Börje

Börje is an old Swedish male name.[1] It is a cognate of Birger;[1] Börje is the form that has developed naturally according to the sound change laws of Swedish,[1] whilst Birger is a literary form that has been common since the nineteenth century, when archaic forms of names became fashionable.

Etymology

The etymology of Börje is uncertain.[2] Probably[1] it is a short form of names beginning with Berg‐.[2] Less likely[1] it means ”helper”,[2] from the verb bärga.[1][2] It has also been suggested that it is derived from the name element ‑ger (spear).[2]

Sound changes

Börje developed from Old Swedish Birghir which was pronounced with a voiced velar fricative [ɣ]: [birɣir]. The voiced velar fricative was spelled ⟨gh⟩ i Old Swedish[3] and changed to /j/ after /r/ in modern Svenska.

Börje is an ija‑stem.[4] Ija‑stems ended in ‑ir i Old Swedish, which regularly developed into a word final ‑e in modern Swedish. This explains why Börje has accent 2 today: since the synkope at the transition from Proto-norse to Norse the name has been disyllabic, which leads to a word being pronounced with the grave accent in modern Swedish. Hence, the vowel in the second syllable of old Swedish Birghir or Birgher was no svarabhakti vowel like the ‑e‑ in modern Swedish words such as the a‑stem dager, which at one stage was monosyllabic (dagr) and therefore has accent 1.

The first vowel ‑i‑ of Birghir between a b and an r changed into an ‑y‑ and then into an ‑ö‑.[1] The vowel was ‑i‑ labialised by the influence of the initial /b/.[3]

The form Birger

The form Birger has been revived from the old language within the last 200 years.[1] This "revived" form has accent 1, like an a‑stem with a nominative suffix consisting of the svarabhakti‐vowel ‑e‑ plus ‑r. Swedish names revived during romanticism commonly take a historically unjustified pronunciation.

Popularity

Börje was very common as a given name in 1930–49.[2] Today it is almost never given as a first name that is used to address the person.[5] In 2017 approximately 7 500 persons had the name as their first name or name of address.[5]

Name day in Sweden: 9 June).

People with the given name Börje

References
  1. Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok. Lund 1922.
  2. "Birger: Institutet för språk och folkminnen".
  3. Elias Wessén, Svensk språkhistoria I: Ljudlära och ordböjningslära. Fourth edition. Stockholm 1955.
  4. Ragnvald Iversen, Norrøn grammatikk. Seventh edition, revised by Eyvind Fjeld Halvorsen. Oslo 1973.
  5. "Sök på namn: Statistiska centralbyrån".
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