The etymology of annus ‘year’ is straightforward, in the light of Got. aþna- (Thurneysen 1904:23), Oscan aceneis (gen. s.) Umbr. acnu ‘annos’, Skr. átati ‘‘goes, walks’, from a root *at- ‘gehen, Jahr’ (IEW 69): presumably, the ‘year’ as a temporal, full course (cf. Ohg. jār from *ey- ‘go’; IEW 297). A sequence *at-no-s > annus is thus widely accepted (WH; DELL; De Vaan 2008). The interpretation of ānus ‘circle; ring’, however, is not unanimous: Pokorny reconstructs a root āno- ‘Ring’ (IEW 47), solely on the basis of Arm. anur and OIr. áinne ‘ring’ (followed by de Vaan 2008; Schrijver 1991:53). DELL is dubious, but it remarks that annus and ānus (also ) have been associated by a “faux rapport étymologique”. In fact, the basis for such an IE “root” is weak: the IE form yielding áinne is not unequivocal and Vendryes inclines for a Latin loanword (LEIA); Arm. anur is also disputed and Martirosyan 2010 seems to opt for a “substratum word”. The etymology offered by Walde is apparently better grounded (“zu ancus... Gdf. *anc-no-... vgl. ai. akná-ḥ ‘gebogen’; WH), but it presents formal and semantic flaws as well. On the other hand, the hypothesis of an etymological relation between annus and ānus is already in Varro (LL 6.8: Tempus a bruma ad brumam dum sol redit, vocatur annus, quod ut parvi circuli anuli, sic magni dicebantur circites ani, unde annus), but in modern scholarship, in the main, it has fallen out of favour; arguably, if not else, because of the difficulty to explain the phonetic discrepancy of these two forms (from the same matrix *at-no-s?). Nonetheless, the whole issue may be considered within the wider frame of the several alternations of this kind that we find in Latin (i.e. V:C/ VCC), the most emblematic example being the phenomena of the so-called “littera-rule” (mainly connected with sequences of high vowels and a voiceless stop). Light on this topic has been shed, among others, by Benedetti 1996, who remarks the relevance of sociolinguistic factors and offers a detailed phonetic analysis (e.g., roots featuring original diphthongs appear to be primarily involved; cf. also Weiss 2009 and his further contributions on the matter; Sen 2015). Problems similar to those of annus - ānus, however, seem to characterize also a debated doublet such as penna (< *pet-na?) - arc. Lat. pesna (> *pēna being the expected result; cf. cēna; DELL s.v. penna), as well as others. A contribution on these alternations by Christol (2008:121-2) supports the hypothesis of an etymological link between annus and ānus. In this contribution, I evaluate weak and strong points of the different hypotheses advanced thus far, with a particular focus on factors such as the high / low regularity of the phonetic phenomena involved, sociolinguistic aspects, the phonetic development displayed by Sabellic *akno- (Brugmann 1905:492; Meiser 1986:96), etc., in order to figure out the less onerous explanation in terms of internal / external reconstruction.
“On the etymological relation between annus and ānus”
andrea nuti
2021-01-01
Abstract
The etymology of annus ‘year’ is straightforward, in the light of Got. aþna- (Thurneysen 1904:23), Oscan aceneis (gen. s.) Umbr. acnu ‘annos’, Skr. átati ‘‘goes, walks’, from a root *at- ‘gehen, Jahr’ (IEW 69): presumably, the ‘year’ as a temporal, full course (cf. Ohg. jār from *ey- ‘go’; IEW 297). A sequence *at-no-s > annus is thus widely accepted (WH; DELL; De Vaan 2008). The interpretation of ānus ‘circle; ring’, however, is not unanimous: Pokorny reconstructs a root āno- ‘Ring’ (IEW 47), solely on the basis of Arm. anur and OIr. áinne ‘ring’ (followed by de Vaan 2008; Schrijver 1991:53). DELL is dubious, but it remarks that annus and ānus (also ) have been associated by a “faux rapport étymologique”. In fact, the basis for such an IE “root” is weak: the IE form yielding áinne is not unequivocal and Vendryes inclines for a Latin loanword (LEIA); Arm. anur is also disputed and Martirosyan 2010 seems to opt for a “substratum word”. The etymology offered by Walde is apparently better grounded (“zu ancus... Gdf. *anc-no-... vgl. ai. akná-ḥ ‘gebogen’; WH), but it presents formal and semantic flaws as well. On the other hand, the hypothesis of an etymological relation between annus and ānus is already in Varro (LL 6.8: Tempus a bruma ad brumam dum sol redit, vocatur annus, quod ut parvi circuli anuli, sic magni dicebantur circites ani, unde annus), but in modern scholarship, in the main, it has fallen out of favour; arguably, if not else, because of the difficulty to explain the phonetic discrepancy of these two forms (from the same matrix *at-no-s?). Nonetheless, the whole issue may be considered within the wider frame of the several alternations of this kind that we find in Latin (i.e. V:C/ VCC), the most emblematic example being the phenomena of the so-called “littera-rule” (mainly connected with sequences of high vowels and a voiceless stop). Light on this topic has been shed, among others, by Benedetti 1996, who remarks the relevance of sociolinguistic factors and offers a detailed phonetic analysis (e.g., roots featuring original diphthongs appear to be primarily involved; cf. also Weiss 2009 and his further contributions on the matter; Sen 2015). Problems similar to those of annus - ānus, however, seem to characterize also a debated doublet such as penna (< *pet-na?) - arc. Lat. pesna (> *pēna being the expected result; cf. cēna; DELL s.v. penna), as well as others. A contribution on these alternations by Christol (2008:121-2) supports the hypothesis of an etymological link between annus and ānus. In this contribution, I evaluate weak and strong points of the different hypotheses advanced thus far, with a particular focus on factors such as the high / low regularity of the phonetic phenomena involved, sociolinguistic aspects, the phonetic development displayed by Sabellic *akno- (Brugmann 1905:492; Meiser 1986:96), etc., in order to figure out the less onerous explanation in terms of internal / external reconstruction.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
