ᛊᚹᛖᛊᛏᚨᚱ

Proto-Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *swestēr, from Proto-Indo-European *swésōr.

The form is often seen as problematic, since the expected nominative form would be *ᛊᚹᛖᛊᛏᛖᚱ (*swester), and this is the form required as the ancestor to Old Norse systir. Stiles 1984 proposes that *ᛊᚹᛖᛊᛏᚨᚱ (*swestar) is an inherited vocative form, descended from Proto-Germanic *swester^[1] with a regular development of unstressed short */e/ > /a/ before /r/, as seen for instance in Old Norse hvaðarr, from Proto-Germanic *hwaþeraz.^[2]

Noun

ᛊᚹᛖᛊᛏᚨᚱ (swestar) f (vocative singular)

sister
- c. 200–450 AD, inscription on the Opedal Runestone^[3]
  ᛒᛁᚱᚷᛜᚷᚢᛒᛟᚱᛟᛊᚹᛖᛊᛏᚨᚱᛗᛁᚾᚢ ¶ ᛚᛖᚢᛒᚢᛗᛖᛉ ᛬ ᚹᚨᚷᛖ
  birgŋguboroswestarminu ¶ leubumeʀ : wage
  /birg, Ingubōrō, swestar mīnu leubu, mēʀ, Wāgē!/
  O Ingubōrō, my beloved sister, preserve me, Wāgaz!

Descendants

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

References

^ Stiles, Patrick V. (1984), On the Interpretation of Older Runic Swestar on the Opedal Stone (URL)
^ Heusler, Andreas (1921), Altisländisches Elementarbuch. 2. Auflage. Heidelberg: §113 (URL)
^ Inscription/entry N KJ76 in the RuneS-Database ot the research project Runic Writing in the Germanic Languages (RuneS) of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony, 2025.

[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)

[3] Inscription/entry N KJ76 in the RuneS-Database ot the research project Runic Writing in the Germanic Languages (RuneS) of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony, 2025.

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