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Onomázein ISSN: 0717-1285 [email protected] Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Chile

Miki, Aleksandar Origin and diversity of the words for ancient Eurasian grain legumes in languages Onomázein, núm. 28, diciembre, 2013, pp. 280-287 Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Santiago, Chile

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Origin and diversity of the words for ancient Eurasian grain legumes in Slavic languages

Aleksandar Mikic´ Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops / University of Serbia

ONOMÁZEIN 28 (diciembre de 2013): 280-287 DOI: 10.7764/onomazein.28.23

Aleksandar Mikic´: Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops / Department of Field and Vegetable Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Novi Sad. Serbia. 28 Correo electrónico: [email protected]; [email protected] Diciembre 2013 Fecha de recepción: septiembre de 2012 Fecha de aceptación: noviembre de 2013 ONOMÁZEIN 28 (diciembre de 2013): 280 - 287 Aleksandar Mikic´ Origin and diversity of the words for ancient Eurasian grain legumes in Slavic languages 281

Abstract

This short research note aims at demonstra- has been witnessed by rather rich lexicological ting the importance of the role that grain legu- evidence and supported by attested etymologi- mes, such as pea (Pisum sativum L.), lentil (Lens cal connections. This note also links Slavic roots culinaris Medik.) or field bean (Vicia faba L.), have to the other members of Indo-European langua- been playing in the everyday lives of both mo- families and presents their common Proto- dern Slavic nations and their ancestors. This role Indo-European origins.

Keywords: etymology; field bean; lentil; lexicology; pea; Slavic languages. ONOMÁZEIN 28 (diciembre de 2013): 280 - 287 Aleksandar Mikic´ Origin and diversity of the words for ancient Eurasian grain legumes in Slavic languages 282

1. Introduction tions during the fifth millennium BC (Anthony, The term grain legumes comprises all legu- 2007). The Balto-Slavic branch got separated me (fam. Fabaceae syn. Leguminosae) species from other Indo-European languages probably that are grown for and are used in the form of from 3,000 to 1,000 BC (Andersen, 2003), while bet- either immature or mature grains for both hu- ween 1,500 and 1,000 BC these two groups were consumption and in animal feeding, as well finally differentiated from each other. The as for various non-food purposes such as in their original homeland in East were manure (C´upina et al., 2004). Crops such as pea scarcely known to or Romans, but their (Pisum sativum L.), lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.), remarkable expansion in early fourth century AD field bean (Vicia faba L.), vetchlings (Lathyrus made them more discernible to the Western civi- spp.) and vetches (Vicia spp.) are considered the lisation. It is assumed that there was a language most significant on a world scale (Smýkal et al., spoken by all Slavic tribes before their migration, 2010). All these species originated in Near Eas- directly derived from the Proto-Indo-European, tern, Mediterranean and Central Asian centres and it is commonly referred to as Proto-Slavic. It of diversity (Zeven & Zhukovsky, 1975) and are is true that modern Slavic languages are rather also among the first domesticated plant species differentiated, but their common underlying in the world (Zohary & Hopf, 2000). The earliest is highly recognisable and the differen- archaeological findings of these crops are about ces are still relatively small (Lockwood, 1977). 10,000 years old and are located mainly in Syria Like in other branches of the Indo-European (Tanno & Willcox, 2006). From there, they spread , there is an extensive vocabu- in all directions, especially towards Europe, whe- lary of the words common to all Slavic langua- re they and cereals carried out the “agricultural ges, retaining nearly the same forms despite a revolution” of post-glacial Europe. In a rather millennium-and-a-half long geographic separa- short period, during the sixth millennium BC, tion. Among these, especially notable are those grain legumes reached almost every corner of related to animals and plants, particularly fruits, the continent, such as northern (Bakels, cereals and legumes (Mikic´-Vragolic´ et al., 2007). 1999) and Armenia (Hovsepyan & Willcox, 2007). Since the significant geographic proximity of The Balkan Peninsula and are both Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Slavic ho- especially rich in archaeobotanical evidence on melands with the routes of the domestication of the grain legume cultivation in Neolithic, as wit- the most ancient grain legumes, it may assu- nessed by sites such as Stare Gmajne in med that the ancestors of the modern Slavic peo- (Tolar et al., 2010), Kutné Hory in ples knew rather well pea, lentil or field bean and (Smýkal & Mikic´, 2009) and southern Serbia (Me- that they both cultivated and used them before dovic´ et al., 2011). their great migrations. By this reason, the main The Slavic languages have the greatest num- goal of this preliminary research was to examine ber of speakers of all the branches of the Indo- the origin and the diversity of the words deno- European language family in Europe. Like its ting pea, lentil and field bean and in the majority relatives, such as Baltic, Celtic, Hellenic, Italic or of the modern Slavic languages. Germanic branches, the ultimate origin of the Slavic nations and their languages are Proto- 2. Words for pea in Slavic languages Indo-Europeans, the people who spoke suppo- The words denoting pea in modern Slavic sed Proto-Indo-European language and became languages demonstrate a remarkable morpho- distinct in the vast Pontic-Caspian steppe, from logical uniformity (table 1). Only a slight modi- which they started to migrate in many direc- fication occurs in some languages. In some of ONOMÁZEIN 28 (diciembre de 2013): 280 - 287 Aleksandar Mikic´ Origin and diversity of the words for ancient Eurasian grain legumes in Slavic languages 283

