With epenthetic */l/ from earlier *zemja, from *zemь + *-ja, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *źémē, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰðʰem- (given as *dʰǵʰ-em- in Derksen), the thorn-variant accusative singular of *dʰéǵʰōm.
Cognate with Lithuanian žẽmė (“earth”), Latvian zeme (“earth”), Old Prussian semmē (“earth”) ( = zemē, with s due to German orthography), Lithuanian žẽmas (“low”), Latvian zems (“low”), Avestan 𐬰𐬃 (zā̊, “earth”), (acc. 𐬰𐬆𐬨 (zəm)), Sanskrit क्ष (kṣá, “earth”), Persian زمین (zamin, “earth”), Ancient Greek χθών (khthṓn, “earth”), Hittite (tēkan, “earth”) (gen. (taknas)), Latin humus (“ground”), Ancient Greek χαμαί (khamaí, “on the ground”).
singular | dual | plural | |
---|---|---|---|
nominative | *zemľà | *zèmľi | *zemľę̇̀ |
genitive | *zemľę̇̀ | *zemľù | *zèmľь |
dative | *zemľì | *zemľàma | *zemľàmъ |
accusative | *zemľǫ̀ | *zèmľi | *zemľę̇̀ |
instrumental | *zemľèjǫ, *zèmľǫ** | *zemľàma | *zemľàmī |
locative | *zemľì | *zemľù | *zemľàsъ, *zemľàxъ* |
vocative | *zemľe | *zèmľi | *zemľę̇̀ |
* -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).
singular | dual | plural | |
---|---|---|---|
nominative | *zemľà | *zȅmľi | *zȅmľę̇ |
genitive | *zemľę̇́ | *zemľù | *zèmľь |
dative | *zemľì | *zemľàma | *zemľàmъ |
accusative | *zȅmľǫ | *zȅmľi | *zȅmľę̇ |
instrumental | *zemľejǫ́ | *zemľàma | *zemľàmi |
locative | *zȅmľī | *zemľù | *zemľàsъ, *zemľàxъ* |
vocative | *zemľe | *zȅmľi | *zȅmľę̇ |
* -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.