Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/korľь

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

Generally agreed to derive from Old High German Karl, name of the Frankish ruler Charlemagne (742-814), who ruled the western areas of Slavdom, from Proto-Germanic *karilaz (“free man”).

Extended derivation:

• Old High German Karl > Late Proto-Slavic *kõrľь

The shift from hard o-stem to the soft jo-stem, as outlined in the chronology above, has several theories of origin:

• Holzer explains the j-suffix as originating from a substantivized possessive adjective
• Andersen embraces Holzer’s morphological analysis and explains its semantic development: initially a substantivized possessive adjective in -jь meaning ‘Karl’s man, representative’ (cf. *dětęťь (“belonging to a child”)), perhaps initially in phrases like *korľь mǫžь (“Karl’s man”), referring to various vasals and representatives of Charlemagne or another Frankish ruler named Karl during the 8th century, later extended to ‘(any) Frankish person of authority’ and from that to ‘head man, governor’ (Andersen, 2023)
• Schenker suggests analogical replacement after agent nouns ending in *-teľь or other words denoting leaders such as *cěsařь and *kъnędzь
• Pronk-Tiethoff suggests the final *-ľь is due to the fact that Proto-Slavs likely perceived the Old High German final consonant as soft, similarly as in the loanword *grędeľь.

The word has been described as "without doubt the most famous Germanic loanword in Slavic" (Pronk-Tiethoff 2013) due to the fact that it's the only loanword in Slavic that can actually be dated, thus giving clues to the absolute dating of Proto-Slavic phonological developments. The fact that it regularly underwent historical Proto-Slavic sound laws, and that it's reflected in all three branches, is one of the chief indications to date Late Proto-Slavic (Common Slavic) to the ninth century.

However, this is comparatively late (only a century before Old Church Slavonic manuscripts were written), so other etymologies have been suggested:

• Holzer derives it from the name of the Frankish ruler Charles Martel (688-741). The issue with this theory is that Charles Martel was not particularly important to the contemporary Slavs.
• Stender-Petersen derives it from Proto-Germanic *kar(i)laz (“free man”) (Old High German karl (“man”)) with a semantic shift explained as "very ordinary".

These theories are generally thought of as less convincing than from Karl "Charlemagne", who was an actual king of (some) Slavs.

Noun

*kõrľь m

1. king

Inflection

Declension of *kõrľь (soft o-stem, accent paradigm b)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*kõrľь	*kōrľà	*kōrľì
genitive	*kōrľà	*kōrľù	*kõrľь
dative	*kōrľù	*kōrľèma	*kõrľemъ
accusative	*kõrľь	*kōrľà	*kōrľę̇̀
instrumental	*kōrľь̀mь, *kōrľèmь*	*kōrľèma	*kõrľi
locative	*kōrľì	*kōrľù	*kõrľixъ
vocative	*korľu	*kōrľà	*kōrľì

^* -ьmь in North Slavic, -emь in South Slavic.

Derived terms

• *korľevъ (“king's”)
• *korľevьskъ (“royal”)
• *korľevьstvo (“kingdom”)
• *korľica (“queen”)

Descendants

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: король (korolĭ)
    • Old Ruthenian: коро́ль (korólʹ)
      • Belarusian: каро́ль (karólʹ)
      • Carpathian Rusyn: коро́ль (korólʹ)
      • Ukrainian: коро́ль (korólʹ)
      • → Old Lithuanian: karãlius
        • Lithuanian: karãlius
          • → Latgalian: karaļs
          • → Latvian: karalis
        • Samogitian: karalios
    • Russian: коро́ль (korólʹ)
      • → Kazakh: король (korol)
      • → Kyrgyz: король (korol)
      • → Tatar: король (qorolʹ)
      • → Turkmen: korol
      • → Uzbek: korol
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic:

    Old Cyrillic script: крал҄ь (kralʹĭ)

    • Bulgarian: крал (kral)
    • Macedonian: крал (kral)
    • → Romanian: crai
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: кра̑љ

    Latin script: krȃlj

  • Slovene: králj (tonal orthography)
  • → Hungarian: király
  • → Ottoman Turkish: قرال (kral)
    • Turkish: kral
      • → Northern Kurdish: kral, qral
    • → Azerbaijani: kral
    • → Crimean Tatar: qıral
• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: král, kráľ (alternative writing)
    • Czech: král
      • → Lower Sorbian: kral
      • → Upper Sorbian: kral
      • → Russian: краль (kralʹ)
    • Knaanic: קרל (krl)
    • → Old Ruthenian: краль (kralʹ)
  • Old Polish: król
    • Polish: król, kryl (Western Greater Poland, Międzyrzecz)
    • Silesian: krōl
    • → Old Ruthenian: кроль (krolʹ), круль (krulʹ)
  • Old Slovak: kráľ
    • Pannonian Rusyn: краль (kralʹ)
    • Slovak: kráľ
  • Pomeranian:
    • Kashubian: król
    • Slovincian: król
  • Sorbian:
    • Lower Sorbian: krol

Further reading

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), “король”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1984), “*korl'ь”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 11 (*konьcь – *kotьna(ja)), Moscow: Nauka, page 82
• Pronk-Tiethoff, Saskia E. (2013), The Germanic loanwords in Proto-Slavic‎^[2], Amsterdam - New York: Rodopi, →ISBN, page 111ff
• Henning Andersen (2023), “Charlemagne and All the King’s Men. PS *korlĭ ‘king’?”, in Slovenski jezik / Slovene Linguistic Studies‎^[3], →DOI