Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/cěsařь
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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
Alternative forms
Reconstruction
Vocalism of the initial syllable is uncertain. Attested forms point to reconstructions *cěsarjь, *cesarjь and *cьsarjь. The first two are attested in OCS and CS. CS additionally contains attestations for cьsarь and carь in Russian, Serbian and Bulgarian Church Slavonic. The form *cьsarjь has been explained as a common shortening of a form of address for persons; compare English king < Germanic *kuningaz, English miss < mistress.
Reflexes of *cěsarjь are attested in the NW parts of Slavdom. The form *cesarjь underpins the Western South Slavic forms, whereas the Bulgarian, Serbian and Russian CS forms reflect *cьsarjь.
This variation could come from two reasons:
- lateness of borrowing, when Common Slavic already began disintegrating into different dialects
- the term was borrowed multiple times
Etymology
Ultimately from Caesar, the name of Julius Caesar, whose name became part of the Roman emperor's title. The name was very early borrowed into Germanic as *kaisaraz, whence it was borrowed into Slavic from an unknown source.
The most commonly regarded etymon cited in the literature is Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌰𐍂 (kaisar), though such assignment is problematic. Old High German and Old Saxon forms with the suffix -ur are less plausible etymons. Formal mismatches with Gothic form include:
- Germanic short */a/ regularly yields */o/ in Common Slavic, and the reconstructions for the vowel suffix point to a short */a/. The regular suffix from the Gothic form would have been **-or.
- Even if we are dealing with analogical leveling to the productive agentive suffix *-ārjь, this still doesn't fully explain the short vowel. Slovene form points to a short suffixal vowel, since the accent retracted from short final vowels.
- If the short suffixal */-a-/ represents a late borrowing, after the Common Slavic rephonemicization of qualitative oppositions into quantitative ones, then this would exclude Gothic as the donor languages because the Goths lost their dominance in the Pontic region around the fifth century, well before such process took place.
Noun
*cěsařь m (accent paradigm B)
Declension
| singular | dual | plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | *cěsařь | *cěsařa | *cěsaři |
| genitive | *cěsařa | *cěsařu | *cěsařь |
| dative | *cěsařu | *cěsařema | *cěsařemъ |
| accusative | *cěsařь | *cěsařa | *cěsařę̇ |
| instrumental | *cěsařьmь, *cěsařemь* | *cěsařema | *cěsaři |
| locative | *cěsaři | *cěsařu | *cěsařixъ |
| vocative | *cěsařu | *cěsařa | *cěsaři |
Descendants
For forms *cěsarjь and *cesarjь:
References
- Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “царь”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
- Pronk-Tiethoff, Saskia E. (2013) The Germanic loanwords in Proto-Slavic[1], Amsterdam - New York: Rodopi, →ISBN, page 99ff