чьто

Old Church Slavonic

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *čьto. Formed with a particle attached to *čь, Proto-Balto-Slavic *ki, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷid, *kʷis.

Pronoun

чьто • (čĭto)

1. what (interrogative)

Declension

	Singular
nominative	чьто
genitive	чесо (чьсо, чесого, чьсого)*
dative	чесомоу (чьсомоу, чемоу)*
accusative	чьто
instrumental	чимь
locative	чемь (ни/о/при чесомьже)*

* Forms in parentheses are alternative forms that are occasionally seen.

Related terms

• ничьто (ničĭto)
• нѣчьто (něčĭto)
• къто (kŭto)

Old East Slavic

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *čьto. Cognates include Old Church Slavonic чьто (čĭto) and Old Polish czso.

Pronunciation

• (ca. 9^th CE) IPA^(key): /t͡ɕɪˈtɔ/
• (ca. 11^th CE) IPA^(key): /t͡ɕɪˈtɔ/
• (ca. 13^th CE) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ɕtɔ/
• Hyphenation: чь‧то

Pronoun

чьто (čĭto)

1. (interrogative) what?
2. (relative) what, that
   • 1076, Sviatoslav's izbornik‎^[1], page 2:

     нъ пораꙁоумѣи чьто гл҃ють книгꙑ и словеса та·

     nŭ porazuměi čĭto gl:jutĭ knigy i slovesa ta·

     but understand what the books say and the words, too

Declension

Declension of чьто

Nominative	чьто čĭto
Genitive	чего čego
Dative	чему čemu
Accusative	чьто čĭto
Instrumental	чимь čimĭ
Locative	чемь čemĭ

Descendants

• Old Ruthenian: што (što)
  • Belarusian: што (što), шо (šo) (nonstandard)
  • Carpathian Rusyn: што (što)
  • Ukrainian: що (ščo), шо (šo) (dialectal), што (što) (dialectal)
• Russian: что (što), шо (šo) (nonstandard)

References

• Sreznevsky, Izmail I. (1912) “чьто”, in Матеріалы для Словаря древне-русскаго языка по письменнымъ памятникамъ [Materials for the Dictionary of the Old East Slavic Language Based on Written Monuments]‎^[2] (in Russian), volumes 3 (Р – Ꙗ и дополненія), Saint Petersburg: Department of Russian Language and Literature of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, column 1579