< Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic
Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/lęťa
 | This Proto-Slavic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence. |
Proto-Slavic
Etymology
Probably a wandering word from an unknown substrate (potentially non-Indo-European). Cognate with Lithuanian lęšis, Old High German linsa, Latin lēns. Vasmer excludes a direct borrowing from Germanic or Latin for phonetic reasons.
In some daughter languages, the lentil seeds are alternatively called with the generic term *sočivo, *sočevica (literally: “juicy commodity”), indicating that the crop was introduced among Slavic people in several stages. The first secure attestation of the plant in Northeastern Europe dates to XIII century[1].
Noun
*lę́ťa f[2]
- lentil
Declension
Declension of *lęťa (soft a-stem)
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | *lęťa | *lęťi | *lęťę̇ |
| Accusative | *lęťǫ | *lęťi | *lęťę̇ |
| Genitive | *lęťę̇ | *lęťu | *lęťь |
| Locative | *lęťi | *lęťu | *lęťasъ, *lęťaxъ* |
| Dative | *lęťi | *lęťama | *lęťamъ |
| Instrumental | *lęťejǫ, *lęťǫ** | *lęťama | *lęťami |
| Vocative | *lęťe | *lęťi | *lęťę̇ |
* -asъ is the expected Balto-Slavic form but is found only in some Old Czech documents; -axъ is found everywhere else and is formed by analogy with other locative plurals in -xъ.
** The second form occurs in languages that contract early across /j/ (e.g. Czech), while the first form occurs in languages that do not (e.g. Russian).
** The second form occurs in languages that contract early across /j/ (e.g. Czech), while the first form occurs in languages that do not (e.g. Russian).
Descendants
- East Slavic:
- Old East Slavic: лѧча (lęča), лѧца (lęca)
- Russian: ляча (ljača) (obsolete ?)
- → Latvian: lēca
- Old East Slavic: лѧча (lęča), лѧца (lęca)
- South Slavic:
- Old Church Slavonic:
- Old Cyrillic: лѧща (lęšta)
- Glagolitic: ⰾⱔⱋⰰ (lęšta)
- Bulgarian: ле́ща (léšta)
- Macedonian: леќа (leḱa)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: ле́ћа
- Latin: léća
- Slovene: lẹ́ča (tonal orthography) (‹ *lęča)
- → Hungarian: lencse (“lentil”)
- → Ukrainian: ле́нча (lénča), ли́нча (lýnča), ле́мша (lémša)
- → Hungarian: lencse (“lentil”)
- Old Church Slavonic:
References
- Жуковский, Пётр (1978) Культурные растения и их сородичи, Колос
- Snoj, Marko (2016), “leča”, in Slovenski etimološki slovar3 (in Slovene), https://fran.si: “Pslovan. *lę́t'a”
Further reading
- Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), “ляча”, in Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), transl. and suppl. by Oleg Trubachyov, Moscow: Progress
- Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1988), “*lętja”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological Dictionary of Slavic Languages] (in Russian), issue 15 (*lětina – *lokačь), Moscow: Nauka, →ISBN, page 64
- Georgiev V. I., editor (1986), “леща”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 3, Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, page 383