Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/berza
Proto-Slavic
Etymology
From Proto-Balto-Slavic *bérˀźas, with a change in gender and inflection, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerHǵós. The term refers specially to the genus Betula and was given because of its distinctive white bark. Other kinds of birch were known as *olьxa (“alder”) (also encountered as *elьša in some descendants) because of their brownish bark.
Noun
Inflection
Declension of *bèrza (hard a-stem, accent paradigm a)
singular | dual | plural | |
---|---|---|---|
nominative | *bèrza | *bèrzě | *bèrzy |
genitive | *bèrzy | *bèrzu | *bèrzъ |
dative | *bèrzě | *bèrzama | *bèrzamъ |
accusative | *bèrzǫ | *bèrzě | *bèrzy |
instrumental | *bèrzojǫ, *bèrzǭ** | *bèrzama | *bèrzamī |
locative | *bèrzě | *bèrzu | *bèrzasъ, *bèrzaxъ* |
vocative | *bèrzo | *bèrzě | *bèrzy |
* -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).
** 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).
Related terms
Descendants
- East Slavic:
- South Slavic:
- West Slavic:
Further reading
- Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1974), “*berza”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 01 (*a – *besědьlivъ), Moscow: Nauka, page 201
- Mallory, J. P., Adams, D. Q., editors (1997), Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture, London, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, page 65ff
- “beržas”, in Lietuvių kalbos etimologinio žodyno duomenų bazė [Lithuanian etymological dictionary database], 2007–2012
References
- ^ Derksen, Rick (2008) “*bèrza”, in Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 4), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 38: “f. ā (a) ‘birch’”
- ^ Olander, Thomas (2001) “berza -y”, in Common Slavic Accentological Word List[1], Copenhagen: Editiones Olander: “a (SA 155, 177; PR 132; RPT 107, 111)”
- ^ Snoj, Marko (2016) “brẹ́za”, in Slovenski etimološki slovar [Slovenian Etymology Dictionary] (in Slovene), 3rd edition, https://fran.si: “*be̋rza”
- ^ Kapović, Mate (2007) “The Development of Proto-Slavic Quantity”, in Wiener Slavistisches Jahrbuch[2], University of Vienna, page 5: “*be̋rza”