Origin unclear.
Baltic forms (Lithuanian sierà, Latvian sērs) were likely borrowed from Old East Slavic.
It is unclear whether Old East Slavic цѣрь (cěrĭ, “sulfur”) is related.
*sěra f
singular | dual | plural | |
---|---|---|---|
nominative | *sěra | *sěrě | *sěry |
genitive | *sěry | *sěru | *sěrъ |
dative | *sěrě | *sěrama | *sěramъ |
accusative | *sěrǫ | *sěrě | *sěry |
instrumental | *sěrojǫ, *sěrǫ** | *sěrama | *sěrami |
locative | *sěrě | *sěru | *sěrasъ, *sěraxъ* |
vocative | *sěro | *sěrě | *sěry |
* -asъ is the expected Balto-Slavic form but is found only in some Old Czech documents; -axъ is found everywhere else and is formed by analogy with other locative plurals in -xъ.
** The second form occurs in languages that contract early across /j/ (e.g. Czech), while the first form occurs in languages that do not (e.g. Russian).