See also: barza

Romanian edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

Compare Aromanian bardzu (white (of horses and mules)): both it and the Romanian word may derive from Proto-Albanian *bardza (white), akin to Albanian bardhë (white).

Another theory suggests that its origin is a Vulgar Latin root *gardea, from Latin ardea (compare Spanish garza (heron), Portuguese garça, also French barge (godwit)). The confusion of g and b is somewhat unusual, but may be explained as a Balkan influence. Other cases in Romanian include limbă, rug, negură, întreba (compare also Sardinian bula, from Latin gula).[1]

A third proposal is borrowing from a Dacian *barza meaning "stork", derived from a Proto-Indo-European root *sr̥ǵos, also reflected in e.g. English stork, Ancient Greek πελαργός (pelargós).[2]

Alternatively, the Romanian word may derive from Paleo-Balkan, possibly from or via Dacian, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰórh₁ǵos (gleaming, shining). Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian [dz] excludes the root *barza, requiring instead *bardza. The sound change from Proto-Indo-European "sr̥" is only attested for Thracian [br] in βρία (vría, city) but, due to its conspicuity, it is uncertain whether it occurred as well in Dacian and with a vowel in between. These etymologies don't explain the regional variants bardăș and bardoș, that provide evidence for [d] in the term of origin and could solely be explained by another borrowing from early unattested Old Albanian *bardë or bardhë.

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Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

barză f (plural berze)

  1. stork
    Synonym: (rare) cocostârc

Declension edit

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Descendants edit

Ukrainian: ба́рза (bárza)

Adjective edit

barză

  1. feminine singular of barz

References edit

  1. ^ barză in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)
  2. ^ Witczak, Krzysztof Tomasz. 1991. "Indo-European *sr̥C in Germanic". Historische Sprachforschung 104:1, pp. 106–107.

See also edit