Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/kunica

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.

Proto-Slavic

Etymology

By surface analysis, *kunà +‎ *-ica.

Noun

*kunica f^[1]

marten

Declension

Declension of *kunica (soft a-stem)
	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*kunica	*kunici	*kunicę̇
genitive	*kunicę̇	*kunicu	*kunicь
dative	*kunici	*kunicama	*kunicamъ
accusative	*kunicǫ	*kunici	*kunicę̇
instrumental	kunicejǫ, kunicǫ^**	*kunicama	*kunicami
locative	*kunici	*kunicu	kunicasъ, kunicaxъ^*
vocative	*kunice	*kunici	*kunicę̇

^* -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).

Descendants

East Slavic:
- Old East Slavic: куница (kunica)
  - Old Ruthenian: куни́ца (kuníca), куни́цꙗ (kunícja)
    - Belarusian: куні́ца (kuníca)
    - Carpathian Rusyn: куни́ця (kunýcja)
    - Ukrainian: куни́ця (kunýcja)
    - → Polish: kunica
  - Russian: куни́ца (kuníca)
- Old Novgorodian: коуницꙗ (kunićja)
South Slavic:
- Old Church Slavonic:
  - Church Slavonic: коуница (kunica)
  - Bulgarian: ку́ница (kúnica) (dialectal)
- Serbo-Croatian:
  Cyrillic script: ку̀ница
  
  Latin script: kùnica
- Slovene: kúnica (tonal orthography)
West Slavic:
- Czech: kunica (dialectal)
- Polish: kunica (“marten”)
- Old Slovak: kunica
- Pomeranian:
  - Slovincian: kùnjica

References

^ Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1987), “*kunica”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 13 (*kroměžirъ – *kyžiti), Moscow: Nauka, page 105

[1] Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1987), “*kunica”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 13 (*kroměžirъ – *kyžiti), Moscow: Nauka, page 105

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