Re: Germanic 'bear'

> It's *Ber-an-, actually, and it's derived from *g^Hwe(:)r- by many,
> including Don Ringe (2006, _From Proto-Indo-European to

Proto-Germanic_,

> p. 106). He follows Seebold (1967) in claiming that word-initial *gWH
> and (diphonemic) *g^Hw give Germanic *B "regularly". While the

proposal

> is not uncontroversial (being supported by a very small amount of

data),

> this etymology of Germanic 'bear' is at least more elegant than the

mere

> root equation between 'bear' and 'brown'.
>