Original scientific paper

Substratum words in Balto-Slavic

Ranko Matasović orcid.org/0000-0001-7068-3036 ; Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of those words, attested in Balto-Slavic, that do not have a clear Indo-European etymology and that could have been borrowed from some substratum language. It is shown that Bal­to-Sla­vic shares most of those words with other Indo-European languages of Northern and Western Europe (especially with Germanic), while lexical parallels in languages of Southern Europe (Greek and Albanian) are much less numerous. Georg Holzer’s “Temematic” hypothesis is also discussed, and a number of alternatives to his etymologies are suggested. It is argued that Balto-Slavic contains very few words borrowed from substratum languages that are not present in other branches of Indo-European.

Keywords

etymology; substratum; prehistoric language contacts; Balto-Slavic; Proto-Indo-European

Hrčak ID:

116920

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/116920

Publication date:

1.3.2014.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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