вꙑ

Forms

вꙑ (vy); Glagolitic ⰲⱏⰺ^[1] Wiktionary also records the spelling въи.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Slavic *vy (“you (plural)”), the pronoun of the second person plural.^[1][2] The same word is Russian вы (vy), Ukrainian ви (vy), Bulgarian вие (vie), Serbo-Croatian vȋ, Slovene vȋ, Czech vy, Slovak vy and Polish wy.^[1][2][3]

The Proto-Slavic nominative is not the old one.^[2][3] Wiktionary derives it from the Balto-Slavic accusative Proto-Balto-Slavic *wōns (earlier *wōs) of the pronoun *jūˀs, from Proto-Indo-European *yúHs.^[1] Derksen, Sadnik–Aitzetmüller and Vasmer agree that the initial was taken over from the oblique cases.^[2][4][3] The inherited nominative survives in the Baltic languages, in Lithuanian jū̃s, Latvian jũs and Old Prussian ioūs.^[2][3] The oblique stem has its cognates in Old Prussian wans (“you (accusative)”) and Latin vōs (“you”).^[4][3]

Derksen dates the remodelling early, before the delabialization of the rounded vowel that had arisen after j.^[2] Vasmer suggests why the old form was given up: after a sound change the second person plural pronoun would have sounded like the pronoun of the third person.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The pronoun is in all the canonical manuscripts, more than 2,500 times by the count of the SNSP, and renders Ancient Greek ὑμεῖς (humeîs, “you”).^[5][6] The Codex Zographensis has вꙑ есте соль земи “you are the salt of the earth” (Mt 5, 13).^[6]

Semantic evolution

The oblique cases are васъ, вамъ and вами, and the accusative is both вꙑ and васъ.^[5] The plural sometimes stands for the dual: in Mt 28, 5 the Zographensis, Marianus, Assemanianus, Savvina kniga and Ostromir Gospels have не боита вꙑ сѧ “fear not”, with a dual verb and the plural pronoun.^[6] Miklosich records the dual use in later Church Slavonic too, and the pronoun goes on in the Russian Church Slavonic New Testament, where Giltebrandt collects the plural and dual cases together.^[7][8] SlaVaComp has it for ὑμεῖς in the liturgical translations of the end of the 9th and the 10th–11th centuries, and in a Serbian manuscript of Rila.^[9]

Timeline

• End of the 9th – 11th century – вꙑ renders ὑμεῖς in the liturgical texts of the First Bulgarian Empire.^[9]
• 1882–1885 – Giltebrandt lists the pronoun and its oblique and dual cases in the Church Slavonic New Testament.^[8]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. you, ye (plural); for ὑμεῖς.^[6][5][1]
2. With a verb in the dual: you two.^[6][7]

Word family

• вашь

Related words

• ва
• мꙑ

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 533
3. ^ a b c d e f Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress, p. 1, 366
4. ^ a b Sadnik, Linda; Aitzetmüller, Rudolf (1955), Handwörterbuch zu den altkirchenslavischen Texten, Heidelberg: Winter / 's-Gravenhage: Mouton, p. 327
5. ^ a b c Slovník nejstarších staroslověnských památek (digital ed., Gorazd, Slovanský ústav AV ČR, gorazd.org); cf. Cejtlin, R. M.; Večerka, R.; Blagova, É. (eds.) (1994), Staroslavjanskij slovar' (po rukopisjam X–XI vekov), Moskva: Russkij jazyk
6. ^ a b c d e Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
7. ^ a b Miklosich, Franz (1862–1865), Lexicon palaeoslovenico-graeco-latinum emendatum auctum, Vindobonae: Braumüller
8. ^ a b Gil'tebrandt, P. A. (1882–1885), Spravočnyj i ob''jasnitel'nyj slovar' k Novomu Zavetu, 6 vols., Sankt-Peterburg
9. ^ a b SlaVaComp Metaglossar Griechisch–Kirchenslavisch, Universität Freiburg, slavistik-portal.de