Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/ryba

This Proto-Slavic entry contains reconstructed words 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

Of uncertain origin.

The central Indo-European word for "fish" *dʰǵʰu- (“fish”) (yielding Ancient Greek ἰχθύς (ikhthús), Lithuanian žuvìs, Old Armenian ձուկն (jukn)) would have given Proto-Slavic v-stem **zy (genitive **zъve, accusative **zъvь), and was, as the theory goes, avoided by fishermen due to taboo, or because it would've sounded too similar to the verb *zъvati (“to call”).

Some of the proposed etymologies include:

From Early Proto-Slavic *rų̄bā, which is then comparable to *rębъ (“speckled, motley, variegated”), with fish scales being the semantic connection. For a similar development compare *pьstry (“salmonid fish”), originally "the colorful/variegated one" < *pьstrъ (“variegated”).
From the Early Proto-Slavic root *ūr- (“water, swamp, pond”) which is attested in Baltic languages, with a rare metathesis and the suffix *-ba for forming abstract nouns.

Noun

*rỳba f

fish

Inflection

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

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*rỳba	*rỳbě	*rỳby
Accusative	*rỳbǫ	*rỳbě	*rỳby
Genitive	*rỳby	*rỳbu	*rỳbъ
Locative	*rỳbě	*rỳbu	rỳbasъ, rỳbaxъ^*
Dative	*rỳbě	*rỳbama	*rỳbamъ
Instrumental	rỳbojǫ, rỳbǭ^**	*rỳbama	*rỳbamī
Vocative	*rỳbo	*rỳbě	*rỳby

^* -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: рꙑба (ryba)
  - Belarusian: ры́ба (rýba)
  - Russian: ры́ба (rýba)
  - Rusyn: рыба (rŷba)
  - Ukrainian: ри́ба (rýba)
South Slavic:
- Old Church Slavonic:
  Cyrillic: рꙑба (ryba)
  
  Glagolitic: ⱃⱏⰺⰱⰰ (ryba)
- Bulgarian: ри́ба (ríba)
- Macedonian: ри́ба (ríba)
- Serbo-Croatian:
  Cyrillic: ри̏ба
  
  Latin: rȉba
- Slovene: ríba (tonal orthography)
West Slavic:
- Czech: ryba
- Kashubian: rëba
- Polabian: roibó
- Polish: ryba
- Slovak: ryba
- Sorbian:
  - Lower Sorbian: ryba
  - Upper Sorbian: ryba

References

Gluhak, Alemko (1993) Hrvatski etimološki rječnik (in Serbo-Croatian), Zagreb: August Cesarec, page 526
Vasmer (Fasmer), Max (Maks) (1964–1973), “рыба”, in Etimologičeskij slovarʹ russkovo jazyka [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), translated from German and supplemented by Trubačóv Oleg, Moscow: Progress

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