Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/čьrnota

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

From *čьrnъ (“black”) +‎ *-ota (“-ness”).

Noun

*čьrnota f

1. blackness

Inflection

Declension of *čьrnota (hard a-stem)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*čьrnota	*čьrnotě	*čьrnoty
genitive	*čьrnoty	*čьrnotu	*čьrnotъ
dative	*čьrnotě	*čьrnotama	*čьrnotamъ
accusative	*čьrnotǫ	*čьrnotě	*čьrnoty
instrumental	*čьrnotojǫ, *čьrnotǫ**	*čьrnotama	*čьrnotami
locative	*čьrnotě	*čьrnotu	*čьrnotasъ, *čьrnotaxъ*
vocative	*čьrnoto	*čьrnotě	*čьrnoty

^* -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).

Descendants

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: чьрнота (čĭrnota), чернота (černota)
    • Old Ruthenian: чорнота́ (čornotá)
      • Belarusian: чарната́ (čarnatá)
      • Ukrainian: чорнота́ (čornotá)
    • Russian: чернота́ (černotá)
• South Slavic:
  • Bulgarian: чернота̀ (černotà)
  • Slovene: črnóta (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Czech: černota
  • Slovak: černota, čiernota

Further reading

• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1977), “*čьrnota”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 4 (*čaběniti – *děľa), Moscow: Nauka, page 154