Proto-Indo-European Roots

Proto-Indo-European Roots

Root/Stem:	*bher-

Meanings:	to bear, to carry, to take

Cognates:	Greek *pheró* 'I carry'
	Latin *feró* (I carry), *ferre* (to carry), Umbrian *ferest* (he carried), *fertu* (I carry), Volscian *ferom* (to carry), Marrucinian *feret* (he carries)
	Common Celtic ber-, ber-t- (to carry) > Old Irish *beru, berim* (I catch, I bring forth), Irish and Scottish Gaelic *beirim; Welsh cymmeryd* (to take, to accept), Breton *kemeret* - both come from com-ber- (to take with oneself), Cornish brys* (an idea, a thought)
	Common Germanic bér-, baer- (to carry, to bring) > Gothic bairan* (to carry), Old English and Old High German *beran, Old Norse bera, Old Saxon bára* (barrow), Dutch *berrie* (barrow), German *Bahre*
	Avestan *baraiti* (carries), Old Persian *barantiy* (they carry)
	Sanskrit *bharati* (carries)
	Albanian *bie* (I am bringing), *mbar, bar* (I carry)
	Phrygian *eber* (has brought), *abberet* (will bring) Armenian *berem* (I carry)
	Common Slavic **bero.* (I take), brati (to take) - a vowel interchange in the stem of this infinitive; > Church Slavic bïrati* (to take), Bulgarian *bera* (I take), Czech & Serbo-Croatian & Slovene *brati, Polish & Upper Sorbian braæ,* Lower Sorbian *bjeru* (I take), Russian *brat'* (to take), *beru* (I take), *bremya* (a burden)

Notes:	This is a very easy stem, used practically in every book about the comparative Indo-European studies. But does it become less valuable or interesting? It was a thematic verb in Proto-Indo-European, so it used thematic endings (-o instead of *-mi* in the 1st pers. sg. pres.) and a "thematic vowel" before it (e.g. *bher-e-s, ebher-o-nt). The only case it turned into athematic verbs is Old Irish, where two parallel forms shown above existed together. Armenian also has it with -m ending - but it's everywhere in Armenian. The verb meant not only "to carry" and "to bring" but also was associated with giving birth to a child. In English and German the trend is still seen: to be born, gebären* (to give birth). The very word "birth" is from that stem. This meaning is kept in a Russian word for "pregnant": *beremennaya. Dutch has preserved draagbaar* with the meaning "stretcher" - surely the same stem.