Proto-Altaic: *ni̯ā́ŕ[à]
Meaning: young; spring, summer
Russian meaning: молодой; весна, лето
Comments: EAS 111, KW 277, Владимирцов 145-146, Poppe 38, 81, Martin 243, ОСНЯ 2, 84, АПиПЯЯ 74, Лексика 73-74. The Mong. form certainly cannot have a Turkic origin (despite Щербак 1997, 123). Doerfer (TMN 4, 67) attacks the etymology desperately ("Kor. njǝrɨm... ist lautlich ausgeschlossen"; "mo. nirai 'frisch' ist semantisch unklar"; "bei ma. ńarxun fragt es sich, ob es nicht ein Lw. < Mo. ist" (but isn't Mo. "semantisch unklar"?), etc. The root has indeed some problems: Mong. and Kor. reflect rather an assimilative variant *ni̯āŕi than *ni̯āŕa; but the comparison still remains quite reliable.