the languages of the southern branch, such as the Slavic languages is the Proto-Slavic root Croatian, Macedonian, and Serbian, the words *gorhu˘, also denoting pea (Vasmer, 1953). This have a diminutive form by adding the suffix ak- . root, in its turn, might be derived from the Pro- A hypothetical change could have happened du- to-Indo-European *ghArs-, ghers-2, denoting ring the introduction of common bean (Phaseo- a leguminous plant in general (Pokorny, 1959; lus vulgaris L.), since in Croatian and western dia- Nikolaev, 2007), but this reconstruction mostly lects of Serbian it is called grah: due to the larger remains hypothetical and, in contrast, could size of its seeds, it could adopt this name, while be explained as a borrowing from one of the pea, in fact, began to be referred to as small grah, neighbouring peoples (Mallory & Adams, 2006). that is, grašak. In the languages of the eastern Precious evidence that essentially contributed branch, such as Rusyn, it is -ok. It is interesting to the assessment of the Proto-Slavic root is the that in Russian goroshok denotes vetches (Vicia word denoting pea in Polabian, an extinct Slavic spp.). Both suffixes -ak and -ok reflect the Proto- language, gorch. From Slavic, its word denoting Slavic *-ı˘ku˘. pea was borrowed by some neighbouring lan- guages, such as Albanian, in the form of gróshë The origin of the words denoting pea in all

FIGURE 1 A geographical presentation of the development of the words denoting pea, lentil and field bean in Slavic from their Proto-Indo-European roots and in some other branches of the Indo-European language family1

1 The dates on the map indicate either the time when the direct descendants of the Proto-Indo-European language are supposed to be developed or the time when their first records were attested. ONOMÁZEIN 28 (diciembre de 2013): 280 - 287 Aleksandar Mikic´ Origin and diversity of the words for ancient Eurasian grain legumes in Slavic languages 284

