Re: Slavic obscene words (Was: Brugmann's Law)

On 2008-01-19 22:59, ualarauans wrote:

> The word could have been influenced from *pirU later. The original
> semantics seem to pertain to "bread", if I don't mistake, and *pirU
> is strictu sensu a "drinking" (< *pi-).

Yes, that's probably right etymologically, but since by historical times
it came to mean things like 'wedding party' or 'breakfast', and *pirogU
is not necessarily VERY old (it's geographically restricted within
Slavic), it might be accounted for as the name of a dish served on some
special occasions.

> Polish has piero'g – why
> the -ie-?

It's the regular lowering of older /i/ before /r/ in Modern Polish (the
<i> of <ie> is just a diacritic spelling, marking the palatalisation of
the preceding consonant). Old /yr/ is reflected as /er/ (no palatalisation).

Piotr