Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/bitva

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 Proto-Balto-Slavic *bī́ˀtwāˀ, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰih₂-tweh₂, from *bʰeyh₂- (“to strike, hew”) +‎ *-tweh₂. Equivalent to *biti +‎ *-tva.

Noun

*bìtva f

1. battle, fight

   Synonyms: *bõjь, *bitъka, *bitьje

Inflection

Declension of *bìtva (hard a-stem, accent paradigm a)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*bìtva	*bìtvě	*bìtvy
genitive	*bìtvy	*bìtvu	*bìtvъ
dative	*bìtvě	*bìtvama	*bìtvamъ
accusative	*bìtvǫ	*bìtvě	*bìtvy
instrumental	*bìtvojǫ, *bìtvǭ**	*bìtvama	*bìtvamī
locative	*bìtvě	*bìtvu	*bìtvasъ, *bìtvaxъ*
vocative	*bìtvo	*bìtvě	*bìtvy

^* -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 Belarusian: битва (bitva)
    • Belarusian: бітва (bitva)
  • Russian: би́тва (bítva)
  • Ukrainian: би́тва (býtva)
• South Slavic:
  • Bulgarian: битва (bitva)
  • Slovene: bitva
• West Slavic:
  • Czech: bitva
  • Old Polish: bitwa
    • Polish: bitwa
    • Silesian: bitwŏ
  • Slovak: bitva

Further reading

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