< Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic

Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/buky

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

Of Germanic origin, with two proposed sources of borrowing:

Interrelation between the two meanings is now widely considered uncertain (or even dismissed entirely, e.g. by Kluge/Seebold), mainly because there is no surviving evidence for beech-based writing among early Germanic and Balto-Slavic peoples. It is possible (as noted by Mallory and Adams) that beech had religious significance for ancient Indo-European people and so was used to inscribe sacred symbols onto[2]. In this case, the extended meaning writ, sign would be directly borrowed from Germanic. A third hypothesis speculates that beechmast was used for counting and bookkeeping, whence the word innately developed a sense of “unit of data representation” → grapheme, writ.

Noun

*bùky f[3][1]

  1. Alternative form of *bukъ (“beech”)
  2. (by specialization) beechmast
  3. (by extension) writ, grapheme, written sign → letter
    Synonyms: *čьrka, *pisьmo, *znakъ
  4. (by extension, in the plural) books (corpus of written inscriptions)
    Synonym: *kъňigy

Usage notes

The meaning in West and Western South Slavic is beech or beechmast, while in East and Eastern South Slavic, the primary attested meaning is letter (or generally grapheme). It has evolved from an earlier meaning inscription, writ (attested in Church Slavonic). Occassionally, Old Church Slavonic боукъви pl (bukŭvi) could also refer to tally or another bookkeeping mean.

During the development of Church Slavonic writing, Old Church Slavonic боукꙑ (buky) was chosen as the name for the second letter of the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets, whence the term азъбоукꙑ (azŭbuky, “alphabet”).

Declension
Declension of *bùky (v-stem, accent paradigm a)
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative *bùky *bùkъvi *bùkъvi
Accusative *bùkъvь *bùkъvi *bùkъvi
Genitive *bùkъve *bùkъvu *bùkъvъ
Locative *bùkъve *bùkъvu *bùkъvьxъ, *bùkъvaxъ*
Dative *bùkъvi *bùkъvьma, *bùkъvama* *bùkъvьmъ, *bùkъvamъ*
Instrumental *bùkъvьjǫ, *bùkъvľǭ** *bùkъvьma, *bùkъvama* *bùkъvьmī, *bùkъvamī*
Vocative *bùky *bùkъvi *bùkъvi
* -ьmъ/etc. are the original consonant-stem endings, while -amъ/etc. are later Common Slavic endings formed by analogy with a-stems.
** 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).

Derived terms
  • *bukъvařь (“alphabet textbook”)
  • *bukъvica (“beechmast; small letter”)

Descendants

Further reading

References
  1. Snoj, Marko (2016), “bukev”, in Slovenski etimološki slovar3 (in Slovene), https://fran.si: “Slovan. *bűky, rod. *bűkъve”
  2. Pronk-Tiethoff, Saskia E. (2013) The Germanic loanwords in Proto-Slavic‎ (in English), Amsterdam - New York: Rodopi, →ISBN, page 75: “PSl. *buky ‘beech(nut)’ (f. ū-stem).... AP (a)”
  3. Olander, Thomas (2001), “buky, G. bukъve”, in Common Slavic accentological word list, Copenhagen: Editiones Olander: “a (PR 133)”
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