[gothic-l] Re: boLyar

[gazariah]

Hi Vladimir!

> We do not have any actual evidence,
> which form [bojar(l)] or [boljar]
> (or some other?) was earlier

What would "actual evidence" be? Going back in a time machine? What
we have is writings and how the word was used in writing.

> The question remains however, whether
> "colloquial Russian" [bojarin]
> "appears to have been considered a later"
> or an earlier form.

When I wrote that /bojarin/ "appears to have been considered a later"
form, I meant that it was avoided in the high style of writing,
either for the church or modeled after church language.

> The colloquial form "bo-jarl" might
> change into "boljar" in Church Bulgarian
> just under influence of Turkic Danube
> Bulgarian, where it should mean simply
> the plural of our sacramental "bo".

Let's look at what this hypothsis implies.

1. A Norse word, /bo+jarl/ (which we don't seem to have attested)was
borrowed into Russian very early.
2. The word made its way into Slavic territories where there was
never any Norse influence.
3. The borrowed word changed its form "under the influence" of Danube
Bulgarian. The Bulgarian Slavs thought /bojar/ was /bo/+/lar/ (the
Turkic plural suffix), and now they added the Slavic singular
marker /+in/ to give /boljarin/.
4. This borrowed word, reformed not as a native word but as another
kind of foreign word, was chosen to give the meaning of "nobleman" in
texts translated from Greek.

No "actual evidence" will ever be available to say that this is not
what happened, but it seems to me a pretty unlikely story.

Regards,
Gazariah


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