Baltic “*balā” ‘mud, bog, marsh’ at the Indo-European Backdrop

VÁCLAV BLAŽEK Masaryk University ORCID id: orcid.org/0000-0002-6797-7188 Fields of research: Baltic & Indo-European etymology and onomastics. DOI: doi.org/10.35321/all87-01 BALTIC *BALĀ ‘MUD, BOG, MARSH’ AT THE INDO-EUROPEAN BACKDROP Baltų *balā ‘purvas, liūnas, pelkė’ indoeuropiečių kalbų kontekste ANNOTATION In this article the Baltic term *balā ‘mud, bog, marsh’ is analyzed from the point of view of its word-formation and etymology. The discussion of preceding etymologies leads to the choice of the cognates in Germanic *pōlaand possibly Continental Celtic *bolā, all ‘swamp, marsh’, plus newly the Slavic term *ob(v)l̥ ‘source, spring; well’ as *n-blo ‘unmuddy’ = ‘clear (water)’. The Germanic comparanda imply the rare initial *b-, for some linguists, namely representatives of the Leiden school, indicating the “non-Indo-European” origin. It is tested if the etymon could represent an extension in -lfrom the root *gʷebʰ- ‘marsh, swamp’ in the zero-grade of ablaut in agreement with the ideas of Alexander Lubotsky. KEYWORDS: Baltic, Germanic, Celtic, Slavic, source, umuddy, swamp. ANOTACIJA Straipsnyje baltiškas terminas *balā ‘purvas, liūnas, pelkė’ analizuojamas žodžių darybos ir etimologijos požiūriu. Aptarus ankstesnes etimologijas, pasirenkami giminiški žodžiai – germanų *pōlair galbūt žemyno keltų *bolā, reiškiantys ‘pelkė, liūnas’, o taip pat naujai pridedamas slaviškas terminas *ob(v)l̥ ‘versmė, šaltinis; šulinys’, kuris analizuojamas kaip *n-blo ‘nepurvinas’ = ‘skaidrus (vanduo)’. Kai kurių kalbininkų, kaip antai Leideno mokyklos atstovų, teigimu, germaniški lyginamieji žodžiai nurodo retą žodžio pradžios *b-, kuri suponuoja „neindoeuropietišką“ kilmę. Remiantis Aleksandro Lubotskio idėjomis, Straipsniai / Articles 11 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK straipsnyje analizuojama, ar šis etimonas galėtų būti nulinio balsių kaitos laipsnio šaknį *gʷebʰ- ‘liūnas, pelkė’ praplečiančio elemento –lpavyzdys. ESMINIAI ŽODŽIAI: baltiškas, germaniškas, keltiškas, slaviškas, versmė, nepurvinas, pelkė. 1. ATTESTATION 1.1. Lithuanian balà ‘mud, bog, marshy area; spilled water, puddle’, dial. also balẽ; derivatives: balýnas ‘swamp, bog’, balỹnė id., balýstas, –à dial. ‘muddy, marshy’, balókšnis ‘small muddy area, puddle, water-filled hole, e.g. in a road’, balótos píevos f. pl. ‘muddy meadows’, liūnabale ‘boggy meadow’. Toponyms: river names Baláitis, Balìnis, Bãlupis; lake names Baluosỹs, Baluõšas, Bãlakampis, Bãlažeris; place names Bãlos, Balalė, Bališkės 2x, Bãliškiai 2x, Bališkiai 2x, Balùškiai 2x, Ažùbalai 12x, Ažùbalis 9x, Pabalaĩ, Užbalaĩ 9x, Užùbalaĩ 17x, cp. Balagãnas, Balagãnai, Bal̃butai, Baldegiãi, Bãlkalnis, and Ėgliabalai, Ozkabalai 3x, Šlapabalė, Veršiõbalis, Vi̇lkabalai 3x (Smoczyński 2018: 86: some of these names may belong to the adj. bãlas ‘white’; ALEW 87). 1.2. Latvian bala ‘clayey, treeless valley’, pl. balas ‘soggy, infertile soil’ (ME I: 253), besides bḷute ‘hole filled with water’ (ME I: 278), which corresponds to Lithuanian balūtė id. (Nevskaja 1977: 18); derivatives: baliņa ‘puddle’ (ibid.). Toponyms: river name Balupe, i.e. ‘swamp-river’ (Endzelin 1934: 121); mountain name Balates kalns, i.e. ‘swamp-mountain’ (Fraenkel 1962–1965: 30). 1.3. In Old Prussian the corresponding appellative is not known, only toponyms, which are probably related: Lake name Balyngen (1361) corresponding to the Lithuanian hydronym Balinguva; place names as 1409 Balionynen, Balowe, Balositen ~ Lithuanian Baluoso ežeras (Gerullis 1922: 15, 232; Toporov 1975: 184; Blažienė 2005: 24), 1782 Balite (Blažienė 2000: 15), Balupiany, 1790 Ballupöhnen ~ Lithuanian river names Balùpis, Bãlupis (Przybytek 1993: 18), 1423 Bolausen (Gerullis 1922: 14; Blažienė 2005: 32–33). 1.4. There are traces of the related Baltic hydronyms outside the territory of the historical Baltic languages, namely Bãlyn in the basin of the Ukrainian river Desna corresponding to the name of the Lithuanian lake Balinis (Toporov, Trubačev 1962: 176; SHU 32), or the river Baly from the basin of the river ¹ The word is attested only in the neighborhood of the Latvian–Lithuanian language border. That is why it is possible to think about the Lithuanian origin of this Latvian word (cf. ALEW 87). 12 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXVII Baltic *balā ‘mud, bog, marsh’ at the Indo-European Backdrop Horyń (Trubačev 1968: 227, 249; SHU 32), although its Slavic origin cannot be excluded too. 1.5. Baltic origin can be ascribed to one Northeast Russian dialectism balarūžina ‘puddle’ from the basin of the upper Volga, Vjatka and Don (cf. Vasmer I: 46 and Anikin 2008: 127, preferring the primary form with metathesis of liquids *baralūžina or *barolūžina). It is tempting to think about the primary Baltic – East Slavic compound *bala-lužina corresponding to e.g. Polish kaluza < *kalo-luža (Pastrnek 1902: 303), Czech kaluž < *kalo-luža ‘puddle’, lit. ‘muddy puddle’ (Machek 1968: 237), although the segmentation kal-uža is also in the play. 2. THERE ARE AT LEAST TWO APPROACHES TO ETYMOLOGIZING BALTIC *BALĀ 2.1. The Baltic term *balā ‘mud, bog, marsh’ has usually been connected with Slavic *bòlto ‘swamp’, which penetrated into some modern non-Slavic languages of the Balkans: Albanian baltē ‘mud, swamp’; Romanian baltă ‘mud, swamp’; Modern Greek βάλτος ‘swamp’ (Derksen 2007: 53). But with regard to the word formation, the exact counterpart of Slavic *bòlto is Baltic *baltas ‘white’ > Lithuanian báltas, Latvian bal̃ts ‘white’, Old Prussian NL Namūynbalt (Derksen 2015: 80), which should be related to Lithuanian bálas ‘white’, Latvian bāls ‘pale’; Slavic *bēlb ‘white’² (Derksen 2015: 78), and further Greek φαλος· λευκός (Hesych.), φαλιός ‘bright, white-spotted’ (Call.), etc.; Gothic *balarecorded by e.g. Ennodius: de equo badio et balane ‘of a gray and bala horse’ (Lehmann 1986: 59; Pokorny 1959: 118–119). These cognates imply the initial *bʰ-. 2.2. The alternative set of cognates to Baltic *balā ‘mud, bog, marsh’ agree with it in both word formation and semantics, while the initial should be reconstructed as IE *b-, e.g. without any aspiration. 2.2.1. West Germanic *pōla- (EWAhd 6: cc. 505–507; Kroonen 2013: 398: non-IE): ² The semantic relation between ‘swamp, marsh, mud’ and ‘white’ can be illustrated by the transparent Slavic examples like Polish biel (dial.), bielaw, Belorussian bel’ ‘swampy meadow’, both derivable from *bělъ ‘white’ (Derksen 2007: 53; ESSJ 2: 180). Straipsniai / Articles 13 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK • Old English pōl m. ‘swamp, marsh’, Middle English pōl(e) ‘small body of still water, pond, lake, marsh’, English pool ‘small body of still water, pond, lake, marsh, shallow water in a sea’; • Old English > Old Norse pollr m. ‘round bay, pond, puddle’, Icelandic, Faroese pollur m. id., Norwegian poll id. (> Saami Nor. bǫllo ‘small round fjord’), plus Norn pǫl, poil m. ‘narrow bay, pond, marsh’ > Manx poyll (de Vries 1962: 427); • Old Frisian pōl m. ‘marsh, muddy hole, hole filled with water’, New West Frisian poel m./f. ‘stagnant water, pond, lake, depth’; • Old Low Franconian puol ‘pond, marsh’ (usually in toponyms), Middle Dutch, Dutch poel m. ‘swamp, marsh, pond, stagnant waters’; • Middle Low German pōl, pūl m. ‘puddle, marsh’; from here Danish pöl ‘puddle’, Norwegian (Bm./Nn.) pøl m. ‘hole filled with water, puddle, swamp’, Old Swedish, Swedish pöl id. (with the plural umlaut); • Old High German pfuol m. (aor i-stem), from the 11th cent. in glosses: ‘marsh, puddle, hole with liquid manure; cloaca, lama, palus, volutabrum’, German Pfuhl m. ‘small pond; accumulation of dirt water, liquid manure’. The lengthened root vowel in West Germanic *pōlastanding against the short root vowel in Baltic *balā could be explained via the vṛddhi-formation of the Germanic form. The unlengthened root vowel in Germanic may be identified in Dutch peel ‘marsh, swamp’ < West Germanic *pali-. Boutkan & Siebinga (2005: 309) further added Modern East Frisian paller(d) ‘swamp, marsh’ < *pall-, and Modern Icelandic pula id. < *pul-. From the perspective of word formation, the protoforms *pōlaand *palimay represent a pair, which is analogical to Northwest Germanic *mōra- ‘swampy soil’ and Germanic *mari- ‘sea’ (Udolph 1994: 135; cf. Darms 1978: 158–166). 