On the etymology of the Latvian comparative vaĩrs, vaĩrâk

Latvian is the only Baltic language that presents a suppletive variation between a positive and a comparative: adverb daudz ‘much’ / vairs or vairak ‘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 vairs, vairak. The aim of this paper is to propose a new etymology for vairs and to shed some light on the prehistory of this suppletive variation that appears to be unique in the Baltic languages.