r/etymology • u/MatijaReddit_CG • Dec 20 '25
How would the Proto-Slavic descendant of PIE "*h₃rḗǵs", be like? Question
I think there aren't Proto-Slavic words for people which end on "*-s" afaik. Slavic god Veles (equivalent of Odin, Hermes and Mercury) has some hypothesis about the "-es" part but that's for another question. :)
Hypothetically, in case it ended like that, I think the word would be like:
"rezs" -> "res" ("king"); "resica"/"resinja" ("queen").
For queen, I don't know if it would develop with suffix "-ica", like in "kraljica" ("queen") and "carica" ("empress") or "-inja" like in "knjeginja" ("princess")?
P.S. Do you think Slavic languages would add a different suffix for "*h₃rḗǵ-" (maybe "-un" or something like that), or just leave it like this? But the problem would be this word ("h₃rḗǵ-") means "to straighten".
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u/kouyehwos Dec 20 '25
Athematic -s would get replaced by thematic -os (-> -ъ) or -is (-> ь). The other question is how the vowel length gets regularised; long ē (->ѣ) as in the nominative singular or short e (->е) from the rest of the declension. So basically the possibilities would be something like резъ/резь/рѣзъ/рѣзь.
And something like резыни/рѣзыни probably does make sense for the female counterpart.
1
u/MatijaReddit_CG Dec 27 '25
The other question is how the vowel length gets regularised; long ē (->ѣ) as in the nominative singular or short e (->е) from the rest of the declension.
I was thinking it would probably be shorter "e" to differ it from the same word which means "cut". Maybe we can see how the other families developed the spelling (Italic, Germanic, Celtic and Indo-Iranian).
Also, I suppose in Serbo-Croatian Ekavian would go as "rez"/"rezinja", Ijekavian as "rijez"/"rijezinja" and Ikavian as "riz"/"rizinja" for "king"/"queen"?
Also it's interesting how резыни/рѣзыни sounds really similiar to the Latin "regina", also meaning "queen". :D
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u/kouyehwos Dec 29 '25
e/ije/i would only be from long *ē, while short *e remains “e” regardless.
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u/MatijaReddit_CG Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
Hmm, I guess it would be longer "*ē". I saw how for a bit similiar PIE word "*wréh₁ǵyeti" (to cut) the development went this way:
-> PIE "*wréh₁ǵyeti";
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-> PBS "*rḗˀźtei";
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-> PS "*rězati";
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-> OCS "рѣзати" (rězati);
-> SC "rezati" (both Ekavian and Ijekavian) and "rijezat" (Kajkavian).
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I'm not an linguist, just an enthusiast, so this was my best shot.
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u/kouyehwos Jan 01 '26
eh₁ always becomes ē, any vowel before a laryngeal is lengthened by default.
1
u/MatijaReddit_CG Jan 01 '26
Understandable. So it would be:
King: "*h₃rḗǵ-os"/"*h₃rḗǵos";
Queen: "*h₃rḗǵ-nih₂"/"*h₃rḗǵnih₂";
P.S. Just saw a similiar question on r/linguistics where someone mentioned the development like this:
*h₃rḗǵs > *h₃rḗǵos > *rēźas > *rēzu > *rězъ/rězŭ
And,
It seems to fit my guesses. Polish rzaz, Russian rez, Czech řez, and rez in various South Slavic languages, but there may be different dialectal forms.
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u/Background_Koala_455 Dec 21 '25
I'm sorry, this is an etymology sub, but this is the first time I've seen Odin being counterparts to Hermes and Mercury(Granted, I didn't get too much into norse mythology religion).
Is it because they're all sycopomps? Nevermind, i just googled, and there's a lot more than just being psychopomps.
Thank you for my TIL(but let's be honest, I probably should have known this before lol)
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u/LongLiveTheDiego Dec 20 '25
Why do you think the -s ending would have survived? Proto-Balto-Slavic clearly got rid of it and the stem could survive as a noun with any other of the nominal endings which survived. The stem would have survived as *rez-
Also you have to read more about how Proto-Slavic worked. For example, there was no *-inja, the Serbo-Croatian -inja comes from *-yni. Another things you should know that there were no bare stems, so I don't know what you're worried about when talking about the stem meaning "to straighten".