A thread with random questions for Hemo Rusticus
So I've been going over some Proto-Balto-Slavic and Proto-Slavic declensions, comparing them and trying to imagine how one ending evolved to another, usually I can form some "phonetic" map in my head, how can the vowels move and restructure themselves, etc.
But here's something which just seemed mysterious to me, so these two tables of the same word ("snow"):
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Balto-Slavic/snaigas
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstructionroto-Slavic/sněgъ
How in the hell did the instrumental singular gain the "m"?? It seems to me like it was merged with some new suffix or something... Or was there some sort of nasalization etc.?
Also, I was surprised to learn that in Czech the masculine declension of the type hrad, hradu (castle, of castle) - I don't know if I can call it "u" declension (maybe it's not the right term, we call it "vzor hrad") having its two possible locatives: hradě and hradu - that the "u" is actually the dual ending and "ě" is the singular one, while I think that "u" has a preference often (at least with certain prepositions with this very word at least). With our word for "snow" the "ě" is impossible and only "sněhu" is the valid locative... Then we have a variant inanimate declension for the pán, pána (dominus, domini) which is les, lesa (silva, silvae) and there are two equally used locatives "lese" and "lesu"... I guess again the "e" is the original singular and "u" the dual... it's really awesome how the dual endings got smuggled to the singular if I'm understanding that correctly
Anybody else feel free to join for Slavic comparative/historical discussion! (as long as it's not in the spirit of false slavic friends and swear words...)
So I've been going over some Proto-Balto-Slavic and Proto-Slavic declensions, comparing them and trying to imagine how one ending evolved to another, usually I can form some "phonetic" map in my head, how can the vowels move and restructure themselves, etc.
But here's something which just seemed mysterious to me, so these two tables of the same word ("snow"):
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Balto-Slavic/snaigas
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstructionroto-Slavic/sněgъ
How in the hell did the instrumental singular gain the "m"?? It seems to me like it was merged with some new suffix or something... Or was there some sort of nasalization etc.?
Also, I was surprised to learn that in Czech the masculine declension of the type hrad, hradu (castle, of castle) - I don't know if I can call it "u" declension (maybe it's not the right term, we call it "vzor hrad") having its two possible locatives: hradě and hradu - that the "u" is actually the dual ending and "ě" is the singular one, while I think that "u" has a preference often (at least with certain prepositions with this very word at least). With our word for "snow" the "ě" is impossible and only "sněhu" is the valid locative... Then we have a variant inanimate declension for the pán, pána (dominus, domini) which is les, lesa (silva, silvae) and there are two equally used locatives "lese" and "lesu"... I guess again the "e" is the original singular and "u" the dual... it's really awesome how the dual endings got smuggled to the singular if I'm understanding that correctly
Anybody else feel free to join for Slavic comparative/historical discussion! (as long as it's not in the spirit of false slavic friends and swear words...)