бирка

See also: birka and birkā

Russian

Бирка на ухе овцы

Etymology

Unclear. There are several hypotheses: a borrowing from a North Germanic word for birch, compare to Danish birk, Norwegian bjerk; a Turkic borrowing, compare to Turkish bir + iki (“one + two”); or a derivation from Old East Slavic събьрати (sŭbĭrati, “to assemble”) (modern Russian собира́ть (sobirátʹ)), from Proto-Slavic *bьrati (“to take”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbʲirkə]

Noun

би́рка • (bírka) f inan (genitive би́рки, nominative plural би́рки, genitive plural би́рок)

1. nameplate, label, tag

   Synonym: ярлы́к (jarlýk)

2. (historical) tally stick (notched piece of wood used for keeping an account)

Declension

Declension of би́рка (inan fem-form velar-stem accent-a reduc) 

	singular	plural
nominative	би́рка bírka	би́рки bírki
genitive	би́рки bírki	би́рок bírok
dative	би́рке bírke	би́ркам bírkam
accusative	би́рку bírku	би́рки bírki
instrumental	би́ркой, би́ркою bírkoj, bírkoju	би́рками bírkami
prepositional	би́рке bírke	би́рках bírkax

Descendants

• → Finnish: pirkka
• → Ingrian: birkka

References

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “бирка”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress