Latvian

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 sāls on Latvian Wikipedia
 
Sāls

Etymology

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From Proto-Baltic *sal-, *sāl-, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *sāˀlis, from Proto-Indo-European *sal-, *seh₂l- (salt, sea salt), perhaps related to the homophonous stem *sal- (grayish, impure gray).

In Latvian, both an i-stem (*salis) and an iyo-stem (*saliyos > *saliys > *salis) were formed, yielding present-day sāls, feminine, genitive sāls, and sāls, masculine, genitive sāļa. Cognates include Lithuanian sólymas (salt water, brine) (< *solis), Old Prussian sal, Old Church Slavonic соль (solĭ), Russian соль (solʹ), Ukrainian сіль (silʹ), genitive соли (soly), Bulgarian сол (sol), Czech sůl, Polish sól, Proto-Germanic *saltą (Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐍄 (salt), Old High German salz, German Salz, English salt), Old Irish salann, Ancient Greek ἅλς (háls), genitive ἁλός (halós), Latin sāl, genitive sālis, Sanskrit सलिल (salilá, salty).[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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sāls f or m (6th or 2nd declension, irregular nominative, genitive)

  1. salt (white crystalline substancesodium chloride or NaCl — used for seasoning food)
    vārāmais sālscommon (lit. cooking) salt
    ēdieniem par maz sālsthe food has too little salt
  2. (chemistry) salt (result of a chemical reaction between an acid and a base)
    fosforskābes sālsphosphoric acid salt
    sērskābes saļi jeb sulfātisulfuric acid salts, also known as sulphates

Usage notes

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Although officially a feminine sixth-declension noun in standard Latvian, sāls is often used in colloquial Latvian as a masculine second-declension noun.

Declension

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References

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  1. ^ Karulis, Konstantīns (1992) “sāls”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca[1] (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN