lozhit'

[curt fredric woolhiser]

As far as I know, the imperfective form "lozhit'" is quite common in south
and central Russian dialects, from which it has evidently found its way
into "gorodskoe prostorechie" in many areas. Actually, in East Slavic this
form is first attested in the meaning of "klast'" in the 1073 Izbornik of
Svjatoslav. In the Slovar' Akademii Rossijskoj (1814), "lozhit'" in the
meaning of "klast'" is simply characterized as "starinnyj." It appears,
however, that the suppletive pattern is the older of the two, at least
judging from the fact that Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, etc. also have it
(Polish: kl/as'c' -- pol/oz*yc', Czech: klást -- poloz^it, Bulgarian: klada
-- polozha, etc.).
        Interestingly, standard Ukrainian and Belarusian have innovated in
the opposite direction, forming the perfective from the imperfective stem
through prefixation, i.e. Ukr. klasty -- poklasty, Bel. klasci -- paklasci.
The Slovar' Akademii Rossijskoj (1814) also cites "poklast'" as a
perfective of "klast'",  although differing in its semantics from
"polozhit'": "Glagol sej [klast'] protivupolagaetsja glagolu <Stavit'>; i
govorja o mnogix veshchax, polagaemyx kuda nebud', imeet v proshedsh.
soversh. <Poklal>., v bud. <Pokladu>, v neokonch. <Poklast'>. Dlja
izobrazhenija zhe edinokratnago dejstvija zaimstvuet prosh. soversh.
budushch. i neokonchat. <Polozhil>, <Polozhu>, <Polozhit'> ot glagola
<polagat'>..." The following examples are cited to illustrate the semantic
contrast: <Poklal drova v polennicu>, <Poklali kirpichi v kletki> vs.
<Polozhil poleno v pech'>, <Polozhil knigu na stol>. I don't know exactly
when "poklast'" went out of use in literary Russian, but already by the
second half of the 19th century Dal' considers "poklast'" a western (i.e.
Ukrainian/Belarusian) regionalism.


Curt Woolhiser

========================================
Curt F. Woolhiser
Dept. of Slavic Languages
and Literatures
Calhoun 415
University of Texas
Austin, TX 78713-7217 USA

Tel. (512) 471-3607
Fax: (512) 471-6710
Email: cfwoolhiser at mail.utexas.edu
Slavic Department Home Page:
http://www.dla.utexas.edu/depts/slavic/
========================================



>Thought I'd share this gem..
>----------
>> From: J. Rouhier-Willoughby <jrouhie at pop.uky.edu>
>> To: a.jameson at dial.pipex.com
>> Subject: Re: Fw: klass
>> Date: 16 April 1999 14:58
>>
>>  "lozhit" (instead of kladyot) on the other hand sounds very
>> >> like a foreigner's assumption going from polozhit to lozhit as a logical
>> >> move. I doubt a real Russian would do it,
>>
>> I had a native emigre ask me last week if the imperfective of polozhit' was
>> lozhit'. He simply did not know klast'. That is what he says at home, he
>> explained. JRW
>>
>> *********************************************************
>> Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby              (606) 257-1756
>> Department of Russian and Eastern Studies
>> 1055 Patterson Office Tower      jrouhie at pop.uky.edu
>> University of Kentucky         http://www.uky.edu/~jrouhie/
>> Lexington, KY 40506-0027          fax:  (606) 257-3743
>> *********************************************************
>>
>Andrew Jameson
>Chair, Russian Committee, ALL
>Languages and Professional Development
>1 Brook Street, Lancaster LA1 1SL UK
>Tel: 01524 32371  (+44 1524 32371)
>