Clauson (1972)
An etimological dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish
p. 353-354
bi:r
originally the Cardinal Number ‘one’; later attenuated, through such phr. as bi:r ne:p . . . bi:r ‘one thing . . . another’ to little more than an Indefinite Pron. Adj. ‘a, an’. C.i.a.p.a.l. Türkü viii bir is common, always as a Numeral, e.g. bir kişi: yaŋılsar ‘if one man goes astray’ (they exterminate the whole family) I S 6, II N 5; bir todsar a:çsık ömezsen ‘once you are satisfied, you do not remember being hungry’ I S 8, II N 6: viii ff. bir common as a Numeral IrkB 25 (bokursı:), etc.: Man. in a list of four seals in Chuas. 177 ff. they are enumerated as bir, ekinti, üçünç, törtünç; bir ikintike savlaşıp ‘conversing with one another’ TT II 8, 55-6; a.o.o. as a Numeral: Uyğ. viii bir iki atlığ ‘one or two horsemen’ Şu. E 5; a.o.o.: viii ff. Man., Bud., Civ. bir as a Numeral is common: O. Kır. ix ff. bir otuz yaşımda: ‘in my twenty-first year’ Mal. 15, 1; a.o.o.: Xak. xi bi:r al-wāḥid fi’l-‘adad the Numeral ‘one’; hence one says bi:r yarmak ‘one dirham’ Kaş. III 121; very common as a Numeral and in the phr. bi:r . . . bi:rke: e.g. III 403 (begze:-) and bir ikindi: ‘one another’: KB bir is common (1) as a Numeral, e.g. uğan bir bayatka ‘to the one almighty God’ 2; (2) more indefinitely meaning ‘a man’ e.g. 339 (1 bo:r): xiii(?) At. bir is common as a Numeral, and in such phr. as udu biri birke ‘one after another’ 14; bir ança bodun ‘a few people’ 123; Tef. bir (with 3rd Pers. Poss. Suff. biri/birisi) is common as a Numeral and in phr. like biri biri and bir ança 102: xiv Muh. al-wāḥid mina’l-‘adad bi:r Mel. 5, 14 ff.; Rif. 76; aḥad bi:r 81, 7; 186; afrada ‘to isolate’ bi:r ketü:r- 104 (only): Çağ. xv ff. bir bir, ‘adad ma‘nâsına Vel. 137; bir (and birer) yak ‘one’ San. 145v. 10: Xwar. xiii(?) bir ‘one; a’ is common in Oğ.: xiv bir ‘one; a; once’ Qutb 33; MN, 5, etc.; birin birin ‘one by one’ Qutb 33: Kom. xiv bir ‘one; a’; bir . . . bir ‘one . . . the other’; common CCI, CCG; Gr. 58 (quotns.): Kıp. xiii wāḥid bi:r Hou. 22, 2; ba‘du’l-ğad ‘the day after to-morrow’ birisi: kün do. 28, 12; al-a‘war bir közlü: that is ‘with one eye’ do. 26, 9: xiv bir wāḥid İd. 29; Bul. 12, 10; waraqa ‘a page’ in the phr. (‘every time you write) bir waraqa (I will give you a dirham’) Kav. 21, 21; bir ‘one, a’ is common in Tuh.