Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/korľь

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This Proto-Slavic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Slavic

Etymology

Generally agreed to derive from Old High German Karl, name of the Frankish ruler Charlemagne (742-814) who ruled the western areas of Slavdom, from Proto-Germanic *karilaz (“free man”).

Extended derivation:

  • Old High German Karl > Late Proto-Slavic *kõrľь

The shift from hard o-stem to the soft jo-stem, as outlined in the chronology above, has several theories of origin:

  • Holzer explains the j-suffix as originating from a substantivized possessive adjective
  • Schenker suggests analogical replacement after agent nouns ending in *-teľь or other words denoting leaders such as *cěsařь and *kъnędzь
  • Pronk-Tiethoff suggests the final *-ľь is due to the fact that Proto-Slavs likely perceived the Old High German final consonant as soft, similarly as in the loanword *grędeľь.

The word has been described as "without doubt the most famous Germanic loanword in Slavic" (Pronk-Tiethoff 2013) due to the fact that it's the only loanword in Slavic that can actually be dated, thus giving clues to the absolute dating of Proto-Slavic phonological developments. The fact that it regularly underwent historical Proto-Slavic sound laws, and that it's reflected in all three branches, is one of the chief indications to date Late Proto-Slavic (Common Slavic) to the ninth century.

However, this is comparatively late (only a century before Old Church Slavonic manuscripts were written), so other etymologies have been suggested:

  • Holzer derives it from the name of the Frankish ruler Charles Martel (688-741). The issue with this theory is that Charles Martel was not particularly important to the contemporary Slavs.
  • Stender-Petersen derives it from Proto-Germanic *kar(i)laz (“free man”) (Old High German karl (“man”)) with a semantic shift explained as "very ordinary".

These theories are generally thought of as less convincing than from Karl "Charlemagne", who was an actual king of (some) Slavs.

Noun

*kõrľь m[1][2]

  1. king

Inflection

Declension of *kõrľь (soft o-stem, accent paradigm b)
singular dual plural
nominative *kõrľь *kōrľà *kōrľì
genitive *kōrľà *kōrľù *kõrľь
dative *kōrľù *kōrľèma *kõrľemъ
accusative *kõrľь *kōrľà *kōrľę̇̀
instrumental *kōrľь̀mь, *kōrľèmь* *kōrľèma *kõrľi
locative *kōrľì *kōrľù *kõrľixъ
vocative *korľu *kōrľà *kōrľì
* -ьmь in North Slavic, -emь in South Slavic.

Derived terms

Descendants

Further reading

  • Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “король”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
  • Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1984), “*korl'ь”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 11 (*konьcь – *kotьna(ja)), Moscow: Nauka, page 82
  • Pronk-Tiethoff, Saskia E. (2013) The Germanic loanwords in Proto-Slavic‎[2], Amsterdam - New York: Rodopi, →ISBN, page 111ff

References

  1. ^ Olander, Thomas (2001) “korljь”, in Common Slavic Accentological Word List‎[1], Copenhagen: Editiones Olander: “b (SA 174, 199; PR 134; MP 19)”
  2. ^ Snoj, Marko (2016) “králj”, in Slovenski etimološki slovar [Slovenian Etymology Dictionary] (in Slovene), 3rd edition, https://fran.si: “*korl'ь̏”
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