Griechisch ἦμαρ, ἡμέρα 'Tag' und der Spiritus asper

Abstract

The Greek ἦμαρ and the Armenian awr, both meaning 'day', are uniformly considered to be cognates without further correspondences within Indo-European. There is, however, no consensus with respect to the details of this etymological connection. The connection between ἦμαρ and ἡμέρα has thus far not found a satisfying solution concerning the origin of the rough breathing of the latter. Drawing and elaborating on an etymology proposed for awr and ἦμαρ by Klingenschmitt (1982), it will be shown that the spiritus asper of ἡμέρα can be traced back to the underlying Proto-Indo-European etymon. This in turn validates the reconstruction of the word for 'day' in Greek and Armenian as going back to the Proto-Indo-European root *h2 eh1 s- 'be hot, burn'.