and meaning common bean, and Aromanian, as adopted by Hungarian as lencse (Skok, 1972) and, grãshac and with the preserved original Slavic most likely, returned to Slavic languages in the meaning (Mikic´, 2009). form of the Rusyn lencˇ a, since the preservation of the nasality is impossible in an inherited East The hypothetical Proto-Indo-European root Slavic item. *ghArs- was not preserved in the proto-langua- ges of the other Indo-European languages (fi- This Proto-Indo-European root also gave the gure 1). In fact, its traces may be found only in words denoting lentil in other derivatives of it, the , such as Lithuanian, with such as the Proto-Baltic *leñš-ia-, Proto-Germa- gar˜šas and garšvà for the species Archangelica nic *lins-ı¯(n-) or Latin le¯ns (figure 1), all of which officinalis, and in , such as produced words denoting the same in their mo- High German, with Giersch for the species Aego- dern descendants, such as Modern Lithuanian podium podagraria (Vasmer, 1953). le˛šis, Modern German Linse or Modern Italian lenticchia. To the same group belongs the Rus- TABLE 1 sian local lyacha (Vasmer, 1955). Words denoting pea in modern Slavic languages There are opinions that the words denoting Language Word lentil in another group of Slavic languages, such Belarusian garoh as the Czech cˇ ocˇ ka and the Serbian socˇ ivo, were Bulgarian grah derived from the Proto-Slavic *socˇ evica (Vasmer, Croatian grašak 1958). It is considered that this root could be Czech hrách somehow related to the Primitive Slavic *soku˘ Kashubian groch (Derksen, 2008), because of the Sorbian sok (ta- ble 2), and the Primitive Indo-European *s(w)okw-, Lower Sorbian groch both meaning juice (Nikolayev, 2007), but without Macedonian grašok any clarification yet. Polish groch Russian gorokh TABLE 2 Rusyn hrašcˇok Words denoting lentil in modern Slavic languages Serbian grašak Language Word Slovak hrach Belarusian sacˇavica Slovenian grah Bulgarian leshta Ukrainian gorokh Croatian lec´a hroch Czech cˇ cˇ k a Lower Sorbian sok 3. Words for lentil in Slavic languages Macedonian lekja It is notable that the words denoting lentil in Polish soczewica the modern Slavic languages form two morpho- Russian chechevitsa logically related groups. The first group, compri- Rusyn lencˇa sing languages like Bulgarian or Slovenian, owes Serbian socˇivo; lec´a the origin of its words for lentil directly to the Proto-Slavic *le˛tja (Vasmer, 1955) and ultimately Slovak šošovica to the Proto-Indo-European *lent-, *lent-s- (Pokor- Slovenian lecˇa ny, 1959; Nikolayev, 2007), both denoting lentil as Ukrainian sochevitsia well. In such form, the Slavic word for lentil was Upper Sorbian sok ONOMÁZEIN 28 (diciembre de 2013): 280 - 287 Aleksandar Mikic´ Origin and diversity of the words for ancient Eurasian grain legumes in Slavic languages 285

4. Words for field bean in Slavic It is noteworthy that field bean had a kind languages of ethnobotanical significance for the Ancient Similarly to pea, the words denoting field Slavs and Romans, witnessed by personal names bean in modern Slavic languages show almost such as Boban, Boba and Bobana in Modern Ser- the highest possible degree of mutual morpho- bian and Croatian languages (Skok, 1971) and the logical similarity. Their common ancestor is the Latin names Fabius and Fabia (Pokorny, 1959). Proto-Slavic *bobu˘ (Vasmer, 1953), that, in its 5. Conclusions turn, was derived from the Proto-Indo-European By the attested high degree of morphologi- *bhabh-, bhabha¯, also denoting field bean and cal conservatism and a remarkable lexicological meaning literally something swelling (Pokorny, continuum throughout millennia, this brief lexi- 1959; Nikolaev, 2007). From Slavic, the word for cological and etymological thesaurus may be field bean was borrowed by the neighbouring considered another testimony of the significant Romani as boba, Romanian as bob and Hunga- role the most ancient European grain legumes, rian as bab (Mikic´, 2011). such as pea, lentil and field bean, have been pla- This Proto-Indo-European root also produ- ying in the everyday life of the Slavic peoples. ced the supposed Proto-Albanian root *bhaka¯, This preliminary research, with its results, may the Old Prussian baba and babo, the Proto-Ger- also be regarded as an invitation to crop histo- manic *bau-no¯(n-) and the Latin faba, all with rians and linguists to assist each other in solving the same, preserved original meaning. The only the puzzling issues of our common Slavic and branch of the Indo-European language family European past. where the meaning shifted from field bean to lentil is Old Greek, with φακóς (Mikic´, 2010). 6. Acknowledgements This research is a result of the projects TABLE 3 TR31024 of the Ministry of Science and Technolo- Words denoting field bean in modern Slavic languages gical Development of the Republic of Serbia and Language Word SEELEGUMES within SEE-ERA.NET Plus program- me of the European Union. Belarusian bob Bulgarian bob 7. Bibliographic references Croatian bob Andersen, H., 2003: Language contacts in prehis- Czech bob tory: studies in stratigraphy, Amsterdam: John Kashubian bób Benjamins Publishing Company. Lower Sorbian bob Anthony, D. W., 2007: The Horse, the Wheel, and Macedonian bob Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eu- Polish bób rasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World, New Russian bob Jersey: Princeton University Press. Rusyn bob Serbian bob Bakels, C., 1999: “Archaeobotanical investigations Slovak bob in the Aisne valley, northern France, from the Neolithic up to the early ”, Vegeta- Slovenian bob tion History and Archaeobotany 8, 71-77. Ukrainian bib

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