igalo

Serbo-Croatian

FWOTD – 14 May 2021

Etymology

Via unattested Dalmatian from Ancient Greek αἰγιαλός (aigialós). The Greek word is also the source of Ottoman Turkish یالی (yalı), borrowed as jálija.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ǐɡalo/

Noun

ìgalo n (Cyrillic spelling ѝгало)

1. (Chakavian) bank, shore, brim of a body of water
   • 1947, Vladimir Nazor, Bijeli jelen, section 3.1:

     I ona zapjeva onako, kako ju je naučila malena ptica ševa: […]
     “Oj, da mi je jelen b‘jeli
     Na bistru potoku!
     Jahala bih na igalo,
     Sunce bi mi u pram palo.
     Sunce na istoku!
     Sunce na istoku!”

     And she sings out in the fashion which the small lark has taught her: […]
     “Oh, if only there was a white deer for me
     Upon the clear stream!
     I’d ride to the shore,
     The sun would fall into my locks of hair,
     The sun in the east,
     The sun in the east!”

Declension

Declension of igalo

	singular	plural
nominative	igalo	igala
genitive	igala	igala
dative	igalu	igalima
accusative	igalo	igala
vocative	igalo	igala
locative	igalu	igalima
instrumental	igalom	igalima

References

• Skok, Petar (1955) “Sur l’element grec de l’ancien dalmate”, in Revue de Linguistique Romane (RLiR) (in French), volume 19, number 2, pages 228 of 227–230
• “igalo” in Hrvatski jezični portal