Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/orba

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 *õrbъ +‎ *-a.

Noun

*ōrbà f

1. female equivalent of *õrbъ (“servant, slave”)

Declension

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

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*ōrbà	*õrbě	*ōrbỳ
genitive	*ōrbỳ	*ōrbù	*õrbъ
dative	*ōrbě̀	*ōrbàma	*ōrbàmъ
accusative	*ōrbǫ̀	*õrbě	*ōrbỳ
instrumental	*ōrbòjǫ, *õrbǫ**	*ōrbàma	*ōrbàmī
locative	*ōrbě̀	*ōrbù	*ōrbàsъ, *ōrbàxъ*
vocative	*orbo	*õrbě	*ōrbỳ

^* -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

Note that the descendants exhibit a metathesis of the liquid r (*or- > ro-; ra-):

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: роба (roba)
    • Old Ruthenian: ро́ба (róba)
      • Belarusian: ро́ба (róba) (obsolete)
      • Ukrainian: ро́ба (róba, “a hardworking woman”)
  • Old Novgorodian: роба (roba)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic:

    Old Cyrillic script: раба (raba)

    Glagolitic script: ⱃⰰⰱⰰ (raba)

    • → Old East Slavic: раба (raba)
      • Old Ruthenian: раба́ (rabá)
        • Belarusian: раба́ (rabá)
        • Ukrainian: раба́ (rabá)
      • Russian: раба́ (rabá)
• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: roba (“female servant or slave, wife”)
    • Czech: roba (“wife”) (dialectal)
  • Old Polish: roba (“female servant or slave, wife, disorderly woman, sow”)
    • Polish: roba (dialectal or obsolete)
  • Slovak: roba (dialectal)

Further reading

• Trubachyov, O., Zhuravlyov, A. F., editors (2005), “*orbъ/*orba”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 32 (*obžьnъ – *orzbotati), Moscow: Nauka, →ISBN, page 131