On the etymology of the Latvian comparative vaĩrs, vaĩrâk
On the etymology of the Latvian comparative vaĩrs, vaĩrâk

Summary/Abstract: Latvian is the only Baltic language that presents a suppletive variation between a positive and a comparative: adverb daũdz ‘much’ / vaĩrs or vaĩrâk ‘more’. The question arises whether this composite paradigm is an innovative feature of the Latvian language or could be traced back to Proto-Baltic, and any answer to this question is strongly dependent on how we explain the origin of the Latvian comparative vaĩrs, vaĩrâk. The aim of this paper is to propose a new etymology for vaĩrs and to shed some light on the prehistory of this suppletive variation that appears to be unique in the Baltic languages

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