Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/bresti

This Proto-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.

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *brestei, cognate with Lithuanian brìsti (“to wade”), 1sg. brendù (Eastern dialectal bredù), 3sg. breñda, 3sg. past brìdo, Latvian brist (“to wade”), as well as Albanian bredh (“to jump, to hop”). Trubachev (ESSJa) adds Tocharian B preściye (“mud, dirt”) and Thracian βρεδα- (vreda-) (found only in toponyms). None of the languages outside Balto-Slavic clearly indicate whether the PIE root had *-d- or *-dʰ-, but *-dʰ- is required in Balto-Slavic if Winter's law applies, since the preceding vowel was not lengthened. Accordingly, Derksen reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *bʰredʰ- (*bʰ- rather than *b- can be assumed because initial *b- was rare or nonexistent in Proto-Indo-European).

*brestì impf^[1][2]

1. to wade

• Church Slavonic: брести (bresti) (Russian)

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: брести (bresti)
    • Belarusian: брысци́ (bryscí) (colloquial)
    • Russian: брести́ (brestí)
    • Ukrainian: брести́ (brestý)
• South Slavic:
  • ⇒ Bulgarian: бре́цам (brécam) (+ *-ьcati)
  • Slovene: brésti (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: břísti
  • Polabian: bradĕ (3sg.)
  • Slovak: bŕsť
  • Slovincian: brësc

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “бреду́”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Chernykh, P. Ja. (1993) “брести́”, in Историко-этимологический словарь русского языка [Historical-Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), 3rd edition, volume 1 (а – пантомима), Moscow: Russian Lang., →ISBN, page 111
• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1976), “*bresti”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 3 (*bratrьcь – *cьrky), Moscow: Nauka, page 14