On the Common Slavic Verbs *dьrxati and *dьrsati and their Extensions in Bulgarian and in other Slavic Languages
Abstract:
We revise earlier etymological interpretations and extend the analysis of relevant data aiming to identify two groups of Bulgarian language extensions to Common Slavic verbs which share the original stem *dьr-. Previous studies do not give satisfactory understanding of these verbs. One of the considered groups, which, according to the available data, correspondences to Czech and Slovak, is based on the Common Slavic stem *dьrx-: дърхам, дърфам etc. The stem *dьrx- reflects a Common Slavic transition s > x in the previous form *dьrs- with a determinative suffix s, which is known to take place under certain conditions. We also consider the Bulgarian language extensions of the relict-preserved earlier stem *dьrs-: дърсам, etc., which have, according to the available, data, correspondenses in Serbocroatian, Slovenian and Czech. Both groups of extensions exhibit a preserved connection between their meanings, which include elements of the rich semantics, which was developed in the extensions of the original Common Slavic verb *derti, dьrǫ, dьrati, derǫ.