Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/ryba

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

Uncertain.

The central Indo-European word for "fish" *dʰǵʰu- (“fish”) (yielding Ancient Greek ἰχθύς (ikhthús), Lithuanian žuvìs, Old Armenian ձուկն (jukn)) would have given Proto-Slavic v-stem **zy (genitive **zъve, accusative **zъvь), and was, as the theory goes, avoided by fishermen due to taboo, or because it would have sounded too similar to the verb *zъvati (“to call”).

Some of the proposed etymologies include:

Toporov: From Early Proto-Slavic *rų̄bā, which is then comparable to *rębъ (“speckled, motley, variegated”), with fish scales being the semantic connection. For a similar development compare *pьstry (“salmonid fish”), originally "the colorful/variegated one" < *pьstrъ (“variegated”).
Loewenthal: From earlier *rų̄bā, but instead from Proto-Indo-European *wremb- (“to twist around”), akin to Proto-Germanic *wrimpaną (“to wince”), Ancient Greek ῥέμβω (rhémbō, “to roam, to turn in circles”). Doubted by Vasmer.
Vaillant: Perhaps originally a collection/action noun from *ryti (“to dig, to snout”) +‎ *-ba, initially referring to the process “fishing” and later (by abstraction) to the yield “fish”.
Mladenov: Akin to Proto-Slavic *ruxъ (“movement, deformation”), *ryxlъ (“swift, quick”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃rew- (“to hurry”).
Jakobson, Schmalstieg, Snoj: From Proto-Balto-Slavic *jūˀr- (“water, swamp, pond”), whence Lithuanian jū́ra (“sea”), Latvian jūra (“sea”) and perhaps akin to Proto-Slavic *juriti (“to charge, to plunge”), *jurъkъ (“whisk, agile”), with a rare metathesis *ūr- > *rū- + the suffix *-ba for forming abstract nouns.

Early scholars (Uhlenbeck, Berneker, Mikkola, Walde-Hofmann) had tentatively compared the Slavic word with Old High German rūppa (“caterpillar”) or Latin rubēta (“bramble toad”), which nowadays are commonly viewed as unrelated.

Noun

*rỳba f[1][2]

fish

Inflection

Declension of *rỳba (hard a-stem, accent paradigm a)

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*rỳba	*rỳbě	*rỳby
Accusative	*rỳbǫ	*rỳbě	*rỳby
Genitive	*rỳby	*rỳbu	*rỳbъ
Locative	*rỳbě	*rỳbu	rỳbasъ, rỳbaxъ^*
Dative	*rỳbě	*rỳbama	*rỳbamъ
Instrumental	rỳbojǫ, rỳbǭ^**	*rỳbama	*rỳbamī
Vocative	*rỳbo	*rỳbě	*rỳby

^* -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).

Derived terms

*rybica, *rybъka, *rybokъ (diminutive)
*rybařь (“fisherman”)
*rybakъ (“fisher”)
*rybьnъ, *rybavъ, *ryběstъ (relative adjectives)

Descendants

East Slavic:
- Old East Slavic: рꙑба (ryba), риба (riba)
  - Belarusian: ры́ба (rýba)
  - Russian: ры́ба (rýba)
  - Rusyn: ры́ба (rŷ́ba)
  - Ukrainian: ри́ба (rýba)
South Slavic:
- Old Church Slavonic:
  Old Cyrillic: рꙑба (ryba)
  Glagolitic: ⱃⱏⰺⰱⰰ (ryba)
- Bulgarian: ри́ба (ríba)
- Macedonian: ри́ба (ríba)
- Serbo-Croatian:
  Cyrillic: ри̏ба
  Latin: rȉba
  - Chakavian (Vrgada): rȉba
  - Chakavian (Orbanići): rȉba
  - Chakavian (Orlec): rȉba
  - Chakavian (Iž): rȉba
  - Chakavian (Komiža): rȉba
  - Kajkavian (Varaždin): r'iba
  - Kajkavian (Ozalj): rȉba
- Slovene: ríba (tonal orthography)
West Slavic:
- Old Czech: ryba
  - Czech: ryba
    - Bohemian (Chod dialect): ryjba
- Kashubian: rëba
- Polabian: råibo
- Old Polish: ryba
  - Polish: ryba
- Slovak: ryba
- Slovincian: rȧ̃bă
- Sorbian:
  - Upper Sorbian: ryba
  - Lower Sorbian: ryba

References

Olander, Thomas (2001), “ryba ryby”, in Common Slavic accentological word list, Copenhagen: Editiones Olander: “a (SA 166, 172; PR 132; MP 19; RPT 107, 109)”
Snoj, Marko (2016), “riba”, in Slovenski etimološki slovar³ (in Slovene), https://fran.si: “Pslovan. *ry̋ba”

[1] Olander, Thomas (2001), “ryba ryby”, in Common Slavic accentological word list, Copenhagen: Editiones Olander: “a (SA 166, 172; PR 132; MP 19; RPT 107, 109)”

[2] Snoj, Marko (2016), “riba”, in Slovenski etimološki slovar³ (in Slovene), https://fran.si: “Pslovan. *ry̋ba”