Query:Loanwords from Baltic

[Jules Levin]

A colleague of mine who does Latvian linguistics, Aleksandra Steinbergs, who
teaches at U of Newfoundland, asked me for any examples of Baltic borrowings
into Slavic, for a more or less popular talk her mother will be giving in
Latvia.  Below is my answer (off the top of my head, I confess).  I then
offered to put her question to SEELANGS.  You can reply to her at her
address as shown in my message to her, or to me for forwarding.  Thanks to
all...
>To: "Steinbergs,A;Ling;S3043" <ASTEIN at kean.ucs.mun.ca>
>From: Jules Levin <jflevin at ucrac1.ucr.edu>
>Subject: Re: Loanwords from Baltic
        >Sasha, this is really a deep problem.  The key question is, before the
>Common Slavic sound changes, 6th-11th cc C.E., how do you recognize a baltic
>as opposed to a native slavic form?  Case in point, the Slavic word for
>'hand' Russ. ruka, CSL roNka could merely be a B-Sl common word, or it could
>be an early borrowing in either direction.  It has been suggested that such
>old borrowings can be detected by virtue of the complex derivational nest in
>one group as opposed to the isolation of the other.  Thus Li ranka is
>clearly a Nom root ~ Verb root rink-ti, etc.  Whereas in Sl. roNka is more
>isolated.  This only gives you some interesting and suggestive
>possibilities, not certainty.
>On the other hand, off the top of my head I checked Russ. jantar' in Vasmer,
>and indeed it is considered a borrowing from Lithuanian gintaras.  It would
>take a careful browse through R, BR [more likely], and Pol etymological
>dicts to find more, tho I'm sure some exist.  Also there are some articles
>in recent years on the border dialects along the Slavic/EB linguistic
>frontier, many of them involving villages transitioning from one ethnic
>group to another, and there you find mucho Baltico in Slavic dialects.
>By the way, the Vasmer article on jantar' cites several old articles:
>Endzelin, IF 33,
>[Indogermanische Forschungen], Mikkola, BB 21 (?Bezzenberger's Beitraege),
>Bruckner, KZ 48 [? Kun..'s Zeitschrift...], and Karskij RFV 49 [Russkij
>Filologicheskij Vestnik].  I don't know whether these articles only discuss
>jantar'/gintaras... or whether they deal with other B borrowings > Slavic.
>I can also put out a call on the SEElangs LIST and ask people to contact you
>with more examples, if you want...  They are a very nice group...
>