Re: [tied] Fw: Sorok i devianosto

> -----Original Message-----
> From: george knysh [mailto:gknysh@...]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 5:07 PM
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RE: [tied] Fw: Sorok i devianosto
>
> *****GK: This is worth discussing further. Maybe Piotr
> can come up with additional information on Friday. I
> take it that *sork is otherwise unattested.

Except my memory, the only decent source I've got to hand is Vasmer, who
gives:

Russ. dial. _soroc^i'ca_, Ukr., Bel. _soro'c^ka_, ORuss _soroc^Ika_
'shirt', OCS _srac^ica_ 'kHito:'n', (Russ)CS _sraka_, _sraky_ (G.
srakUve) 'id.', Slovenian _sra'c^ica_ 'id.'.

Enough evidence for Proto-Slavic *sork- (*sork-a/-y, *sorc^-ica,
*sorc^-Ika) 'shirt'. Zero evidence for the meaning 'sack'. But doesn't a
primitive (sleeveless) shirt/dress look like a sack with a hole for the
head, after all? ;-)

> Is there
> in fact any evidence that soroc#IkU was used as simply
> "sack"?

If I recall correctly, thus in Zaliznyak's dictionary of the birch bark
letters' language (or was it 'a sack of 40 skins'?), the meaning being
determined by the context (I'll re-check in some hours).

> That would be important. I don't have enough
> resources at hand to check if it has survived in this
> sense to our days in any Slavic language.

I don't have any decent relevant lexicographical sources to hand either.
Anybody?

> Soroc#ica
> 'shirt' (known from Novgorodian birch bark letters)
> could be a borrowing from the Danish term mentioned by
> Torsten.

Considering the Old Church Slavomic and Slovenian evidence, one should
posit a loan from (Proto-)Germanic into Proto-Slavic to explain *sork-
as a borrowing. By the way, is anyone aware of the etymology of the
appropriate Germanic words?

Sergei