Nor do I. Just about every Pole understands
some high-frequency Russian vocabulary and <sobaka> has long been used as
an emphatic word for a dog (or, even more frequently, for a scoundrel)
throughout Poland. It may be somewhat dated now, but remains generally
familiar. We also have the adjective <sobaczy> (especially in emotional
collocations like <sobaczy syn> = <sukinsyn> 'son-of-a-bitch') and
the still current verb <sobaczyc'> 'curse'. They are all loans from East
Slavic, of course. They may easily have diffused into Kashubian and into the
dialect of Upper Silesia from standard Polish.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, October 05, 2002 10:42 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Let dogs have their day too
Vasmer argues that Polish dial. (Upper Silesia) and
Kashubian _sobaka_ can't be loans from East Slavic "for geographical reasons",
by I don't see his point.