ᛊᚹᛖᛊᛏᚨᚱ

Proto-Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *swestēr, from Proto-Indo-European *swésōr. Often seen as problematic, the expected nominative form would be *ᛊᚹᛖᛊᛏᛖᚱ (*swester). Stiles 1984 proposes it be a vocative, descended from Proto-Germanic vocative form *swester[1] with regular development of unstressed short /e/ > /a/, as in Old Norse hvaðarr, from Proto-Germanic *hwaþeraz.[2]

Noun

ᛊᚹᛖᛊᛏᚨᚱ (swestar) f (vocative singular)

  1. sister
    • early 5th century, inscription on the Opedal Rune Stone:
      ᛚᛖᚢᛒᚢᛗᛖᛉ᛬ᚹᚨᚷᛖ ¶ ᛒᛁᚱᚷᛜᚷᚢᛒᛟᚱᛟᛊᚹᛖᛊᛏᚨᚱᛗᛁᚾᚢ
      leubumez:wage ¶ birgŋguboroswestarminu
      leubumeʀ᛬wage ¶ birgŋguboroswestarminu
      leubumez:wage ¶ birgŋguboroswestarminu
      [She is] dear to me, Wagaʀ. / [???] Boro my sister!

Descendants
  • Old Norse: systir
    • Icelandic: systir
    • Faroese: systir
    • Norwegian Bokmål: søster
    • Norwegian Nynorsk: syster
    • Old Swedish: systir
    • Danish: søster
    • Old Gutnish: systir
      • Gutnish: systar

References
  1. Stiles, Patrick V. (1984), On the Interpretation of Older Runic Swestar on the Opedal Stone (URL)
  2. Heusler, Andreas (1921), Altisländisches Elementarbuch. 2. Auflage. Heidelberg: §113 (URL)
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