Reconstruction:Proto-Balto-Slavic/jáuˀrāˀ

This Proto-Balto-Slavic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Disputed:

• Formally matches Old Armenian ջուր (ǰur, “water”), Thracian Iuras (river in Strandzha, recorded by Pliny), presumably from Proto-Indo-European *yewH- + r-suffix. Favoured by Meillet, Solta, Olsen.
• Another possibility is origin from reduplicated or metathesized variants of wider attested *h₁wer(s)- (“to precipitate”)^[1] or Proto-Indo-European *h₂wer- (“to spring, to gush”). Initial *j- in this case would be due to regular sound change pIE *eu > pBSl *jau in tautosyllabic environment. Potential relatives include Sanskrit वारि (vā́ri, “water”), Latin ūrīna (“urine”), Ancient Greek οὖρον (oûron, “urine”), Old Norse ver (“sea”), Proto-Slavic *virъ (“spring”), possibly Old Armenian գայռ (gayṙ, “mud”).
• Schmidt alternatively considers relation to Ancient Greek αὔρᾱ (aúrā, “steam, breeze”).

No Slavic descendants are safely deduced. Superficial match to the related i-stem is dial. Russian вырь (vyrʹ, “wirlpool”) (for the development Proto-Balto-Slavic *jū- > Proto-Slavic *vy- compare the pronoun *vy (“you”)). The fabled names for “Otherworld, Elysium” in a handful of Slavic languages:

• East Slavic:
  • Belarusian: вы́рай (výraj)
  • Russian: вы́рей (výrej)
  • Ukrainian: ви́рiй (výrij)
• West Slavic:
  • Polish: wyraj

have been also suggested as possible cognates,^[2] however, with lesser certainty. These mythonyms could alternatively be *vъ- prefixed variants^[3] of the Iranian borrowing *jьrьjь (“Aryan realm”) (whence Russian ирей (irej), Ukrainian ірій (irij), Serbo-Croatian ириј, Czech irij), which Early Slavs believed to be the place where birds migrate during winter. Other theories also exist.

Derksen qualifies the existence of Slavic descendants as "highly uncertain"^[1].

*jáuˀrāˀ f

1. body of water (lake, sea), marshland

• *jū́ˀrāˀ^[1] (0-grade)
• *wū́ˀras (in Prussian)

• *jū́ˀris, *jū́ˀrija ~ *jū́ˀrē (“wetland, moor”)
• *jū́ˀrus (“marshy”)

• East Baltic:
  • Latvian: jūra (“sea”)
  • Lithuanian: jáura (“marshy, damp place”) (dialectal), jū́ra (“sea”)
• West Baltic:
  • Old Prussian: wurs (“pond”)
• → Proto-Uralic: *jäwrä (Finno-Volgaic) (see there for further descendants)

• “jūra”, in Lietuvių kalbos etimologinio žodyno duomenų bazė, 2007–2012
• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “вырь”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка (in Russian), Moscow: Progress