- If we presume, however, that ürt, like rt, had preserved the vocalic length and finally evolved into ryt, exactly as rt into rat, then the Common Slavic ryba ‘fish’ obtains a semantically warrantable etymology. We agree with A. Vaillant (RES IX, 123–5) that the rapprochement of this word with OHG ruppa ‘caterpillar’ is arbitrary and that the second syllable -ba is to be identified with the well-known Balto-Slavic suffix of abstract nouns. But his interpretation of the first syllable as the verbal root ry- “dig” is far-fetched, while the root *ūr- ‘water, swamp, pond’, attested in all Baltic languages (see R. Trautmann, Baltisch-Slavisches Wörterbuch, 335) finds here its full motivation: ‘aquatics’, perhaps originally an abstract taboo substitute in use among fishermen.
- A group with a “diphthongal syllabic center”, according to the excellent study by A. Ābele based on Latvian and Lithuanian diphthongs: K voprosu o sloge, Slavia, III.
- See especially L. Bulaxovskij in Movoznavstvo VII, 1936, and Izvestija AN SSSR, Old. lit. i jaz. V, 1946; V. Rozov in Recueil des travaux du Ier Congrès des philologues slaves à Praha en 1929 II, 1932.
- L'. Novák, Prípady rat-, lat- za praslov. *ołt-, *ołt- v slovenčině = Spisy jazykového odboru Matice slovenskej I (1933).
- Cf. A. Martinet, “Langues à syllables ouvertes: le cas du slave commun,” Zeitschrift f. Phonetik u. allgem. Sprachwissenschaft VI, 1952, 145–63.
WORD
Volume 8, 1952 - Issue 4: Slavic Word No. 1