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Numerous lexemes that are reconstructable for Proto-Slavic have been identified as borrowings from the languages of various tribes that Proto-Slavic speakers interacted with in either prehistoric times or during their expansion when they first appeared in history in the sixth century (the Common Slavic period). [1] Most of the loanwords come from Germanic languages, with other contributors being Iranian, Celtic, and Turkic. Slavic loanwords sparked numerous debates in the 20th century, some of which persist today.
Linguists Max Vasmer and Oleg Trubachyov compiled and published academic dictionaries on Slavic languages that are used worldwide in academia and are considered the most accurate sources for Slavic etymology. [2] [3] Another etymological dictionary written by G.P. Cyganenko takes a more modern look at the theories presented by Vasmer and others, and mostly explains origins for words that are most common and is not as extensive as the works of Vasmer or Trubachev. [4]
Slavs in the Proto-Slavic era came into contact with various Iranian tribes, namely Scythians, Sarmatians, and Alans, who were present in vast regions of eastern and southeastern Europe in the first centuries CE. The names of two large rivers in the centre of Slavic expansion, Dnieper and Dniester, are of Iranian origin, and Iranian toponyms are found as far west as modern-day Romania. [5]
For a long time there have been investigators who believe that the number of loanwords from Iranian languages in Proto-Slavic is substantial. However, other Slavists claimed that confirmed Iranianisms in Slavic are few in number, and Ranko Matasović has raised broad objections to the body of past Iranianist research. Antoine Meillet and André Vaillant explain the alleged lack of Iranianisms in Slavic: "the civilization of warrior and partially nomadic tribes, like Scythian and Sarmatian, could have exerted only a cursory influence on the patriarchal civilization of Slavs". [6]
Matasović criticizes Zbigniew Gołąb's approach as "methodologically unacceptable", emphasizing that initial *x- in Slavic has several sources, some of which have been ascertained (like PIE *#ks-) [7] and others which have not. [8] Matasović recommends that instances of initial *x- in Slavic should first be explained by recourse to regular Slavic sound laws, and that Iranian should be proposed as a source if and only if the etymon has been attested in Iranian, and if and only if there is additional phonetic evidence to support the proposal. [5] [1]
Meillet and Vaillant considered that the semasiological development of the Proto-Slavic word for god was an Iranianism. In both Slavic and Indo-Iranian, the root that denotes deity also denotes wealth, share (Proto-Slavic *bagu > Common Slavic *bogъ) and Indo-Iranian (Old Persian baga , Sanskrit bhága ). [9]
One of the Iranian-Slavic lexical isoglosses is a lone adposition: Old Persian rādiy , OCS radi . [5]
It is uncertain when Proto-Slavic speakers first came into contact with Germanic tribes: among Common Balto-Slavic words that have centum reflexes, none of them have typical Germanic sound-features. As for Baltic languages, all their prehistoric Germanic loanwords either come from Slavic or are borrowed from Old Norse or Proto-Norse; i.e., borrowed during a period well after Slavic prehistory (which ended c. 600 CE). The conclusion is that the speakers of Germanic must have lived far from the area of the subsequent spread of speakers of Proto-Balto-Slavic. [10] Gothic loanwords into Slavic (as opposed to Baltic) occur much more frequently. [11]
There follows a list of words which are generally held to be Germanic loanwords in Proto-Slavic: [1] [12]
This set of loanwords covers diverse semantic fields, fields from which languages readily borrow words: buildings (*xūzu,*tūnu); terrain features (*xulmu, *bergu); social interaction and societal structure (*pulku, *želdān, *kōpītej, *činda); animals and cattle (*asilu, *skatu).
By the time Slavs start to appear in historical records, Celtic languages were already limited to the British Isles and modern-day France. However, during the age of classical antiquity, Celts populated the regions of Central Europe in which Slavs spread in the 6th and the 7th century, there may have been Celtic languages speakers in the regions of Slavic expansion. [18] Two likely examples of direct borrowings from Celtic are
Ancient Greek words in Proto-Slavic are identified through phonetic features, some related to Greek phonetic history, others possibly Scythian-Sarmatian or Gothic mediations. Non-mediated Ancient Greek words are korablja (ark), koliba (cottage, hut), and supposedly trem (porch); Scythian mediations are luk (onion), haluga (fence), koš (basket), talog (dregs), kurva (whore); supposedly Gothic mediations are crkva (church) and daska (plank). [27]
Speculations as to contacts between Proto-Slavic speakers and other Indo-European languages are frequent in the literature on Slavic historical linguistics. Proposals include the Italic, Illyrian, Thracian, [28] Venetic, and Armenian languages.
[...] it is clear that Gothic loanwords into Slavonic are much more frequent than into Baltic and cover a much wider and varied range. The chronology of these loans falls into three distinct stages. An early stage (Primitive Germanic or [...] 'pre-Gothic' -...]. [...] By contrast, the bulk of the loanwords must come later, from the time when the Černjahov culture saw the Goths in closer and more protracted relationship with the Slavs. [...] Finally, some loans from Gothic into Slavonic may come even later, from a period when the Goths had penetrated into the Balkans and the expansion of the Slavs had brought their southern branch into contact with them in this region.