2.2.2. Another language differing between the Indo-European voiced and voiced aspirated stops is Sanskrit. C.C. Uhlenbeck (1898: 99, 97) thought about a connection with Old English pōl m. ‘swamp, marsh’, Old High German pfuol ‘marsh, puddle, hole with liquid manure’, Lithuanian balà ‘mud, bog, marshy area; spilled water, puddle’ on the one hand and Sanskrit jambāla- ‘mud, clay, marsh’ (Pañcatantra, etc.) on the other hand. Uhlenbeck saw in the Sanskrit word a compound, where the first component should correspond to Vedic ³ The Old English origin has been ascribed to such insular Celtic forms as Middle Welsh (14th cent.), Welsh pwll ‘hole, pond, puddle; mine’, Old Cornish pol ‘puteus’, Middle Cornish pol ‘hole, well; ditch, moat’, Old Breton NL Pul-Bili, Middle Breton pul, poul, Breton poull ‘hole, ditch’; Irish poll ‘hole, opening in earth’ (Deshayes 2003: 595). Old English pull m. a-st./f. ō-st. ‘pond, bay’, with the variant pyll m. (a-st.) ‘narrow bay, arm of a river, pond’ > Middle English pil ‘narrow bay’, English pill id., are probably a back-borrowing from Brittonic. 14 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXVII Baltic *balā ‘mud, bog, marsh’ at the Indo-European Backdrop jmā- ‘earth’. On the other hand, Kuiper (1948: 60–61) saw here a loan of Mundic origin on the basis of Santali jab jab, job job, jobo, jobho ‘wet, moist, damp’, jobo ‘to dirty, wet, roll in mud or water’, jubhi ‘marshy, swampy, boggy’, Mundari jubhi, Ho jobe ‘mud’, Kharia jobhi ‘swampy ground’, etc. In principle, it is legitimate to think about a hypothetical hybrid Mundic – Indo-Aryan compound *jab-bālawhose both components bear a more or less identical meaning ‘mud’. The component *bālacould reflect both *beHlo- / *boHloand *boloin agreement with Lex Brugmann or its lengthened vṛddhivariant. Although this idea is attractive, it remains only a speculation. 2.2.3. A more probable relative could be found in the pre-Romance dialectism bola ‘swamp, marsh’, which was recorded in Piemont in North Italy and the canton Ticino/Tessin in South Swiss, in the locality Arbedo. Meyer-Lübke (1935: n. 1191b) thought about its Gaulish or Ligurian origin and identified its relatives in German Pfuhl and Lithuanian balà. But the Ligurian language was probably not used so far from the Mediterranean coast. Both Piemont and Ticino are territories where Lepontic was used. Independent of the Celtic4 or Ligurian origin of bola, the initial bcan reflect both IE *b- & *bh₁-, while the root-vowel o only IE *ō. 2.2.4. Duridanov (1969: 19) offered to connect the Dacian toponym Băλαυσον (Procopius of Caesarea, De Aedificiis 4.4: a castle in the district of Skassatena) with Old Prussian Bolausen, etymologizing both on the basis of Lithuanian balà ‘swamp, marsh’ or bãlas ‘white’, and the Lithuanian derivational suffix -aus-, which forms e.g. the Lithuanian hydronyms such as Lėtausas, Smukaušis. Alternatively, Duridanov thought about a compound whose second component should be the root *h₂eus- (cf. Pokorny 1959: 90; Kümmel, LIV 275–276), which forms such hydronyms as the name of the Italian river Ausa (cf. Krahe 1964: 44) or *Hous-(t-) > Old Prussian austo ‘mouth’, Russian ustje ‘river mouth’, etc. (Pokorny 1959: 784–85). 2.2.5. One could add yet another unrecognized cognate, Slavic *ob(b)lb ‘source, spring; well’.5 4 Kuryłowicz (1925: 208) tried to identify another Celtic candidate for relationship in some Gallo-Romance terms reflecting the hypothetical Gaulish starting-point *balko-, which is reconstructed on the basis of forms such as Old Provençal balc ‘humide’, Forzenish bauché ‘iris d’étang’, Dauphinish bauchi ‘foin de marais dont on fait litière au bétail’ (FEW I: 211). Wartburg (l.c.) further mentioned Romanian bâlc ‘swamp’ and Irish balc ‘getrockneter Lehm; Kruste, die sich infolge der Hitze auf der Oberfläche der Erde bildet’. The stem *balkois compatible with the forms analyzed in § 2.2. only if it is derived from *bl̥Hko- (cf. Zair 2012: 82–84). 