Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/maca
Proto-Slavic
editEtymology
editLikely onomatopoeic.
Compare German Mieze (“pussy, pussycat, female cat”), Mietzchen (“pussy, kitty”), French matou (“tomcat”), Albanian mace (“cat”).
Noun
edit*maca f
Inflection
editDeclension of *maca (soft a-stem)
singular | dual | plural | |
---|---|---|---|
nominative | *maca | *maci | *macę̇ |
genitive | *macę̇ | *macu | *macь |
dative | *maci | *macama | *macamъ |
accusative | *macǫ | *maci | *macę̇ |
instrumental | *macejǫ, *macǫ** | *macama | *macami |
locative | *maci | *macu | *macasъ, *macaxъ* |
vocative | *mace | *maci | *macę̇ |
* -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).
Derived terms
edit- *macę, *mačę (“kitten, kitty”)
- *macьkъ / *macьka / *mačьkъ / *mačьka
- *mačerъ (“cat”)
- *mačęťь (“cat's, feline, catlike”)
- *mačьjь (“cat's, feline, catlike”)
See also
editDescendants
edit- South Slavic:
Further reading
edit- Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1990), “*maca”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 17 (*lъžь – *matješьnъjь), Moscow: Nauka, →ISBN, page 110