Slavic *ljuby and the heterogeneity of the inflectional class in *‑y

Abstract

The inherited Proto-Slavic feminine nouns in nom. sg. *‑y, oblique *‑ъvare conventionally thought to go back to one source only, namely Proto-Indo- European stems in *‑uh‑. However, a handful of previous studies have already demonstrated the possibility that other inherited items could join this paradigm by phonologically developing a nom. sg. in *‑y from other sources (particularly *‑ōs). Accordingly, in the present article, it is hypothesized that the well-known PSl. noun *ljuby *ljubъve f. ‘love’ may go back to an amphikinetic s‑stem *lewbʰ‑ōs. Such a reconstruction makes it possible to explain a number of otherwise problematic features of the complex of *ljuby, such as: 1) the enigmatic OCS acc. sg. ljuby (for expected ljubъvь) in the collocations (prě)ljuby (sъ)tvoriti or (prě)ljuby dějati ‘commit adultery’; 2) the unexpected presence of *‑s‑ in the Balt. cognate, Lith. liaupsė̃ f. ‘praise, adoration’; 3) the occurrence of PSl. *‑y as an abstract marker (a function in which PIE amphikinetic s‑stems in *‑ōs are securely, even if marginally, found, particularly in the domain of emotions and mental states - cf. Gk. αἰδώς αἰδόος f. ‘reverence, awe’, ἔρως *ἔροος m. ‘love, desire’, Ved. bhiyás‑, Av. biiah‑ m. ‘fear’ - while no such function can convincingly be reconstructed for a formation in *‑u‑h₂).