E 0481          IERFAN, HWEORFAN , HEIR

The Old English verbs " ierfan " and " hweorfan " are of Germanic origin.

The word " heir " is, via Old French, of Latin origin .

H 1067            ש ר י                     

Concept of root :  obtaining

 Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

 ש ר י

 yarash

 to obtain, inherit

Related English words

heir, from Latin

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ש ר י

yarash

to obtain ;

inherit

y . r . sh <

*w . r . sh

Old English

ierfan ;

hweorfan

to inherit ;

to  (try to) obtain

 (i)  r f;

hw . r f

German

erben ; erwerben

èrben ;

erwèrben

to inherit ;

to obtain

(‘) , r b ;

w . r b

Middle Dutch

erven ;

 werven ;

-

-

verwerven

-

èrven ;

wèrven;

-

-

verwèrven

-

to inherit ;

to inherit, to (try to) 

obtain

to (try to ) obtain

(‘) . r f ;

w . r f

Latin

heres ;

-

quaerere

-

hérès ;

-

quérere

-

 heir;

-

to (try to ) obtain

h . r . s  <

*w . r . s ;

qw . r + qw . s  < *qw . r s

 

 

Proto-Semitic *WARASH, *WARAT --- *WÈR Indo-European

 

 

The main difference that hits the eye rightaway is that the two roots have different third consonants, in German B or V and in Hebrew SH.

 

The original first consonant " W ", in Hebrew just had to become a " Y ". In German and Dutch a diversification made the version for " to ( make )inherit " ( transitive and intransitive ) lose the initial W. Important to note is that a range of different versions was the result of this abolishing the W : erven, arven, eerven, areven, herven . It is seen that all these versions try to compensate in some way the loss of the W , in some case by introducing an initial H. This is seen in Latin as well . There is much confusion around the great number of roots "WeR", a territory in which also this entry tries to find some clarity. We refer to our chapter "Where do we turn" (Hebrew 0001_aa32) , in which various Indo-European and Hebrew roots are taken into consideration.

 

 

Note:
  • Hebrew besides this root has an identical one with a roughly opposite meaning : "to impoverish". In the past though there were two distinguishable consonants SH. Possibly the two versions or verbs used each one of those two " SH " ’s.
  • Semitic tongues show the following forms, with the meanings of "to inherit, take possession of":

     

    Hebrewyarash to inherit, take possessionY R SH
    Aramaic yarat to inherit, take possession Y R T
    Ugaritic yaratto take possession Y R T
    Arabic waritha to inherit W R TH
    OS.Arabic waratto come W R T
    Ethiopian warasato inheritW R S

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. The Hebrew root, "Y R SH " shows a not too uncommon difference with Aramaic " י ר י ת, yeret = he inherited, took possession of" that has "Y R T". Ugaritic uses also uses "Y R T" for the same meaning. Older versions are found in Ethiopian "warasa= he inherited" with "W R S ", OS Arabic " W R T" for "to inherit" and the cognate in Arabic waritha = he inherited, with " W R TH ". The Proto-Semitic root could be "* ו ר ש , W R SH", but as probable seems a root with a dental: "* ו ר ת, W R T".

 

Note:
  • Latin offers two roots that can be considered of common origin, one for "to obtain by heredity " and the other for "to try to obtain" and " to obtain ".

     

    The word with the first one, " hērēs, hērēdis = heir ", has abolished the initial W , but has , perhaps one might say has kept, the final S that corresponds with the final SH in Hebrew ! This is not so, as this final " S " indicates just the nominative case, as can seen from the genitive case. So in the other cases Latin has a further consonant D that is part of the root. One must observe that the meaning " to obtain " is not seen for this Latin root . The indication from Latin is "H e R e D-".

     

    The second one, "quaerere, quaesīvi, quaesītum" may have received a reinforcement of the first consonant W into "KW " ( in Latin "QU " ). This is not surprising if one compares Latin " quis " with "who (Dutch wie)" and " quod " with "what". "Quaero" has a sister , aunt or mother in the verb "quaeso", that is still dominant in several tenses, as we have just seen. The usual conclusion is that the S is the older version, but that is doubtful because perhaps too simplistic. The " R " may be a very old version that just shared the ground with the " S ".

