Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/Semь

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 an Iranian origin, borrowed from Scythian, further from Proto-Iranian *cyaHmáh, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ćyaHmás (“black”), originally meaning “black, dark river”.

Cognates include Avestan 𐬯𐬁𐬨𐬀 (sāma, “black”), Sanskrit श्याम (śyāmá, “black, dark-coloured, dark blue”).

Proper noun

Semь m

1. Seym (a river in Russia and Ukraine)

Inflection

Declension of *Semь (i-stem, uncountable)

	singular
nominative	*Semь
genitive	*Semi
dative	*Semi
accusative	*Semь
instrumental	*Semьmь
locative	*Semi
vocative	*Semi

^* 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).

Descendants

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: Семь (Semĭ), Сѣмь (Sěmĭ)
    • Old Ruthenian: Семь (Semʹ), Семъ (Sem)
      • Belarusian: Сейм (Sjejm)
      • Ukrainian: Сейм (Sejm)
    • Russian: Семь (Semʹ), Сеимъ (Seim), Сеймъ (Sejm) (Pre-reform orthography (1918))
      • Russian: Сейм (Sejm); Семь (Semʹ), Сем (Sem) (Kursk subdialects)

Further reading

• Toporov, Vladimir, Trubachyov, Oleg (1962) Лингвистический анализ гидронимов Верхнего Поднепровья‎^[1] (in Russian), Moscow: USSR Academy of Sciences, page 226
• Stryzhak, O. S., editor (1985), “Семь”, in Етимологічний словник літописних географічних назв Південної Русі [Etymological Dictionary of Chronicle Geographical Names of Southern Rus'] (in Ukrainian), Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, page 141