-եր

See also: Appendix:Variations of "er"

Armenian

Etymology

From Old Armenian -եար (-ear), which was used for forming collective nouns, e.g. նաւկնեար (nawknear, “boats”), քաջորեար (kʻaǰorear, “brave men”), etc.

Pronunciation

(Eastern Armenian) IPA^(key): /eɾ/, [eɾ]
(Western Armenian) IPA^(key): /eɾ/, [eɾ]

Suffix

-եր • (-er)

plural nominative case marker for monosyllabic words
շներ ― šner ― nominative plural of շուն (šun)

Usage notes

As Dum-Tragut writes, this plural formation is also applied to polysyllabic compound nouns the last element of which is a monosyllabic word, which is interpreted as nominal, e.g. հեռագիր (heṙagir, “telegraph”) : հեռագրեր (heṙagrer, “telegraphs”), պայմանագիր (paymanagir, “contract”) : պայմանագրեր (paymanagrer, “contracts”), etc. If, however, the monosyllabic lexeme (the last element of the compound) is interpreted as being deverbal, the plural suffix -ներ (-ner) must be used, e.g. դասատու (dasatu, “teacher”) from -տու (-tu) from տալ (tal, “to give”) : դասատուներ (dasatuner, “teachers”), պատմագիր (patmagir, “historian”) from -գիր (-gir) from գրել (grel, “to write”) : պատմագիրներ (patmagirner, “historians”), etc.

References

Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009) Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian (London Oriental and African Language Library; 14), Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, page 64

Old Armenian

Suffix

-եր • (-er)

Alternative form of -եար (-ear)