     

    There are complicated reasonings, according to which "quaeso" should be "quaesso" out of a hypothetical perfectum "*quaissi", that through the influence of "petici" became the form "quaesivi" we have seen. On account of this also "quaestum" then became "quaesitum". This remainds conjectural.

     

    A common ancestor of "hērēs, hērēdis" and "quaerere, quaesīvi, quaesītum", may have been "*V Ē R-".

 

Note:
  • Old English, very interesting, in abolishing the initial W has done like Hebrew, substituting it with what may be called a Yod. Old English has a vowel " I ", Hebrew as a consonant " Y ". Some scholars consider modern English "heir" a loanword from Latin "hērēs = heir", via Old French "eir, heir, hoir". This may be right, though a double influence may have been present.

 

Note:
  • German. The existing theory, also for Dutch, is that "erben = to inherit " is related to "orphan" that comes from Greek. Culturally, regrettably so, "orphans" at least in the past had little chance of taking possession of their heredity. It would be rather unconvincing to indicate them with the same root. Or, viceversa, to base the concept of "heredity" to that of "orphan ".

     

    The double similarity with Hebrew teaches us that " to inherit " is related to the root of "to obtain". Getting an inheritance is one common way of obtaining property.

 

Note:
  • German and Middle Dutch also have a different etymological theory , according to which the above words for " to obtain" would have been built on an Indo European root " *wer " with the meaning of " to turn ". The absence of semantic links between " to obtain " and "to turn" leads to the conclusion that this can not be right. That is, the supposition that " to try to obtain " is done by turning around somebody, is a bit far fetched. The two similar roots, as a solid number of others with "W . R ", are not related at all amongst each other.

     

    The two verbs "werven" , for " to turn " and " to obtain " , in modern Dutch both have gone out of use, but an iterative "wervelen", sister of German "wirbeln", still indicates several kinds of turning and "to obtain" is served by the composite verb " verwerven ", like German " erwerben ".

 

Note:
  • Nordic tongues have the same set of three that is found in German and Dutch :

     

    English    to inherit   to try to obtain   to obtain
    Swedish ärva värva förvärva
    Norwegian arve verve erverve
    Danish arve hverve erhverve
    German erben werben erwerben
    Dutch erven werven verwerven

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. In the modern languages the situation is rather clear. An opening vowel ( Aleph one would say in Semitic languages), A or E, is followed by a consonant R and a final consonant B that in a number of cases becomes a V. But then there are some important indications. Old English opens with an "I", and it has a final F : " ierfa ". This "I" may indicate a prior original "W", that has changed thus into "I".

     

    A further indication for an old opening "W" is seen in Dutch , that still uses, sometimes, a strong version with in the past tense "orf" and in the participle "ge-orven". "O" is a possible development out of "W". The "F" as a third consonant, besides in modern Dutch "erfde" in the past tense, is seen in Old Norse "arf". In both cases the "F" alternates with "V/B" in other forms. The Old English "F" may be seen as an influence from Old Norse, language in which it has not conquered all ground, leaving it in the end to the original B/V".

     

    It is useful to add to this that in Celtic languages a root "O - R - B" is rather common. The probable conclusion for Proto-Germanic is for "to inherit" a form "*IE - R - B" , changing into "*A/E - R - B/V". For "to obtain" the opening " W " should have been there in "W È R B/V". It remains unclear how precisely the two split up.

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. The existing hypothesis is "W È R-" . This seems right on the basis of the information from Latin and Germanic. Regretfully we have no corroborating information from other branches of Indo-European.

 

 

 

 
"...the town, to which was given the name Babel, because it was there that the Lord confused the language of all the world on the face of which He dispersed them. GENESIS 11,9"
 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 18/12/2012 at 11.55.07