Vampires

[John Dingley]

Hi,

I wrote about "netopyr'" some years ago:

"Slavic *netopyr' in a Broader Context"
International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics
44–45: 1–35, 2002–03.

I came to the conclusion that the "traditional" explanation as to its
etymology is the correct one, offering additional evidence to bolster
this contention, viz:

"1. CS *netopyr¸ < IE *nekwt- = ‘night’ + ‘per-’ = ‘to move’ (cf. Old
Church Slavonic (henceforward: OCS) p'rati = ‘to move’), i.e., ‘the one
that goes by night’. This is the most popular theory and is supported by
many scholars, including Vaillant, Mladenov, Il’inskij, Preobražinskij,
Pogodin, Shanskij, and most recently Snoj (1997)."

Although the "e-grade" might not be expected in a substantive, that
grade is also found in Hittite and Tocharian B. The zero grade is
still going strong in Scandinavian "otta", e.g. Swedish "julotta".

As for a connexion between "netopyr'" and Russian "upyr'" (< CS "o,pyr'"),
I had this to say in that article:

"Surprisingly few scholars have seen fit to link, etymologically,
CS *o˛pyrь ‘spectre’ and CS *netopyrь despite their obvious
similarity in
form. Such major sources as Vasmer (1986–1987), Georgiev (1971– ), Skok
(1971– ), and Machek (1997) make no mention of such a possibility. To my
knowledge, only Brückner (1934–1935) deems such a link possible.
This word is not recorded in the OCS canon, but it is nonetheless nigh-on
pan-Slavic. In addition to the meanings of ‘spectre’, ‘ghoul’, ‘phantom’,
the modern reflexes of CS *o˛pyrь sometimes have the meaning of
‘vampire',
e.g., Russian. The etymology of *o˛pyrь remains, to all intents and
purposes, a mystery. Vasmer (1986–1987) has a full discussion, citing all
relevant literature. CS *o˛pyrь is presumably the source of the
‘vampire/
vampir’ word, which is found in many languages. Vampir seemingly came
(back) to Slavic from either French or German, languages, which amongst
others, had borrowed the CS *o˛pyrь in the shape of vampir in the
first
place.
The true Slavic word for ‘vampire’ is CS *volkodlak < volk- + dlak- =
‘wolf’ + ‘hide’ meaning ‘a person in the guise of a wolf’.This word is not
recorded in the OCS canon, but is nonetheless nigh-on pan-Slavic."

Happy Boxing Day!
John Dingley


Quoting "Lewis B. Sckolnick" <info at RUNANYWHERE.COM>:

> Even if yoiu do not like the idea please try to remember that the Turkic
> came first.
> Even the Japanese have borrowed a whole bunch from us.
>
>
> The English word vampire was borrowed from French vampire in turn
> borrowed in early 18th century from Serbian ??????/vampir, or, according
> to some sources, from Hungarian vampir. The Serbian and Hungarian forms
> have parallels in virtually all Slavic languages: German (vampir)
> Bulgarian ?????? (vampir), ????? (vapir) or ?????, Czech and Slovak
> upir, Polish wapierz and (perhaps East Slavic-influenced) upior, Russian
> ????? (upyr' ), Belarussian ??i? (upyr), Ukrainian ????? (upir' ), from
> Old Russian ????? (upir' ).
>
> The word Upir as a term for vampire is found for the first time in
> written form in 1047 in a letter to a Novgorodian prince referring to
> him as 'Upir Lichyj' (Wicked Vampire in Old Russian).
>
> Tracing the source of 'upir' and its   Slavic cognates (i.e., upior,
> obyrbi, upirbi, obiri) is even   more controversial. Among the proposed
> proto-Slavic forms are opyr? and opir?. Franz Miklosich, a late 19th
> century linguist, suggested that 'upir' is derived from 'uber', a
> Turkish word for  'witch' (cf. Kazan Tatar ubyr "witch"). Andre Vaillant
> suggests just the opposite -- that the   Northern Turkish word 'uber'
> derived from the Slavic 'upir'. More recently, Jan Perkowski, who has
> done a great amount of   research on the vampires of the Slavs, also
> favors a Slavic origin to the word.
>
> But even amongst those who lean towards a Slavic origin, there is
> considerable disagreement.  Kazimierz Moszynski suggests that   'u-pir'
> is from a Serbo-Croatian word 'pirati' (to blow). Aleksandr Afanas'ev
> points to the Slavic 'pij' (to drink), which may have entered the Slavic
> language from the Greek, via Old Church Slavonic. The Slavic word might,
> like its possible Russian cognate netopyr' ("bat"), come from the
> Proto-Indo-European root for "to fly".
>
>
>
>   Lewis B. Sckolnick
> The Ledge House
> 130 Rattlesnake Gutter Road, Suite 1000
> Leverett, MA 01054-9726
> U.S.A.
>
> Telephone 1. 413. 367. 0303
> Facsimile 1. 413. 367. 2853
> info at runanywhere.com
> http://www.twitter.com/Lewisxxxusa
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >
> >> Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2010 20:23:05 -0500
> >> From: toastormulch at GMAIL.COM
> >> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Russian folkloric references to reanimated corpses
> >> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> >>
> >> Vurdolak is encountered in Afanas'ev' tales, in Pushkin. Also see Alexei
> >> Kostantinovich Tolstoy story Sem'ia Vurkodlaka/Vurdolaka. Revenants are
> also
> >> called in Russian Upyr' ili Nav'.
> >> On Dec 25, 2010 7:30 PM, "Dorian Juric"<dorian06 at hotmail.com>  wrote:
> >>> I thought that Vurdolak/Vukodlak is more of a South Slavic usage. I know
> >> that the term bleeds into the Ukraine, but I'm not sure that any sources
> >> site Vurdolak in Russia. I'll look through my Perkowski, Barber and
> >> Cajkanovic again, but I was quite certain that eretik was the most common
> >> usage in Russia.
> >>> Dorian Juric
> >>>
>
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