Wiktionary:About Proto-Balto-Slavic

This is a Wiktionary policy, guideline or common practices page. Specifically it is a policy think tank, working to develop a formal policy. Policies – Entries: CFI - EL - NORM - NPOV - QUOTE - REDIR - DELETE. Languages: LT - AXX. Others: BLOCK - BOTS - VOTES.

This page contains guidelines for Proto-Balto-Slavic reconstructions - notation, templates, and formatting. Proto-Slavic reconstructions are created in the Appendix namespace, as subpages, e.g. Appendix:Proto-Balto-Slavic/báʔbáʔ for the reconstruction *báʔbáʔ.

Balto-Slavic protolanguage is still an active topic of research, and there is no consensus among historical linguists on how it looks like. Different authors use different symbols, reconstruct different phonemic inventory and morphology. Wiktionary entries on Proto-Balto-Slavic reflect this by including all of the reconstructions as equivalent in the headword line (see below).

Notation

Follow the notation used by the authors without exceptions. For masculine nouns and adjectives, if only a bare stem is provided, add the nominative singular ending *-s. For neuter nouns (which are reconstructed with various endings) and the feminine, use the exact notation as the author.

When accent can be reconstructed write it in the page title, i.e. with acute and circumflex symbols on vowels.

Don't add the supposed infinitive ending on the verbal stem *-tei/*-tej/*-tey unless the source does it as well. The existence and nature of Proto-Balto-Slavic infinitive is disputed.

If there are multiple reconstructions from different sources, all of them should be reflected in page name, listed (in no particular order) one after the other. E.g. Template:term/t. This is done to enforce neutral point of view, by not giving precedence to any particular reconstruction of the Balto-Slavic protolanguage.

Nouns

The following is a template for new nouns with only one reconstruction:

{{reconstructed}}
==Proto-Slavic==

===Etymology===

===Noun===
{{ine-bsl-noun|}}

# {{l|en|}}

The first optional positional parameter to the template {{ine-bsl-noun}} is the gender. Additional parameter g2= can be used to indicate plurality in case of singularia/pluralia tantum.

The following is a template for new nouns with two different reconstructions, e.g. from the entry Template:term/t:

==Proto-Balto-Slavic==

===Etymology===

===Noun===
{{ine-bsl-noun|m|head=*źombos}} (Derksen 2008:549) or {{ine-bsl-noun|m|head=*žambas}} (Smoczyński 2007:773)

# {{l|en|}}

Node the usage of head= parameter to specify the exact form of reconstruction (which cannot be determined from page name in this case), and the reference for it in parentheses, with author and page number.

Etymologies

Etymologies are added as a L3 header. If the editor doesn't know anything at all about the etymology of Proto-Balto-Slavic reconstruction, he should use the following template to request it:

===Etymology===
{{rfe|lang=ine-bsl-pro}}

Template for inheritance from Proto-Indo-European:

===Etymology===
From {{etyl|ine-pro|ine-bsl-pro}} {{term/t|ine-pro|*}}.

Descendants

Descendants are added as a L4 header. The following is a template that can be copy pasted in new entries:

====Descendants====
* East Baltic:
** Latgalian: {{l|ltg|}}
** Latvian: {{l|lv|}}
** Lithuanian: {{l|lt|}}
** Samogitian: {{l|sga|}}
* West Baltic:
** Old Prussian: {{l|prg|}}
** Sudovian: {{l|xsv|}}
* Slavic: {{l|sla-pro|*}}
* Other:
** Finnish: {{l|fi|}}

Guidelines:

• Slavic cognates are listed only as a Proto-Slavic reconstruction.
• The final clade Other: is for non-Balto-Slavic languages that the word has been borrowed into, and for which the exact origin cannot be determined, usually due to the fact that the word has been borrowed in prehistoric times, or when individual Balto-Slavic languages as they are understood today didn't exist. These are sorted alphabetically.

References

References should be provided in the L3 section called ===References=== at the end of the entry.

Available references are listed in the following table:

Dictionaries of Proto-Slavic
Reference template	Work	Notes
{{R:Derksen 2008|}}	Rick Derksen (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Brill: Leiden-Boston, 2008	The first positional parameter is page number.
{{R:lt:SEJL|}}	Wojciech Smoczyński (2007), Słownik etymologiczny je̜zyka litewskiego, Uniwersytet Wileński: Wilno	The first positional parameter is page number.
{{R:Kim PBS|}}	Ronald Kim (forth.), The phonology of Balto-Slavic, In: Handbook of Indo-European Studies, ed. M. Weiss & A. Garrett, OUP	The first positional parameter is page number.