Re: Gender of the sun

----- Original Message -----

From: Piotr Gasiorowski

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2000 12:32 AM

Subject: [cybalist] Re: Odp: Gender of the sun

 

Self correction. I wrote:

 

To be sure, we have the unexpected Russian zolovka 'sister-in-law' (< *zu:lw-), not *zolvka, but this form can't be very old. It's based on zolva, a word attested in Russian dialects (I suppose the Gen. pl. would be zolov) as well as elsewhere in Slavic (note in particular Slovene zo^lva and Serbo-Croatian za"ova (with pitch accents that point to Proto-Slavic *zu:lw-a:, itself derived from an old athematic feminine, PIE *g(e)lo:u-s, perhaps = *glH(o)u-).

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This happens when one's writing hastily and gives oneself too little time to analyse the examples properly. I though of zolovka while composing the message, added the paragraph above, then started having second thoughts as soon as the posting had left my browser. The Slovene intonation doesn't really fit my "reconstruction" and the SCr form can only be from *zUlUva, which is BTW easier to derive directly from PIE *g(@)lo:us (no laryngeal required). The word was assimilater to *-u: stems in Proto-Slavic to give *zulu:/*zuluw- (*zUly/*zUlUv-)> thematised *zUlUv-a. The SCr intonation reflects not the original length but the effect of two yers in consecutive open syllables.

 

The derivation of the Russian form(s) from *zUlUw- is straightforward. So is that of Bulgarian z@..., Macedonian and Slovak zolva, Old Polish żełwa (with the initial consonant affected by folk hypercorrection) and the widespread suffixations in -ica (Ukrainian zovic'a). Sorry for creating an entirely artificial problem. Putting zolovka to one side, I stand by the rest of my posting.

 

(The Nostraticists on this list will no doubt recognise PIE *g@...:us as a celebrated long-range cognate ;)

 

Piotr