5 In the Slavic languages there is a rich terminology applied to sources or wells: e.g. *ъzbrojb, *ъzтokъ, *ъzvоrъ, *ključь, *kolděžь, *krynica, *oko/*okъno, *ob(b)lb, *pormu, *rod(b)nikъ, *sopotъ, *stublb, *studnbja, *tyме, *virb, *v(b)rělo/*v(b)rоtъкъ/*v(b)rulja, *žerdlo (see Udolph 1979). Straipsniai / Articles 15 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK 2.2.5.1. In the appellative function it appears only in the South Slavic branch and on the northwest periphery of the West Slavic branch: Church Slavonic (of Russian redaction) оуболь ‘φρέαρ, puteum’, i.e. ‘well’, recorded in Патерикъ синайский, v. 143 (Sreznevskiј III: 1116): • жена нѣкто хѡлювива оуболь рѣяще u, злобину прѣмногоу копавши, не обрѣте воды (‘puteum fodit’). Възѧ стҍго (икону) и низьвѣсвивше его въ оуболь, абие скоро вода изиде въ кладязѣ. Although there are phonetic and morphological features of the East Slavic provenance in this text, the lexical Russisms are missing and so it is possible to accept the South Slavic origin of the word оуболь (cf. Sławski 1971: 445). • Bulgarian văbel (Pazardžik, Preslav, Northeast), vŏbel (Rodopi), vāmbel ‘source, spring, well’ (BER I: 201). • Macedonian jabel ‘hole filled with water, water hole, pool, source’, dial. jubel ‘pond’ (Stamatоski 1973: 78). • Serbian (Montenegro) ȕbao, gen. ȕbla ‘hole digged out in the earth, where the water is drawn; kind of well’ (Karadžić 1935: 788; Skok III: 533–34); Serbian arch. ub(b)la ‘piscina receptaculum aquae’: право нис потоком подь оуболь (Daničić 1864: 343); Serbian (Kosovo) ubo, ubla ‘measure of capacity (for liquids)’ (Ele zović 1935: 376). • Serbian > Albanian ubël, pl. ubla ‘well, shaft, hillside well’ (Popović 1960: 378; Sławski 1971: 448; Udolph 1979: 439; Orel 1998: 482 surprisingly connected the Albanian word with Gothic ubils ‘evil’). • Polabian *vǫbȧl ‘well’ is reconstructed on the basis of records such as Wumbȧl & Wůmbȧl ‘Brunnen’ (Hennig: Vocabularium Venedicum), Wungwool ‘Der Brunnen’ (Vocabularium et Phraseologicum Vandalicum), Wungwōl (Eccard), Wungwōl ‘Un puits’ (Pfeffinger) – see Polański 1994: 1040. 2.2.5.2. Taking in account the toponymic distribution of *ǫb(b)lъ and its derivatives, it is common in all Slavic branches: • Greece: NL Ἄμπλιανη, Ὀμπλού Μονή, Βαμπέλι, Βόμπλο (Vasmer 1941: 24, 80, 136, 190). Albania: NL Vunbeli – near the city of Elbasan (Udolph 1979: 440). • Bulgaria: NF Văbela – tributary of the Luda Kamčiјa river by Asparuhovo in the south of the Varna region; NL Văhel – Nikopolsko by the Danube in the north of Bulgaria; Văbela – by Levočево, the region of Smoljansko in the south of Bulgaria, etc. (BER I: 200). • Macedonia: NF Jâbel; NL Jablinje & Jablišta; Vumbel (Udolph 1979: 440–441). 16 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXVII Baltic *balā ‘mud, bog, marsh’ at the Indo-European Backdrop • Montenegro: Uba, gen. Ubla – 2 hydronyms by Nikšić; NF Uba – by Boka Kotorska; Ubliсa – by Danilovgrad; Ubalac – by Nikšić; NL Ubalac – by Podgorica (Udolph 1979: 440–441). • Croatia: Ubla – hydronym on the island of Brač; bay Ubli with two sources on the island of Lastovo; NF Ombla – by Dubrovnik (via the Italian mediation). • Slovenia: NF Ubel (first 1260); NL (Malo, Veliko) Ubelsko, 1402 Vbelczk (Bezlaj II: 282). Slovakia: NL Ubl’a, 1773, 1808 Ubly, Ubla – village by the city of Humenné (Majtán 1972: 433); NF Ubl’a = Ublianka (tributary of the Uh river) – district of Snina, northeast Slovakia and the adjacent part of Ukraine (Udolph 1979: 441; SHU 577). • Czechia: NL Úblo, 1377 Ubla – village by the city of Krnov; Ublo (from the 15th cent.) – village by the city of Vizovice (Hosák, Šrámek 1980: 628). • Germany: NL Wamlitz, 1261 Wammelitz – district of Randow; NF Vamleitz – by the city of Gusborn; Fammels – by the city of Tollendorf; Fummels – by the city of Teichlosen – all in the neighborhood of Hannover (Udolph 1979: 441). • Poland: NL Wąblany, 1470–1480 Wamblany, Wablani – district of Opoczno in south-central Poland; FN Ubłiczyn(y) – district of Hrubieszów in Southeast Poland; NL 1583 Ubliśče – district of Równe in Southeast Poland till 1939, today Rivne in Western Ukraine (Udolph 1979: 441). • Belarus: NL Úbel’ – to the southeast of Minsk (Udolph 1979: 441). • Russia: Ublja – hydronym at the border of the former Voroněž and Kursk guberniyas (Udolph 1979: 441). 2.2.5.3. Up to the present time several attempts have been offered to etymologize *qob(ъ)lъ: 2.2.5.3.1. Brückner (1918: 185) separated the South Slavic forms whose initial he derived from *vъ- (like Miklosich 1886: 396), from Polabian wungwool ‘well’, which he connected with Czech úval ‘valley basin’ and Polish wąwаl < *qvаlb. On the other hand, Skok (III: 534) tried to connect the South Slavic forms with Polish wąwаl. 2.2.5.3.2. Mladenov (1941: 85) judged that *qob(ъ)lъ represented an adaptation of Middle Greek ἔμβολος, but it did not mean ‘aqueduct’, but ‘roofed street’ (cf. also Vasmer III: 169 who rejected this idea). 2.2.5.3.3. Georgiev et al. (BER I: 200) saw a connection with Vedic ámbʰa- & ámbu- ‘water’, abᶦná- ‘rain cloud’; Young Avestan apʰraid.; Armenian amb & ampᶜ ‘cloud’; Greek ὄμβρος ‘rain’; Latin imber ‘rain’, although the reflexes *bʰ & *b vacillate here. The same idea was developed by Sławski (1971: 449) who determined the derivational suffix *-ъlъ, which he also identified in Slavic *ogъlъ ‘corner, angle’ ~ Latin angulus id., or Slavic *pъkъlъ ‘resin’ ~ Latin pix, gen. picis id. (cf. Sławski 1974: 111). Straipsniai / Articles 17 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK 2.2.5.3.4. Rozwadowski (1948: 238) accepted the South Slavic – Polabian isogloss with the initial prefix *ǫ-. His idea was developed by Sławski (1971: 449) who thought about the compound *ǫ- + *bʰelwhose Slavic continuants he identified e.g. in Polish dial. bełt ‘whirlpool’, Slovenian bôlt ‘gorge’ < *bъltъ, which may be supplemented by Ukrainian bouč ‘deep place in the river hollowed out by water’ < *bъltjb (ESJ/S 3: 120). 2.2.5.3.5. The present new etymology follows the ideas of Rozwadowski and Sławski but also modifies them. The Slavic prefix *ǫhad two functions: (1) ‘in, inside’; (2) ‘un-, -less, without’. (1a) Old Church Slavonic ǫdolъ m., ǫdolь f. ‘valley’, Polish wądoł, Russian udol id. vs. Old Church Slavonic dolъ ‘valley’ (Janyškóvá, ESJS 3: 139; Dunkel, LIPP 2: 224); (1b) Slavic *q̑vozъ > Serbo-Croatian úvoz ‘part of courtyard, which is the entrance for wagons’, Czech úvoz ‘valley basin’, Polish wąwóz ‘deep valley, hollowed road’ vs. Slavic *vozъ ‘wagon’ (Boryś 2005: 683); (2a) Old Church Slavonic ǫrodъ ‘foolish person, dunce’, Russian uród ‘crippled person’ vs. Old Czech neródcě ‘unreasonable or foolish person’, Old Church Slavonic neroditi ‘to neglect, disregard, not care’ (Janyškóvá, ESJS 10: 618; Šarapatková, ESJS 13: 773; Dunkel, LIPP 2: 535); (2b) Old Church Slavonic ǫtъbъ ‘holey’ vs. tъlo ‘bottom’, hence ‘holey’ < ‘bottomless’ (Janyškóvá, ESJS 10: 619–620; Dunkel, LIPP 2: 535). It is difficult to interpret *ǫin Slavic *ǫ-b(b)lъ as ‘in, inside’, since there is no adequate function for *b(b)lъ.⁶ Taking into account the negative function of the prefix *ǫ-, the independent root *b(b)lshould be more or less antonymous to the meaning ‘source, spring’. A good candidate for a cognate to the Slavic form *b(b)lin the zero-grade of ablaut may be Baltic *balā ‘mud, bog, marsh’ in the full (o) grade of ablaut. With regard to the preceding arguments, it is possible to analyze Slavic *ǫ-b(b)l° as a late IE compound *n-bl° ‘unmuddy’, similar to Greek ἄθολος ‘not turbid, clear’ (Luc. Hist. Conscr. 51) from θολος ‘mud, dirt (esp. in water)’ (Arist. Fr. 311). 6 Perhaps with the exception of the root *bʰleuH- > Greek φλύω ‘to seethe, boil over’; Latin fluō, -ere ‘to flow, run (of waters), fluvius ‘river’ (Schirmer, Kümmel, LIV 90; de Vaan 2008: 228), although the internal structure of Slavic *b(b)lъ remains uncertain, perhaps *bʰl̥Hu-? 18 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXVII Baltic *balā ‘mud, bog, marsh’ at the Indo-European Backdrop 3. SUMMARY OF THE PROBABLE INDO-EUROPEAN COGNATES Summing up, the closest cognates to Baltic *balā ‘mud, bog, marsh’ can be identified in West Germanic *pōla- ‘marsh, swamp’, with the apophonic variants *pali-, *pallo & *pulo, Lepontic or Cisalpine Gaulish (?) *bolā ‘marsh, swamp’, hypothetical Dacian *bal-, and Slavic *gъ(v)lb ‘source, spring; well’, interpretable as *n-blo ‘unmuddy’. 