Slavic hawk-word

From: Sergejus Tarasovas
Message: 10896
Date: 2001-11-02

--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> The "majority view" is that *asUtre~bU/*asUstre~bU (as
reconstructed by Vey) is a derivative of *o:k^u-ptr-o- and thus
somehow related to <accipiter>.

1. What makes Vey reconstruct Proto-Slavic *asUtre,bU/*asUstre,bU (I
don't have a copy of Bulletin de la Société de linguistique de Paris
#49 at hand :) )? The evidence from the attested Slavic languages is
as follows:

1.1 Bulg. ja'streb m. 'hawk Astur palumbarius', Mac. jastreb m.
'id.', S-Cr. ja"strijeb, dial. ja"stre^b, ja"stri^b m. 'kite',
ja"strov, strebic' 'Aërocephalis palustris', Sloven. ja^streb m.
'hawk, kite', ja^stran 'id.' [most likely a secondary form], Cz.
jestr^a'b m. 'hawk Astur palumbarius', Slovak. jastab m. 'id.',
HSorb.(-Lus.) jatr^ob', G. -bja m. 'hawk Astur, kite Vultur', LSorb.(-
Lus.) jasts'eb', jasts'eb m. 'hawk Astur palumbarius', OPol. jastram
'id.' [most likely a secondary form], Pol. jastrza,b, G. -e,bia
'id.', Kash.-Sl.(Pom.) ja.~str^ïb (a with a dot and a tilde above, r^
as in Cz., it seems Lorentz tried to use merely phonetic notation),
ORuss jastre,bU, jastrebU 'id.', Russ. ja'streb m. 'id.', Ukr.
ja'strib m. 'id.', dial. astrJA'b (JA for the last letter of the Ukr.
alph.) [note initial a-], ja's'tr'ab [Vey was probably not aware of
the form, [s'] is palatalized, and the yers fell rather _late_ in
Ukrainian, later, than, eg, even in Northern dialects of Russian],
ja'strJAb 'id.', Bel. ja'strab 'id.'.

This forms point, first of all, to *a- or *ja-, though *a- is
preferred not only because of _possible_ non-Slavic cogantes, but
also because of Ukr. dial. astrJA'b.
As for the rest of the word, the forms enumerated point to *astre,bU
and, most likely, *astre,bI (cf. also *astre,binUjI).
S-Cr. ja"strijeb, dial. ja"stri^b and Ukr. ja'strib, of not of a
secondary origin, may also point to *astre^bU.

1.2 Cz. jestr^a'bek, G. -bka m., 'dimin. of jestr^a'b', LSorb.(-Lus.)
jasts'ebk m. 'hazel-grouse Bonasa silvestris', Pol. jastrza,bek, G. -
bka, 'dim. of jastrza,b', Russ. jastrebo'k, G. -bka 'small hawk'.

Point to *astre,bUkU.

1.3 Bulg. ja'strebec 'dim. of ja'streb', S.-Cr. jastre'bac, G. -pca
m. 'dim. of jastreb', Cz. jestr^a'bec, G. -bce, m. 'dim. of
jestr^a'b'.

Point to *astre,bIcI.

1.4 Sloven. ja^strebji 'of hawk', Cz. jestr^a'bi' 'id.', Slovak.
jastrabi' 'id.', Pol. jastrze,bi 'id.', Kash.-Sl.(Pom.) jastr^a.~bji
'id.', Russ. ChSlav. jasre,blI 'id.'

Point to *astre,bIjI / *astre,bjI

1.5 Sloven. ja^strob m. 'hawk Astur palumbarius', Ukr. ja'strub m.
'id.'

If not of secondary origin, point to *astro,bU (cf. *golo,bU
'pigeon').

1.6 Ukr. dial. ja'ster 'hawk'. If not of secondary origin, points to
*astrU. Cf. also *astriti > Cz. dial. jastr^iti, jastr^it', jastriti
'look intently, vigilantly', Slovak. jastrit' 'id.', Pol. jastrzyc'
'id.'.

1.7 LSorb.(-Lus.) jasts'ebiny 'of hawk', Russ. jastrebi'nyj 'id.'
point to *astre,binUjI (probably < *astre,bI, like *golo,bI >
*golo,binUjI).

1.8. Bulg. ja'strebov 'of hawk', Mac. jastrebov 'id.', S-Cr.
ja"stre^bov 'id.'. Point to *astre,bovU.

So, a direct comparative procedure (not speculative etymologizing)
yields *(j)astre,bU, probably also *(j)astre,bI, *(j)astro,bU and *(j)
astrU. Why *asUtre,bU and especially *asUstre,bU?

2. What makes you think < *o:k^u-ptr-o- is a "majority view"? I'm
aware of the following:

2.1 The etymology which looks like the "majority view" is <
*o:k^ro-/*a:k^ro- 'fast (?)' + *-mbH- (/-embH-) 'animals' names-
forming suffix', while Latin accipiter is etymologized as <*a:k^i-
/*a:k^u-. At least my sources (Vasmer, Trubachev et al.) state that
it's more or less the point of view shared by Brugmann, Meillet,
Vaillant, Petersson, Berneker, Sobolevskij, Bru"kner, Niedermann,
Specht, Sl/awski, Vasmer, Shevelov, Sadnik, Aitzetmu"ler.

Haas thinks the Slavic word is related to Greek (<pre-Greek)
Astrabakos 'a hero's nom. pr.' < *ok^rnbho- (supported in Sadnik-
Aitzetmu"ller's dictionary).

2.2 I don't know who has supported Vey's etymology unreservedly,
except Machek, though he offered a slightly different solution: <
*o:k^u-pet-ros, a (problematic) cognate of accipiter.

2.3 There's a number of more exotic/marginal points of view, among
them:

2.3.1 Loewenthal: akin to Venetic Assoparis 'hawk's nestling' <
Illyr. *assos 'hawk' < PIE *attos, a possible cognate of OIrish a'ith
'sharp', Lett. a:trs.
2.3.2 Mayer: akin to Late Latin astur 'hawk' < Messap. < PIE *astr,
cf. Latin uultur 'kite'.
2.3.3 Jagic': *ostrU 'fast (?)' + *re,bU 'speckled'.
2.3.4 Uhlenbeck, Fraenkel, Bulakhovskij: *jast(I)-re,bU 'patrige-
eater'.
2.3.5 Bubrikh: < *n:t-trmbH- 'duck-thrasher'.
2.3.6 Sadnik and Aitzetmu"ler: prefix *ja- + *stre,bU (the latter not
etymologized).


Sergei