Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/bolto

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

Eriophorum scheuchzeri, with white fluffy seed heads, is found throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere in acid bog habitats.

Etymology

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *balta. Compare Proto-Germanic *pōlaz (“pool”).

Baltic cognates are Lithuanian báltas (“white”), balà (“swamp”), Latvian balts (“white”), and the second part of (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old Prussian placename Namuyn-balt.

The semantic connection between "white" and "swamp, mud" is not obvious, but has been attested in many languages. Beside the mentioned Lithuanian, also in e.g., Old Polish biel (“mud, swamp”) (< *bělь, from *bělъ (“white”)). This is probably due to the widespread presence of the marsh grass called cottongrass (genus Eriophorum), whose the white fluffy seed heads are white, or the color of the dried clay taking light hue, depending on soil.

Though formally and semantically derivable from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *bʰelH- (“white”), with cognates such as Albanian baltë (“mud”), Romanian baltă (“mud, swamp”) and Greek βάλτος (váltos, “swamp”), it is often considered an Illyrian substratum word due to the fact that most of the cognates are restricted to the Balkan peninsula, or its surroundings. However, these can also be borrowings from early Slavic; indirect evidence shows that the Slavic liquid metathesis and pleophony happened well after the spread of Slavic to the Balkans and the word must have been pronounced as *balta or *bolto as recently as the late 8th century.

Noun

*bòlto n

1. swamp
2. mud

Inflection

Declension of *bòlto (hard o-stem, accent paradigm a)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*bòlto	*bòltě	*bòlta
genitive	*bòlta	*bòltu	*bòltъ
dative	*bòltu	*bòltoma	*bòltomъ
accusative	*bòlto	*bòltě	*bòlta
instrumental	*bòltъmь, *bòltomь*	*bòltoma	*bòltȳ
locative	*bòltě	*bòltu	*bòltě̄xъ
vocative	*bòlto	*bòltě	*bòlta

^* -ъmь in North Slavic, -omь in South Slavic.

Derived terms

• *boltěnъ
• *boltina
• *bolišče (“swampy place”)
• *boltuxъ

• *boltъ (“swampy”)
• *boltьnъ (“swampy; muddy”)
  • *boltьnica

Descendants

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: болото (boloto)
    • Belarusian: бало́та (balóta)
    • Russian: боло́то (bolóto)
    • Carpathian Rusyn: болото (boloto)
    • Ukrainian: боло́то (bolóto)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic:

    Cyrillic: блато (blato)

    Glagolitic: ⰱⰾⰰⱅⱁ (blato)

    • → Russian: бла́то (bláto)
  • Bulgarian: бла́то (bláto)
  • Macedonian: бла́то (bláto)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: бла̏то

    Latin script: blȁto

  • Slovene: bláto (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Czech: bláto
  • Polish: błoto
  • Slovak: blato
  • Sorbian:
    • Lower Sorbian: błoto
    • Upper Sorbian: błóto
• → Yiddish: בלאָטע (blote)

Further reading

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “болото”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress

vol=1 Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.Chernykh, P. Ja. (1993) “болото”, in Историко-этимологический словарь русского языка [Historical-Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), 3rd edition, Moscow: Russian Lang., →ISBN

• “*bolto”, in Słownik prasłowiański [Proto-Slavic Dictionary] (in Polish), Wrocław: Ossolineum, 1974–2001, page 311f
• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1975), “*bolto”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 02 (*bez – *bratrъ), Moscow: Nauka, page 179