4. DISCUSSION OF THE HYPOTHETICAL ETYMOLOGY BASED ON THE ROOT *gʷebʰ- ‘MARSH, SWAMP, MUD’ Abstracting from the doubtful existence of Indo-Aryan *bāla- ‘mud’, these related forms are known only in the European branches of Indo-European. This limited geographic distribution and the initial *bqualifies the etymon among candidates on its pre-Indo-European origin, especially from the point of view of the Leiden Indo-European School (see explicitly. Boutkan, Siebinga 2005: 309; Kroonen 2013: 398). Paradoxically, other Leiden representatives offered a solution, which eliminates the argument of the initial *b-. In the dialogue with the present author Alexander Lubotsky (see also Pronk 2013: 4, referring to Lubotsky’s lecture on the same topic from June 18, 2012, Münster) mentioned another IE etymon with the initial *brepresented by Vedic bālan. ‘strength’, bálīyān ‘stronger’, báliṣṭha- ‘strongest’; Greek βελτίων & βέλτερον ‘better’, βέλτιστος & βέλτατος ‘best’; Latin dē-bilis ‘weak; crippled’; Old Church Slavonic bol’ii ‘bigger’, bolje ‘more’ (Brugmann 1897: 507, § 553; Pokorny 1959: 96; Šaur & Havlová, ESJS 2: 72). Lubotsky inferred the development of the initial *bin the consonant cluster *dbhʰ- > *db- > *b-, while both consonants were preserved in the forms of the full ablaut grade Old Church Slavonic debelьstvo ‘thickness, fatness; roughness’, udobelěti & udebelěti ‘to become fatty’; Latvian dàbls, dabl̷s ‘rank, abundant’, besides Old Prussian debīkan ‘big’ or Hittite dapiš ‘every, all; many’ without the l-extension (ESJS 4: 201–203; Skalka, ESJS 2: 125 mentioned the Slavic derivational suffix *-elb, forming also other adjectives, e.g. *tēželь, *veselь; Pronk 2013: 4). The reconstruction of the aspirated *bʰ is confirmed by the fact that before this labial there is no lengthened vowel in Balto-Slavic, while *b would imply the lengthening in agreement with Lex Winter & Kortlandt. A good candidate for the analogical solution is the IE root *gʷebʰ-: Straipsniai / Articles 19 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK • Armenian kaw ‘clay’ < *gʷobhō− (Olsen 1999: 24 reconstructs *gʷə̯bʰo−, but her reconstruction of the laryngeal in the root is supported only by Slavic *žàba ‘frog’ < *gʷəbʰā where the lengthened root-vowel may be explained as the effect of vr̥d̑hī⁷); • Proto-Germanic *kwabban- ‘marsh, swamp’⁸ > Icelandic kvap, kvapi ‘jelly, jelly-like fat’, Danish arch. kvabe ‘slime; jellyfish, medusa’, Danish dial. kvabbe ‘fatty animal’, Norwegian kvabb ‘muddy soil’, Nynorsk kvap ‘someting wet or raw’, Swedish dial. kvabb ‘something fatty and thick’; Old English *cwabba, reconstructed on the basis of Middle Latin (1185) quabba ‘marsh, swamp’, Middle English quabbe id., English dial. quab ‘muddy place’, West Frisian kwabbe, kwab ‘object consisting of a tender fat or flesh, very thick person; ling, kind of worm, sea medusa; clod’, Middle Dutch quappe ‘designation of numerous fish species’, Early Modern Dutch quabbe ‘designation of some fish’, ⁷ Proto-Slavic *žàba < *gʷəbʰā and Old Prussian gabawo < *gʷobʰeu̯a represent the same relation between the root-vowels as Proto-Slavic *vědro ‘bucket, pail’ and *voda ‘water’ or Proto-Germanic *wētą- ‘wet, moist, damp’ and *watar- / *watan- ‘water’ (Kroonen 2013: 583). ⁸ All the known appellatives were registered only after AD 1000. The first attestation could be shifted c. 900 years back if the ethnonym Κοβᾱνδοί from the Cimbr ian Peninsula (today Jutland) was of the same origin. It was recorded by Ptolemy in his Geographia (2.11.7): Τὴν δὲ παραωκεανῖτιν κατέχουσιν ὑπὲρ μὲν τοὺς Βρουχτέρους οἱ Φρίσιοι μέχρι τοῦ Ἀμισίου ποταμοῦ, μετὰ δὲ τούτους Καῦχοι οἱ μικροὶ μέχρι τοῦ Οὐισούργιος ποταμοῦ· εἶτα Καῦχοι οἱ μείζους μέχρι τοῦ Ἄλβιος ποταμοῦ. ἐφεξῆς δὲ ἐπὶ τὸν αὐχένα τῆς Κιμβρικῆς Ἐξερσονήσου Σάξονες, αὐτὴν δὲ τὴν χερσόνησον ὑπὲρ μὲν τοὺς Σάξονας Σιγούλωνες ἀπὸ δυσμῶν, εἶτα Σαβαλίγγιοι, εἶτα Κοβανδοί, ὑπὲρ οὓς Χάλοι, καὶ ἐπὶ ὑπὲρ τούτους δυσμικώτεροι μὲν Φουνδούσιοι, ἀνατολικώτεροι δὲ Χαροῦδες, πάντων δ’ ἀρκτιώτεροι Κίμβροι. “The shore by the Ocean is inhabited above the Br u cteri up to the Amisia river, and after these the Cauchi minores up to the Visurgis river; then the Cauchi maiores up to the Albis river; from there to the isthmus of the Cimbr ian Peninsula the Saxones, the peninsula proper above the Saxones from the west the Sigulones, then the Sabalingii, then the Cobandi, above which the Chali, and still above these to the west the Fundusii, to the east the Charudes, most to the north the Cimbri.” Available at: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Periods/Roman/_Texts/Ptolemy/2/10.html. If Κοβανδοί was corrected as *Κοαβανδοί, it would be possible to interpret them as *kwabanda− *“people from swamps”. This interpretation could be at least indirectly supported by the interpretation of the