sāls

See also: Appendix:Variations of "sals"

Latvian

Sāls

Etymology

From Proto-Baltic *sal-, *sāl-, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *sāˀlis, from Proto-Indo-European *sal-, *seh₂l- (“salt, sea salt”), perhaps related to the homophonous stem *sal- (“grayish, impure gray”).

In Latvian, both an i-stem (*salis) and an iyo-stem (*saliyos > *saliys > *salis) were formed, yielding present-day sāls, feminine, genitive sāls, and sāls, masculine, genitive sāļa. Cognates include Lithuanian sólymas (“salt water, brine”) (< *solis), Old Prussian sal, Old Church Slavonic соль (solĭ), Russian соль (solʹ), Ukrainian сіль (silʹ), genitive соли (soly), Bulgarian сол (sol), Czech sůl, Polish sól, Proto-Germanic *saltą (Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐍄 (salt), Old High German salz, German Salz, English salt), Old Irish salann, Ancient Greek ἅλς (háls), genitive ἁλός (halós), Latin sāl, genitive sālis, Sanskrit सलिल (salilá, “salty”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [sàːls]

Noun

sāls f or m (6th or 2nd declension, irregular nominative, genitive)

1. salt (white crystalline substance — sodium chloride or NaCl — used for seasoning food)

   vārāmais sāls ― common (lit. cooking) salt

   ēdieniem par maz sāls ― the food has too little salt

2. (chemistry) salt (result of a chemical reaction between an acid and a base)

   fosforskābes sāls ― phosphoric acid salt

   sērskābes saļi jeb sulfāti ― sulfuric acid salts, also known as sulphates

Usage notes

Although officially a feminine sixth-declension noun in standard Latvian, sāls is often used in colloquial Latvian as a masculine second-declension noun.

Declension

Declension of sāls (6th declension)

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs)	sāls	sālis
accusative (akuzatīvs)	sāli	sālis
genitive (ģenitīvs)	sāls	sāļu
dative (datīvs)	sālij	sālīm
instrumental (instrumentālis)	sāli	sālīm
locative (lokatīvs)	sālī	sālīs
vocative (vokatīvs)	sāls	sālis

Declension of sāls (2nd declension)

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs)	sāls	sāļi
accusative (akuzatīvs)	sāli	sāļus
genitive (ģenitīvs)	sāļa	sāļu
dative (datīvs)	sālim	sāļiem
instrumental (instrumentālis)	sāli	sāļiem
locative (lokatīvs)	sālī	sāļos
vocative (vokatīvs)	sāli	sāļi

Related terms

• sālīt
• sāļš
• sāļums