Proto-Indo-European Roots
| Root/Stem: | *bhrátér- |
| Meaning: | a brother |
| Cognates: | |
| Hellenic | Greek phratér (a brother), phrátór (a member of the brotherhood), phratria (a community) |
| Italic | Latin frater (a brother), Oscan fratrúm
(a brother; acc.sg.), Umbrian fratrom (a brother; acc.sg.), frater
(brothers; nom.pl); French frère (a brother), Romanian frate, Megleno-Romanian frati, Istroromanian frote |
| Celtic | Common Celtic *bratér, > Gaulish Bratronius (personal name), Old Irish brathir, Irish bráthair, Scottish Gaelic bràthir, Welsh brawd, pl. brodyr, Cornish broder, pl. bredereth, Breton breur, breuzr, pl. breudeur |
| Indic | Sanskrit bhrátár- (a brother), bhrátra- (brotherhood) |
| Dardic | Khowar brar (a brother) |
| Iranian | Avestan & Old Persian brátar- (a brother) |
| Anatolian | Lydian brafr- (a member of the community) |
| Armenian el'bair (a brother), gen. el'baur | |
| Tocharic | Tocharian A pracar, B procer (a brother) |
| Balkan | Illyrian bra (a member of the community); Albanian vla (a brother) ?; Venetic vhraterei dat. 'to a brother' |
| Germanic | Germanic *bróder (a brother), > Gothic bróþar (a brother), Old English bróþor, Old High German bruoder, Old Norse broþir, German Bruder, Dutch broer, Scots brither |
| Baltic | Common Baltic *brat- (a brother), > Lithuanian brolis, Zhemaitian bro'tis, Latvian bralis, Old Prussian brati, brote (brother, brothers), Sudovian bra'te' |
| Slavic | Common Slavic *bratü (a brother), > Russian brat, Old Church Slavonic bratru, Czech & Upper Sorbian bratr, Lower Sorbian brats', Polish & Slovene & Belorussian & Ukrainian brat |
| Notes: | With this root we begin a series of Word-A-Weeks related to
family members. This set of words denoting relativeness is very popular in introductory
Indo-European courses - I believe words like this are the best example of the common roots
of all IE languages. They all - 'mother', 'father', 'sister', 'brather', 'daughter' - were
declined in the same way with the suffix *-er which is preserved in English
as well. Another characteristic feature is that these roots are very stable in all
branches, so even now they sound the same in a lot of different languages. In many languages of the East (Altaic, African etc.) there are different words for terms like 'elder brother' and 'younger brother'. Indo-European has only one brother, and this kind of analytic trend existed already in the Proto-language. |