following ethnonym Χάλοι as **“people from rocks” with regard to Gothic acc. sg. hallu ‘rock’, Old Runic halaz ‘stone’, Old Norse hallr ‘stone’, Old English heall id. (Lehmann 1986: 174), maybe representing the semantic opposition to the Κοβανδοί. The same participial suffix can be identified in other ethnonyms as Auganzi (Jordanes, Getica 60.2) if it reflects *augandia− or Burgundii (Ammianus 18.2.15), Burgundiones (Plinius 4.99), Burgunziones (Jordanes 83.5) from *burgundja(n)-, *“people with forts” (see Schönfeld, bearb., 1911: 37–38, 55–58). The attempt of Zeuss (1837: 152) to connect Κοβανδοί with other Germanic ethnonyms, apparently of heterogenous origin, Χαῦβοι (Strabo), Aviones (Tacitus), Ὄβιοι (Petrus Patricius), Chaviones & Chaibones (Mamertinus), remains unconvincing. 20 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXVII Baltic *balā ‘mud, bog, marsh’ at the Indo-European Backdrop also ‘frog’, Modern Dutch kwab, kwabbe ‘designation of various fish species’, further ‘lump, bump, lobe, jowl; soft mass of water plants’, East Dutch quabbe ‘ling, gudgeon; frog’, Middle Low German quebbe, queb, quobbe, quöbbe ‘marsh, swamp’, quappe ‘fresh-water fish, ling’, Old High German (11ᵗʰ cent.) quappa ‘fish with a broad head; ling, gudgeon’, German Quappe ‘ling’, besides ‘larvae of various amphibia’, especially ‘tadpole’ (EWAhd VII: cc. 10–13; Kroonen 2013: 314 convincingly explains the geminate through Lex Kluge via levelling the paradigm of the primary n-stem: *kwabō, gen. *kwappaz; his projection of the root-vowel *a into the syllabic realization of the laryngeal *h₁ is implicitly supported only by Slavic *žaba ‘frog’ < *gʷebh̄ā). • Baltic: Old Prussian gabawo ‘toad’ < West Baltic *gabau̯ā < Proto-Baltic *gabeu̯ā (Mažiulis 2013: 201) < *gʷobʰ-. • Proto-Slavic *žaba ‘frog’, East Slavic ‘toad’ > Old Church Slavonic žaba & žeba (both Ps.Sin.), Bulgarian žába, Macedonian žába, Serbo-Croatian žȁba, Slovenian žába, Slovak žaba, Czech žába, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian žába, Polabian zobó, Pomerian Slovincian žaba, Polish żaba, Polish dial. ziaba, Belarusian žába, dial. źjаба, žéba, Ukrainian, Russian žába (Janyšková, ESJS 19: 1144; Derksen 2008: 553 reconstructs the pre-Slavic protoform as *gʷeb-eh₂with the automatic lengthening of the vowel before *-bin agreement with the law of Winter & Kortlandt. But it should also operate in the Baltic languages, while the root-vowel of Old Prussian gabawo does not undoubtedly reflect any long root-vowel). • The Balto-Slavic designation of ‘frog’ or ‘toad’ was probably derived from their milieu, swamp or marsh, via the suffixal extension in Baltic and as the vṛddhi-formation in Slavic. 5. DISCUSSION OF THE l- SUFFIX It remains to determine the l-suffix. According to the survey of Brugmann (1906: 369–370, 374), there are three suffixal extensions in Indo-European, which can be taken in account: 5.1. *Rolo-/-ā < *Ro-lo-/-eh₂- (R = root). Gothic slahals ‘bully’ vs. slahan ‘to strike’, etc. (Brugmann 1906: 367); Lithuanian draũgalas ‘companion; adulterer’, draugala ‘bride, concubine’ vs. draũgas ‘partner, friend, ally’ (Smoczyński 2018: 242; Otrębski 1965: 111); Slavic *vъrxolъ ‘top, peak’ vs. *vъrxъ ‘hill’ or *gъrbolъ ‘bulge’ vs. *gъrbъ ‘hump’ (Sławski 1974: 109). 5.2. *Rālo-/-ā < *Reh₂-lo-/-eh₂-. Straipsniai / Articles 21 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK Greek σιγηλός, Doric σιγᾱλός ‘silent, mute’ vs. σιγή, Doric σιγᾱ ‘silence’; Latin animalis ‘living, animate’ vs. anima ‘breath’, ūtilis ‘of life, life-giving’ vs. vīta ‘life’, etc. (Brugmann 1906: 369). 5.3. *Rolo-/-ā̄. Greek φειδωλός ‘sparing, thrifty, niggard’, φειδωλή ‘a sparing’ vs. φειδώ ‘sparingness, thrift, parsimony’ (Brugmann 1906: 370) < *bheidōi. Apparently, only the alternatives 5.1. and 5.2. are compatible in the morphological perspective, since they represent the l-extensions of the oand ā- (= eh₂-)stems. 