ȍlovo

ȍlovo Grammatical information: n. o Accent paradigm: c Proto-Slavic meaning: `lead'

Page in Trubačev: XXXII 76-77

Old Church Slavic:

ólovo (Supr.) `lead' [n o]

Russian:

ólovo `tin' [n o]

Old Russian:

olovь `tin' [f i]

Czech:

olovo `lead' [n o]

Slovak:

olovo `lead' [n o]

Polish:

oɫów `lead' [m jo];

oɫów (obs.) `lead' [m o];

oɫowo (dial.) `lead' [n o]

Serbo-Croatian:

ȍlovo lead' [n o];

Čak. ȍlovo (Vrgada) lead' [n o]

Slovene:

olǫ́v `lead' [m o]

Bulgarian:

élavo (dial.) `lead' [n o] \{1\}

Lithuanian:

álvas (DK, Bretk.) `tin' [m o] \{2\}

Latvian:

al̂va `tin' [f ā];

al̂vas `tin' [m o]

Old Prussian:

alwis (EV) `lead'

IE meaning: tin, lead

Certainty: -

Page in Pokorny: -

Comments: Pokorny derives the Balto-Slavic word for `tin, lead' from *al(ǝ)- `white'. This more or less presupposes that the original meaning was `tin' (plumbum album) rather than `lead' (plumbum nigrum). In view of both the formal problems and the sphere to which this word belong it seems preferable to regard it as a borrowing from an unknown language.

Notes:

\{1\} Forms with *(j)e- are limited to Bulgarian, e.g. MBulg. jelovo , Bulg. (dial.) élavo . In Russian dialects, we find a form lov' (Voronež), which may reflect *olvь. The fact that we do not have *lavь < *olHvi-, as we might have expected on the basis of the Baltic forms, can be explained by assuming that the laryngeal was eliminated according to Meillet's law before the metathesis of liquids. \{2\} It's unclear to me on what grounds the LKŽ assigns AP 1 to this word. To my knowledge, the only accented form is áɫwu Isg. (DK), which points to AP 1 or 3. The Modern Lithuanian form ãlavas is a borrowing from Slavic.