< Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic
Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/ryba
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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
Uncertain.
The central Indo-European word for "fish" *dʰǵʰu- (“fish”) (yielding Ancient Greek ἰχθύς (ikhthús), Lithuanian žuvìs, Old Armenian ձուկն (jukn)) would have given Proto-Slavic v-stem **zy (genitive **zъve, accusative **zъvь), and was, as the theory goes, avoided by fishermen due to taboo, or because it would have sounded too similar to the verb *zъvati (“to call”).
Some of the proposed etymologies include:
- Toporov: From Early Proto-Slavic *rų̄bā, which is then comparable to *rębъ (“speckled, motley, variegated”), with fish scales being the semantic connection. For a similar development compare *pьstry (“salmonid fish”), originally "the colorful/variegated one" < *pьstrъ (“variegated”).
- Loewenthal: From earlier *rų̄bā, but instead from Proto-Indo-European *wremb- (“to twist around”), akin to Proto-Germanic *wrimpaną (“to wince”), Ancient Greek ῥέμβω (rhémbō, “to roam, to turn in circles”). Doubted by Vasmer.
- Vaillant: Perhaps originally a collection/action noun from *ryti (“to dig, to snout”) + *-ba, initially referring to the process “fishing” and later (by abstraction) to the yield “fish”.
- Mladenov: Akin to Proto-Slavic *ruxъ (“movement, deformation”), *ryxlъ (“swift, quick”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃rew- (“to hurry”).
- Jakobson, Schmalstieg, Snoj: From Proto-Balto-Slavic *jūˀr- (“water, swamp, pond”), whence Lithuanian jū́ra (“sea”), Latvian jūra (“sea”) and perhaps akin to Proto-Slavic *juriti (“to charge, to plunge”), *jurъkъ (“whisk, agile”), with a rare metathesis *ūr- > *rū- + the suffix *-ba for forming abstract nouns.
Early scholars (Uhlenbeck, Berneker, Mikkola, Walde-Hofmann) had tentatively compared the Slavic word with Old High German rūppa (“caterpillar”) or Latin rubēta (“bramble toad”), which nowadays are commonly viewed as unrelated.
Inflection
Declension of *rỳba (hard a-stem, accent paradigm a)
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | *rỳba | *rỳbě | *rỳby |
| Accusative | *rỳbǫ | *rỳbě | *rỳby |
| Genitive | *rỳby | *rỳbu | *rỳbъ |
| Locative | *rỳbě | *rỳbu | *rỳbasъ, *rỳbaxъ* |
| Dative | *rỳbě | *rỳbama | *rỳbamъ |
| Instrumental | *rỳbojǫ, *rỳbǭ** | *rỳbama | *rỳbamī |
| Vocative | *rỳbo | *rỳbě | *rỳby |
* -asъ is the expected Balto-Slavic form but is found only in some Old Czech documents; -axъ is found everywhere else and is formed by analogy with other locative plurals in -xъ.
** 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).
** 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
- *rybica, *rybъka, *rybokъ (diminutive)
- *rybařь (“fisherman”)
- *rybakъ (“fisher”)
- *rybьnъ, *rybavъ, *ryběstъ (relative adjectives)
Descendants
Further reading
- Gluhak, Alemko (1993) Hrvatski etimološki rječnik (in Serbo-Croatian), Zagreb: August Cesarec, page 526
- Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), “рыба”, in Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), transl. and suppl. by Oleg Trubachyov, Moscow: Progress
- Račeva M., Todorov T., editor (2002), “риба¹”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 6, Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, page 243
- “jūra”, in Lietuvių kalbos etimologinio žodyno duomenų bazė [Lithuanian etymological dictionary database], 2007–2012
References
- Olander, Thomas (2001), “ryba ryby”, in Common Slavic accentological word list, Copenhagen: Editiones Olander: “a (SA 166, 172; PR 132; MP 19; RPT 107, 109)”
- Snoj, Marko (2016), “riba”, in Slovenski etimološki slovar3 (in Slovene), https://fran.si: “Pslovan. *ry̋ba”
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