6. FATE OF THE CLUSTER mediae + mediae aspiratae The root *gᵘeʰbʰextended by the l-suffix would be reduced to *gᵘbʰ-, which should be further deaspired in *gᵘband simplified in *bin agreement with Alexander Lubotsky. Let us verify the behavior of such a cluster. In the Indo-European languages the cluster of mediae + mediae aspiratae of various series has been preserved in inlaut in various ways. First of all, it is necessary to analyze in detail the branches where mediae and mediae aspiratae are transparently differentiated: • Vedic instr. pl. padbhís, dat. pl. padbhyās, abl. -instr. du. padbhyām, from pād- ‘foot’; cf. Young Avestan instr. pl. padə̄bias-ca. Vedic 2 pl. med. aug. áyugdʰvam from the verbal root yuj- ‘to join’ (Macdonell 2000: 51, 410). • Greek ἐτρίφθην vs. τρίβω or ἐλέχθην vs. λέγω, while Mycenaean po-pi reflects *ποσφι < *ποδφι (Lejeune 1972: 69, § 56). • Latin affero < *ad-fero vs. fero ‘I bring, carry’, besides adhibeo ‘I hold toward’ vs. habeo ‘I hold, keep, possess’; Umbrian ar̄fertur < *ad-fertor ‘Darbringer’ < *ad-bʰer-, Oscan adfust 3 sg. fut. II < *ad-bʰuh₂- (Untermann 2000: 48–49, 248). • Gothic waurhta, Runic worʰto, Old English worhte, Old Saxon, Old High German wor(a)hta ‘I worked’ (Antonsen 1975: 45) < Common Germanic *wurhtō (cf. Ringe 2006: 268) < Proto-Germanic *wurk-dōm < Late IE *ur̥g-dʰōm (cf. Sverdrup 1929: 94–95). It is apparent that if the second member of the cluster was the aspirated voiced stop, it would be preserved even in the case of elimination of the first (unaspirated voiced) stop in the initial position.⁹ The only exception is ⁹ This conclusion excludes any possibility of the Indo-Aryan continuant of the hypothetical formation *gᵘbʰV̄lo, which should develop into *bV̄lo. The same conclusion is valid for Vedic 22 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXVII Baltic *balā ‘mud, bog, marsh’ at the Indo-European Backdrop Germanic where the expected cluster *-kđwas shifted to *-ht-. This cluster cannot exist in the initial position and would be simplified as *t-. Applying the same mechanism to the cluster *gᵘbʰ, the result should be Common Germanic *hᵘp simplified in the initial position as *p-. 7. CONCLUSION Summing up, Baltic *balā; Celtic *bolā; ?Dacian *bal-; Slavic *ǫ-bъlъ can really be analyzed as the l-extensions of the synonym *gᵘe bʰ-, since the voiced and voiced aspirated stops merge in these branches. In Germanic, where they are differentiated, the specific development of their cluster probably leads to p-. On the other hand, for the series of traditionally accepted cognates as Vedic bálān. ‘strength’, bálīyān ‘stronger’, báliṣṭha- ‘strongest’; Greek βελτίων & βέλτερον ‘better’, βέλτιστος & βέλτατος ‘best’; Latin dē-bilis ‘weak; crippled’; Old Church Slavonic bol’ii ‘bigger’, bolьje ‘more’ (see § 4), any analogical scenario proposed by Lubotsky, operating with the development *dbʰ- > *db- > *b-, cannot be accepted, with exception of Slavic (see fn. 9). Naturally, the alternative with the primary *bremains in a play and offers two etymons¹⁰ whose word-formation is more transparent than in the case of the hypothetical initial clusters *gᵘbʰ- & *dbʰ-. 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Bengtson for his correction of English. 28 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXVII Baltic *balā ‘mud, bog, marsh’ at the Indo-European Backdrop Baltų *balā ‘purvas, liūnas, pelkė’ indoeuropiečių kalbų kontekste S A N T R A U K A Straipsnyje aptariami artimiausi gimin iški žodžiai baltiškam terminui *balā ‘purvas, liūnas, pelkė’, kurie yra traktuojami kaip sinonimai vakarų germanų *pōlair *pali-, islandų pula, keltų *bōlā ir dakų kalbos toponimui Bălăușov. Šios formos jau anksčiau buvo laikomos baltiškajai formai giminiškais žodžiais. Straipsnyje įvedamas ir slaviškas terminas *g(b)lъ versmė, šaltinis; šulinys’, kuris čia analizuojamas kaip *n-blъ ‘nepurvinas’ = ‘skaidrus (vanduo)’. Germaniška žodžio pradžios *pnurodo retą ide. *b-. Straipsnyje analizuojama, ar šis etnonas galėtų būti nulinio balsių kaitos laipsnio šaknį *gʷebh- ‘liūnas, pelkė’ praplečiančio elemento -lpavyzdys, remiantis Aleksandro Lubotskio idėja apie progresyvinę asimiliaciją žodžio pradžios junginyje, šiuo atveju *gʷbʰ- > *gʷb- > *b-. Atsakymas yra „taip“, tačiau sąlygos yra tokios sudėtingos, kad tradicinė rekonstrukcija su žodžio pradžios *bir pailgėjusiu u̯ardhi dariniu germanų kalbose atrodo priimtinesnė versija. Įteikta 2022 m. birželio 27 d. VÁCLAV BLAŽEK Department of Linguistics and Baltic Studies Masaryk University Nováka 1, CZ-60200 Brno [email protected] Straipsniai / Articles 29