris. wardia, OS wardon, OHG warte:n, ON varða (also
the French loanword garder 'to guard', with regarder 'to observe';
Ital. guardia, etc.) is considered a derivate (with a dental suffix -
dh-, in my reconstruction -d-) of a root Gmc. *war- which occurs in
the Germanic noun *war-o:- f. 'attention' (in OE waru, OFris. ware,
OS OHG wara, ON vari, also G wahrnehmen 'to notice', E aware, G
gewahr 'aware of, Gewahrsam 'safekeeping, custody', in loanwords
like garage, etc.) and in the Germanic weak verb *war-o:- 'to pay
attention to, keep, preserve' (OE warian, OFris. waria, OS waron,
OHG (bi-)waro:n, ON vara). These words seem to reflect a bona fide
Indo-European root *wera- 'achten' ('to observe, respect'), cf.
Greek (epi-)o:rontai 'sie beaufsichtigen' ('they supervise'), Latv.
ve:rtie^s 'to look, to notice'), Lat. vere:ri 'scheuen, verehren'
('to shy away from, venerate'), Hitt. werite 'to fear', Toch. A
wär-
, B wär-sk- 'to smell (trans.)', cf. Kluge/Seebold 1989: s.w.
warten, wahren, Onions 1966: s.w. ward1, ward2-, warden, guard,
aware, Pokorny 1989: I. 1164, the latter with further examples.

There is no reason to doubt the reconstruction of Gmc. *ward- as a
derivate of Gmc. *war- and this in turn as a reflex of PIE *wer-.
Yet the question arises why it is Germanic, and Germanic alone, that
has expanded the o-grade (the Germanic a-grade) in this particular
way. In my view this fact is hard to separate from the other fact
that Semitic has a root w-r-d-(also j-r-d-) which enters a verb
Akkad. (w)ara:du(m) with the meaning 'to descend' but also nouns (w)
ardu(m) 'slave, servant (also of kings, in palaces, of gods, in
tempels)', 'a (special kind of) craftsman, (perhaps) master-
builder', (w)ardu:tu(m) 'slavery, servitude; service (also of a
vassal, or in politics)'; (w)ardatu(m) 'girl, young woman (also said
of goddesses and female demons)'. The formal similarity is striking,
and the difference in meaning could arise from an asymmetrical
perspective on the same activity: What to the members of a ruling
class would be subordinate tasks of vassals or politically dependent
people would appear to be overseer functions in the eyes of the
people dominated by that ruling class.
"

Torsten