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Early Middle Ages, which in turn is thought to have descended from the earlier Proto-Balto-Slavic language, linking the Slavic languages to the Baltic languages in a Balto-Slavic group within the Indo-European family.
The Balto-Slavic languages form a branch of the Indo-European family of languages, traditionally comprising the Baltic and Slavic languages. Baltic and Slavic languages share several linguistic traits not found in any other Indo-European branch, which points to a period of common development and origin.
The ruki sound law, also known as the ruki rule or iurk rule, is a historical sound change that took place in the satem branches of the Indo-European language family, namely in Balto-Slavic, Armenian, and Indo-Iranian. According to this sound law, an original *s changed to *š after the consonants *r, *k, *g, *gʰ and the semi-vowels *w (*u̯) and *y (*i̯), as well as the syllabic allophones *r̥, *i, and *u:
Iriy, Vyrai, Vyriy, or Irij is a mythical place in Slavic mythology where "birds fly for the winter and souls go after death" that is sometimes identified with paradise. Spring is believed to have arrived on Earth from Vyrai.
Proto-Balto-Slavic is a reconstructed hypothetical proto-language descending from Proto-Indo-European (PIE). From Proto-Balto-Slavic, the later Balto-Slavic languages are thought to have developed, composed of the Baltic and Slavic sub-branches, and including modern Lithuanian, Polish, Russian and Serbo-Croatian, among others.
An etymological dictionary discusses the etymology of the words listed. Often, large dictionaries, such as the Oxford English Dictionary and Webster's, will contain some etymological information, without aspiring to focus on etymology.
*Perkʷūnos is the reconstructed name of the weather god in Proto-Indo-European mythology. The deity was connected with fructifying rains, and his name was probably invoked in times of drought. In a widespread Indo-European myth, the thunder-deity fights a multi-headed water-serpent during an epic battle in order to release torrents of water that had previously been pent up. The name of his weapon, *ml̥dʰnis, which denoted both "lightning" and "hammer", can be reconstructed from the attested traditions.
Oleg Nikolayevich Trubachyov was a Russian linguist. A researcher of the etymology of Slavic languages and Slavic onomastics, he was considered a specialist in historical linguistics and lexicography. He was a Doctor of Sciences in Philological Sciences, an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and served as the editor-in-chief of the Etimologiya yearbook. His works are on the etymology of Slavic languages and on East Slavic onomastics.
Winter's law, named after Werner Winter, who postulated it in 1978, is a proposed sound law operating on Balto-Slavic short vowels */e/, */o/, */a/, */i/ and */u/ according to which they lengthen before unaspirated voiced stops, and that syllable gains rising, acute accent.
The Slavic liquid metathesis refers to the phenomenon of metathesis of liquid consonants in the Common Slavic period in the South Slavic and West Slavic area. The closely related corresponding phenomenon of pleophony occurred in parallel in the East Slavic languages.
The Indo-European Etymological Dictionary is a research project of the Department of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics at Leiden University, initiated in 1991 by Peter Schrijver and others. It is financially supported by the Faculty of Humanities and Centre for Linguistics of Leiden University, Brill Publishers, and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research.
The non-native name of Croatia derives from Medieval Latin Croātia, itself a derivation of the native ethnonym of Croats, earlier *Xъrvate and modern-day Croatian: Hrvati. The earliest preserved mentions of the ethnonym in stone inscriptions and written documents in the territory of Croatia are dated to the 8th-9th century, but it is of an earlier date due to lack of preserved historical evidence as the arrival of the Croats is historically and archaeologically dated to the 6th-7th century. The ethnonym of the Croats with many derivative toponyms and anthroponyms became widespread all over Europe.
Proto-Indo-European accent refers to the accentual (stress) system of the Proto-Indo-European language.
In linguistics, Illič-Svityč's law refers to two Proto-Slavic rules, named after Vladislav Illich-Svitych who first identified and explained them.
The Slavic first palatalization is a Proto-Slavic sound change that manifested as regressive palatalization of inherited Balto-Slavic velar consonants.
The Slavic second palatalization is a Proto-Slavic sound change that manifested as a regressive palatalization of inherited Balto-Slavic velar consonants that occurred after the first and before the third Slavic palatalizations.
Osthoff's law is an Indo-European sound law which states that long vowels shorten when followed by a resonant, followed in turn by another consonant. It is named after German Indo-Europeanist Hermann Osthoff, who first formulated it.
The boukólos rule is a phonological rule of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). It states that a labiovelar stop dissimilates to an ordinary velar stop next to the vowel *u or its corresponding glide *w.
The Slavic ethnonym, Slavs, is reconstructed in Proto-Slavic as *Slověninъ, plural Slověně. The earliest written references to the Slav ethnonym are in other languages.
Svarog is a Slavic god of fire and smithing mentioned in the Slavic translation of the Chronicle of John Malalas found in the Primary Chronicle as the Slavic equivalent of the Greek god Hephaestus.
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