At 2:18:44 PM on Saturday, December 8, 2007, tgpedersen
wrote:
[...]
> The thing you wanted avoid here was a derivation from
> Wear, right?
Wrong. I was simply looking at the evidence in front of me.
I wasn't thinking of the river-name at all.
> Do you have any old forms for that river?
Uiurus, Uuirus ~730[8th c.]
UUirus, Wirus, Wyru, Uiurus ~716[10th c.]
Wiire ~890[~1000]
Wirus ~1107-~1190x5
Uuira, Wira ~1125[~1150]
Weirus ~716[12th c.]
Weor ~1040[12th c.], 1072x83[15th c.], ~1107
Wer ~1148-1243
Were ~1250-1621
Weere 1285, 1418
Weir 15th c.
Weare 1572-1647
Wear 1438-
Watts derives it from PIE *w(e)is- 'liquid, flow', as in the
<Weser> (OHG <Wesera>, <Wisara>, <Wisura>. Quoting:
The best elucidation of the various forms is that of
Nicolaisen [ref. omitted]: intervocalic _s_ was lost in
British so that British _*Uisuria:_ > PrW _*Wiir_ > OE
_*Wi:r_ latinised as _Wirus_, _Wira_, while the
alternative British form _*Uisura:_ > PrW _*Wior_
latinised as _Wiurus_ > OE _We:or_ > ME _We:r_, ModE
_Wear_. Another name of the river is preserved in
Ptolemy's _Geography_, _Ouédra (Vedra)_ [c.150]13th. This
appears to have survived in the Welsh name of the river,
_Gweir_, and in the p.n. _Kaer Weir_ 14th (for ?Durham,
?Wearmouth). _Vedra_ is cognate with the German river
name Wetter, _Wetteraha_ 772, French Vézère and Vesdre,
and also with the Scots Quair Water and Traquair,
_Treverquyrd_ c.1124, _Trauerquayr_ c.1150-1242 from IE
_*wedo:r-_ 'water' on the base _*wed-_. It is not unusual
for rivers to possess more than one recorded name, either
of different date, or applied to different stretches of
their course. But for a more recent association of
_Gweir_ with the meaning 'bend' (highly appropriate for
the Wear) see now DAJ 13.87.
DAJ = Durham Archaeological Journal.
[...]
>> You don't see the irony of your objection? You're the one
>> who's forever appealing to unrecorded survivals to support
>> pet theories.
> Previously unrecorded survivals of words from lower
> registers of the language, that is.
Precisely. Which is clearly in the same spirit as
previously unrecorded survivals of pronunciations from lower
(or at least different) registers of the language, save that
the latter is a more familiar (and I think better-attested)
occurrence.
[...]
>>> A few examples would be nice. The two so far have *(k)wa-
>> I assumed that that's what you meant by 'similar
>> alternations'. If you mean something else, you'll have to
>> be more specific.
> That's what I meant. Placenames in *(h)wa- having variants
> in *kwa- (or vice versa).
I'll try to remember to dig some up if I have time, but it's
the end of the fall semester, and I'm buried in final exams
and term papers for the next couple of weeks.
Brian