zvirbulis

See also: Zvirbulis

Latvian

Mājas zvirbuļi

Alternative forms

• (dialectal forms) zvirbuls, zvirblis, žīgurs, žvīgurs, žvingurs

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *werb-, *werp- ( +‎ -ulis; compare also vērpt (“to spin”)), from *wer- (“to turn, to twist, to bend”) (with an extra suffix -p, -b). The original meaning was a bird that turns and moves all the time. The initial z is either from an s-mobile, or the influence of some other term for this bird species (e.g., dialectal žīgurs, žvīgurs, žvingurs, apparently from the same stem as zviegt (“to neigh, to whinny”), q.v.). Cognates include Lithuanian žvìrblis, Old Church Slavonic врабии (vrabii), Russian воробе́й (vorobéj), Bulgarian врабе́ц (vrabéc), Czech vrabec, Polish wróbel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [zvīɾbulis]

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

zvirbulis m (2nd declension)

1. sparrow (a number of bird species of the order Passeriformes, genus Passer)

   mājas zvirbulis ― house sparrow (Passer domesticus)

Declension

Declension of zvirbulis (2nd declension)

	singular	plural
nominative	zvirbulis	zvirbuļi
genitive	zvirbuļa	zvirbuļu
dative	zvirbulim	zvirbuļiem
accusative	zvirbuli	zvirbuļus
instrumental	zvirbuli	zvirbuļiem
locative	zvirbulī	zvirbuļos
vocative	zvirbuli	zvirbuļi

Derived terms

• zvirbulēns
• zvirbuliene