< Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic

Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/ně-

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

Pronoun prefix with indefinite function. Apparently related to forms of Proto-Indo-European *ne, however, uncertainly how:

  • One possibility is a direct descent from Proto-Indo-European *néh₁, cognate with Latin (not), Sanskrit ना (, not). The logic of this derivation is that *ně- originally reflected the meaning none particularly. In support of this hypothesis serves the rare autonomous form Proto-Slavic *ně (none) and analogous formations in Baltic: Lithuanian nėkas (nobody particularly), Lithuanian nekur̃s (nowhere particularly).
  • Alternatively, according to F. Mikloshich, from the conflation of *ne (not) + *vě (to know). Effectively, then *ně- would stand for unknowing who/what/where/how/etc. Vasmer considers this derivation phonetically unsound.
  • According to Trubachev, possibly from the conflation of *ne (not) + *je (to be). Similar to the dialectal *něměti (not to have) from Proto-Slavic *ne + *jьměti (to have).

Almost not used in Modern Polish. Old Polish did preserve niekako (somehow), etc. – in Modern Polish rarely used niejako, niejaki, etc. Not used in Ukrainian.

Prefix

*ně-[1][2]

  1. some- (with interrogatory pronouns)

Derived terms

Category Proto-Slavic terms prefixed with *ně- not found
  • *někъjь (somebody), *něčьjь (somebody's)
  • *někъto, *něčьto (something)
  • *někakъ (somehow)
  • *několiko (several)
  • *někogъda (sometime, once)
  • *někъde (somewhere)
  • *někǫda (to somewhere)

Descendants

  • East Slavic:
    • Belarusian: не- (nje-)
    • Russian: не́- (né-)
  • South Slavic:
    • Old Church Slavonic: нѣ- (ně-)
    • Bulgarian: ня- (nja-)
    • Macedonian: не- (ne-)
    • Serbo-Croatian:
      Cyrillic: не̏-
      Latin: nȅ-, njȅ- (dialectal)
    • Slovene: ne-
  • West Slavic:
    • Czech: ně-
    • Slovak: nie-
    • Sorbian:
      • Upper Sorbian: ně-
      • Lower Sorbian: ně-

Further reading

References

  1. Olander, Thomas (2001), ně-”, in Common Slavic accentological word list, Copenhagen: Editiones Olander: “(indef. pref.) (PR 146)”
  2. Snoj, Marko (2016), ne-”, in Slovenski etimološki slovar3 (in Slovene), https://fran.si: “*ně”
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.