Chernoe kofe

[William Ryan]

Olga Meerson wrote: 'The masculine norm itself is comparatively new 
(certainly post-revolutionary but even later), as originally what was 
masculine was
kofij, not kofe, and kofij declined like any RUSSIAN word. .... If 
anyone can find a counter example, with the undeclinable masculine for 
kofe, I would be very glad.'
Looking for examples is not hard - why not try the older dictionaries? I 
have two immediately to hand: the second edition of Dal' gives 'kofe, 
neskl.' as a head word, followed by kofei and gives an example 
'shvedskii-kofe, Astragalus boeticus'; the fourth edition of Reif (1889) 
gives 'kofe, sm[i.e. substantif masculin], ind[indeclinable], kofei, le 
cafe'. Even the Slov. Russk. Iaz. XI-XVII vv. gives 'kofe' (no variants) 
as masculine, with examples dated 1653 and 1700 (the older dictionary of 
Vasmer gives 1724 'kofii' as earliest). Neither of the examples is 
accompanied by an adjective to prove it is masculine, but the 1700 
example (from the Pis'ma i bumagi of Peter the Great) 'chaiu i kofe 
zdes' zelo malo', at least shows that it was indeclinable. Shanskii's 
etymological dictionary quotes eleven variants of the word in the 17th 
century.
A quick search for 'kofe' in Brokhaus and Efron on the web gave a few 
unambiguous examples (i.e. with an adjective), several masculine and one 
neuter. A web search for 'kofe chernyi' got 9 million hits and 'kofe 
chernoe' five million.
My hasty conclusion is that in fact masculine indeclinable 'kofe' was 
the original usage, remained standard for a long time, although with the 
common variant 'kofei', and is still dominant.

Will Ryan

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