Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/nebьce

Diminutive of *nebo (“sky”), formed via *-ьce. Compare parallel Balkan formations Greek ουρανίσκος (ouranískos), Albanian qiellzë. The meaning either reflects the position of the palate at the roof of the mouth cavity, just like the sky is the roof of the world, or less likely continues the archaic meaning “pseudo-moisture”, which according to some^[1] is the original meaning of Proto-Indo-European *nebʰ-.

Most other Slavic languages also use derivatives of *nebo to denote “palate”, however, not exactly the diminutive in *-ьce: e.g. Russian нёбо (njóbo), Ukrainian піднебі́ння (pidnebínnja), Polish podniebienie, Slovak podnebie. The only exception is Czech patro.

*nebьce n (chiefly South Slavic)

1. palate
2. roof of cavity

• *nebo (“sky”)
• *nebьnъ (“palatal, celestial”)
• *neběnъ (“celestial”)

• East Slavic:
  • Ukrainian: не́бце (nébce, “ceiling arc”) (obsolete)
• South Slavic:
  • Bulgarian: небце́ (nebcé)
  • Macedonian: не́пце (népce)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: нѐпце

    Latin script: nèpce

  • Slovene: nę̑bce (colloquial)
• West Slavic:
  • Slovak: nebce (obsolete)

• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1997), “*nebьce”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 24 (*navijati (sę)/*navivati (sę) – *nerodimъ(jь)), Moscow: Nauka, →ISBN, page 109
• Georgiev, Vladimir I., Duridanov, I. V., editors (1995), “небце”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 4 (мѝнго² – па̀дам), Sofia: Prof. Marin Drinov Pubg. House, →ISBN, page 583