Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/pila

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

Probably borrowed from Proto-West Germanic *fį̄hlu or later Old Saxon fīla, from Proto-Germanic *finhlō.

Possibly related in some manner to Lithuanian peĩlis (“knife”), pielà (“file”), Old Prussian peile (“razor”):

• Būga, Endzelīns: Baltic terms borrowed from Slavic or both directly from Germanic.
• Fraenkel: Baltic and Slavic terms - cognates of Balto-Slavic origin, possibly akin to Latin pīlum (“javeline”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pey(s)-). At a later stage, semantically influenced by the Germanic terms.

Noun

*pĩlà or *pilà f

1. saw, file

Declension

Declension of *pīlà (hard a-stem, accent paradigm b)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*pīlà	*pĩlě	*pīlỳ
genitive	*pīlỳ	*pīlù	*pĩlъ
dative	*pīlě̀	*pīlàma	*pīlàmъ
accusative	*pīlǫ̀	*pĩlě	*pīlỳ
instrumental	*pīlòjǫ, *pĩlǫ**	*pīlàma	*pīlàmī
locative	*pīlě̀	*pīlù	*pīlàsъ, *pīlàxъ*
vocative	*pilo	*pĩlě	*pīlỳ

^* -asъ is the expected Balto-Slavic form but is found only in some Old Czech documents; -axъ is found everywhere else and is formed by analogy with other locative plurals in -xъ.
^** The second form occurs in languages that contract early across /j/ (e.g. Czech), while the first form occurs in languages that do not (e.g. Russian).

Declension of *pilà (hard a-stem, accent paradigm c)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*pilà	*pȋlě	*pȋly
genitive	*pilý	*pilù	*pĩlъ
dative	*pilě̀	*pilàma	*pilàmъ
accusative	*pȋlǫ	*pȋlě	*pȋly
instrumental	*pilojǫ́	*pilàma	*pilàmi
locative	*pȋlě	*pilù	*pilàsъ, *pilàxъ*
vocative	*pilo	*pȋlě	*pȋly

^* -asъ is the expected Balto-Slavic form but is found only in some Old Czech documents; -axъ is found everywhere else and is formed by analogy with other locative plurals in -xъ.

Derived terms

• *piliti (“to grind”)

Descendants

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: пила (pila)
    • Belarusian: піла́ (pilá)
    • Russian: пила́ (pilá)
    • Ukrainian: пила́ (pylá)
    • Carpathian Rusyn: пил'а (pylʺa)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic:

    Old Cyrillic script: пила (pila)

  • Bulgarian: пила́ (pilá); спила (spila) (dialectal)
  • Macedonian: пила (pila)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: пи́ла

    Latin script: píla

  • Slovene: píla (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Czech: pila
  • Polish: piła
  • Slovak: píla
  • Sorbian:
    • Lower Sorbian: piła
    • Upper Sorbian: piła

Further reading

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “пила́”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Duridanov, I. V., Racheva, M., Todorov, T. A., editors (1996), “пила”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volumes 5 (падѐж – пỳска), Sofia: Prof. Marin Drinov Pubg. House, →ISBN, page 234
• “piela”, in Lietuvių kalbos etimologinio žodyno duomenų bazė [Lithuanian etymological dictionary database], 2007–2012