Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/bebru

This Proto-West Germanic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-West Germanic

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *bebruz.

Noun

*bebru m^[1]

beaver

Inflection

u-stem
	Singular
Nominative	*bebru
Genitive	*bebrau
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	*bebru	*bibriwi
Accusative	*bebru	*bebrū
Genitive	*bebrau	*bibriwō
Dative	*bibriwi	*bebrum
Instrumental	*bebru	*bebrum

Descendants

Old English: befer, beofor, byfor, bebr, bebir, beber, befor, beofer, beuer
- Middle English: bever, beauver, beever, befer, beofer, beuver, bevere, bevre, bevyr, bevyre, bewer, byvre
  - English: beaver
  - Scots: bever, baiver
  - → Irish: béabhar
Old Frisian: *bever
- North Frisian: biiber (or from German?)
- West Frisian: bever
Old Saxon: biƀar, biƀor
- Middle Low German: bēver
  - Low German: Bever
  - Plautdietsch: Bieba (or from German?)
  - → Faroese: bævur
  - → Norwegian:
    - Norwegian Bokmål: bever
    - Norwegian Nynorsk: bever
  - → Old Swedish: bæver
    - Swedish: bäver
  - → Old Danish: biauær
    - Danish: bæver
    - → Icelandic: bifur
  - → Elfdalian: bäver
  - → Gutnish: bävar
Old Dutch: *bevar
- Middle Dutch: bēver
  - Dutch: bever
    - Afrikaans: bewer
  - Limburgish: baever
Old High German: bibar, bibur
- Middle High German: biber
  - German: Biber
    - → Luxembourgish: Biber
  - Hunsrik: Biver
  - Yiddish: ביבער (biber)
→ Old French: bievre (see there for further descendants)

References

^ Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “beber”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 1: A–B, page 304: “*bebru”

[1] Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “beber”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 1: A–B, page 304: “*bebru”

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