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A fresh look at the origin of an interesting survival of the dual in Russian
Author(s) -
Cooper Brian
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
transactions of the philological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.333
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-968X
pISSN - 0079-1636
DOI - 10.1111/1467-968x.00065
Subject(s) - vernacular , dual (grammatical number) , relation (database) , history , survival of the fittest , linguistics , literature , philosophy , art , computer science , biology , evolutionary biology , database
After an introduction briefly outlining features of the dual number in relation to paired body parts, and some of its survivals in Russian and other Slavonic languages, a short lexicological and, in particular, etymological study is offered on an interesting Russian survival of this type ( mude ‘testicles’) and its Slavonic cognates, with information on ways in which it has been re‐interpreted, on its use and derivatives, especially its occurrence in vernacular phytonyms, on some previously proposed but mainly unconvincing etymologies, the most plausible of which is examined in detail, and on two new suggestions for a possible etymon.