Norse AEsir and Vedic Asura.

[Peter D Banos]

On Thu, 26 Oct 1995, Anshuman Pandey wrote:
 
> Is the Norse word for god, AEsir, a cognate of the Vedic, Asura? Does 
> the AE in AEsir represent a negation of the word sir, as the a does for 
> asura? I am wondering this because asura and AEsir are names for the 
> older generation of deities in the Vedic writings and Eddic and other 
> Norse writing, and am curious to know whether there is any common ground 
> between the two.

Hmmn.
I'll have to check, but my impression is that in "AEsir" the 
"AEs" is really the root of the word, and "-ir" merely a plural ending.
Old Norse tends to have -r in its endings where Greek and Latin have -s 
and Skt has visarga (which also turns into -r under the right conditions!)

							-Peter D. Banos
							pdb1 at columbia.edu