< Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic

Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/slonъ

This Proto-Slavic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Slavic

Etymology 1

Most likely related to Turkish aslan (“lion”); Witczak (2013) cites many parallel cases of semantic spread between different exotic animals in Indo-European.[1] Compare Abkhaz а́слан (áslan, “elephant”).[2] If not, perhaps a deverbative from *sloniti (“to lean against”), relating to the medieval story of an elephant sleeping leaning on a tree.

Vovin (2011) proposes that Slavic slonъ reflects Old Chinese 象 (*ljaŋʔ /⁠*slaŋ⁠/, “elephant”), an etymology previously suggested by Ivanov (1977: 156–57) with a then-current Old Chinese reconstruction *sðaŋ. As Vovin notes, contact between Slavic and Old Chinese is out of the question, so the solution might arise from an intermediary source. Ivanov (1977:154) believes that the Chuvash forms слон (slon), сӑлан (sălan, “elephant”) are Russian loans, with the latter being called into question by Vovin on phonetic grounds. According to him, Russian /o/ (phonetically a diphthong [uo] with a mid-high syllabic element [o]) is unlikely to be borrowed as Chuvash low vowel /a/. The reverse, namely the borrowing of Bulgar slightly labialised /a/ as Slavic /o/ is more than likely. Chuvash сӑлан (sălan, “elephant”) is exactly the expected outcome of the Old Chinese *slaŋ with the insertion of ⟨ă⟩ break-ing the OC initial cluster /sl-/ and typical Bulghar shift of PT *ŋ to /n/. The presence of this word in Chuvash places proto-Bulghar speakers in the vicinity of Northern China no later than the first century BCE, because approximately after that date the initial clusters in Old Chinese underwent the process of simplification.[3]

Noun

*slȍnъ m[4][5]

  1. elephant
Declension
Declension of *slȍnъ (hard o-stem, accent paradigm c)
singular dual plural
nominative *slȍnъ *slȍna *slȍni
genitive *slȍna *slonù *slònъ
dative *slȍnu *slonomà *slonòmъ
accusative *slȍnъ *slȍna *slȍny
instrumental *slȍnъmь, *slȍnomь* *slonomà *sloný
locative *slȍně *slonù *sloně̃xъ
vocative *slone *slȍna *slȍni
* -ъmь in North Slavic, -omь in South Slavic.
Descendants
Further reading
  • Verweij, Arno (1994) “Quantity Patterns of Substantives in Czech and Slovak”, in Dutch Contributions to the Eleventh International Congress of Slavists, Bratislava (Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics)‎, volume 22, Editions Rodopi B.V., pages 526, 530
  • Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “слон”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
  • Chernykh, P. Ja. (1993) “слон”, in Историко-этимологический словарь русского языка [Historical-Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), 3rd edition, volumes 2 (панцирь – ящур), Moscow: Russian Lang., →ISBN, page 176

Etymology 2

According to Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary, the form is a doublet of *klonъ (“offset, branch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱel- (“to crook, to bend”).

Noun

*slonъ m

  1. offset, cornice
  2. shed, shelter
  3. screen
Inflection
Declension of *slonъ (hard o-stem)
singular dual plural
nominative *slonъ *slona *sloni
genitive *slona *slonu *slonъ
dative *slonu *slonoma *slonomъ
accusative *slonъ *slona *slony
instrumental *slonъmь, *slonomь* *slonoma *slony
locative *sloně *slonu *sloněxъ
vocative *slone *slona *sloni
* -ъmь in North Slavic, -omь in South Slavic.
Derived terms
  • *sloniti (“to lean, to shed”)
  • *slaněti (“to screen”)
  • *podъslonъ (“shelter”)
  • *zaslonъ (“shed”)
Descendants
Further reading
  • Todorov, T. A., Racheva, M., editors (2010), “слон”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volumes 7 (слòво – теря̀свам), Sofia: Prof. Marin Drinov Pubg. House, →ISBN, page 113

References
  1. Krzysztof Tomasz Witczak. Two Tocharian borrowings of Oriental origin. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hung. Volume 66 (4), 411–416 (2013). DOI: 10.1556/AOrient.66.2013.4.3
  2. Kʼaslandzja, V. A. (2005) “а́слан”, in Аԥсуа–аурыс жәар / Абхазско–русский словарь [Abkhaz–Russian Dictionary]‎, volumes 1: А–Н (overall work in Abkhaz and Russian), Sukhum: Olma-press, →ISBN, page 168 of 713
  3. Vovin, Alexander (2011) First and second person singular pronouns: a pillar or a pillory of the ‘Altaic’ hypothesis?‎, pages 271–272
  4. Olander, Thomas (2001) “slonъ”, in Common Slavic Accentological Word List‎, Copenhagen: Editiones Olander: “b/c elefant (PR 137)”
  5. Snoj, Marko (2016) “slȍn”, in Slovenski etimološki slovar [Slovenian Etymology Dictionary] (in Slovene), 3rd edition, https://fran.si: “*slonъ̏”
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