On Fri, 7 Sep 2001 12:59:36 +0200, "Che" <
almogaver69@...>
wrote:
>Isn't this "-skii" because of that /ij/ both in the surname and Kiïv?
>I mean where's the difference?
-yj (-ij after velars) is the normal ending of the nom.sg. masc. of
Russian definite adjectives [actually, the normal ending is -oj, and
-yj/-ij is due to Church Slavonic influence]. Historically, it comes
from the nom. sg. o-stem ending -U (< *-os) + the pronominal element
-jI (< *yos) => -UjI ~ -yjI (=> -oj ~ -yj). In non-scientific
transliterations of Russian, it is customary to drop the final -j,
partly because of spelling and pronunciation difficulties, partly
following the Slavic languages using the Latin script, where the
diphthong has been simplified (Pol/Svn/Cro -ski, Cze/Svk -ský).
The name Kiev, Kyïv, Kijów comes from *ku:yos > *kyjI "stick, hammer"
(in this case, a personal name) + the possessive suffix -ovU =>
*KyjevU "Kyj's [house, place]". This word also contains the sequence
<yj> or <ij>, but the reasons for not writing the /j/ are rather
different: in Russian <e> always stands for /je/, so that [k^íjIf]
(/kijev/) is written <Kiev>, while in Ukrainian <Kyïv>, /kIjiw/, <ï>
stands for /ji/. In Polish <Kijów>, the <j> is written normally.