Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/bělota

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

From *bělъ +‎ *-ota.

Noun

*bělota f

1. whiteness

Inflection

Declension of *bělota (hard a-stem)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*bělota	*bělotě	*běloty
genitive	*běloty	*bělotu	*bělotъ
dative	*bělotě	*bělotama	*bělotamъ
accusative	*bělotǫ	*bělotě	*běloty
instrumental	*bělotojǫ, *bělotǫ**	*bělotama	*bělotami
locative	*bělotě	*bělotu	*bělotasъ, *bělotaxъ*
vocative	*běloto	*bělotě	*běloty

^* -asъ is the expected Balto-Slavic form but is found only in some Old Czech documents; -axъ is found everywhere else and is formed by analogy with other locative plurals in -xъ.
^** The second form occurs in languages that contract early across /j/ (e.g. Czech), while the first form occurs in languages that do not (e.g. Russian).

Descendants

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: бѣлота (bělota)
    • Russian: белота́ (belotá) (dialectal)
• South Slavic:
  • Bulgarian: белота́ (belotá)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: бело̀та, бјело̀та

    Latin script: belòta, bjelòta

  • Slovene: belóta
• West Slavic:
  • Czech: bělota
  • Slovak: belota, bielota
  • Sorbian:
    • Upper Sorbian: běłota

Further reading

• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1975), “*bělota”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 2 (*bez – *bratrъ), Moscow: Nauka, page 75