Tendencies of gender categorization of nouns in the modern Ukrainian and Greek languages. The paper examines tendencies of gender categorization of nouns in the modern Ukrainian and Greek languages. It outlines the scope of nouns with variations in gender formation. It also shows much greater amount of gender variations of nouns in Greek, as well as the increase of analytical means (articles) to differentiate gender of neologisms along with the strengthening and unification of word forming suffixes, used to form substantives peculiar to the aforementioned languages, and identification of gender by hyperonym.

The present writer comments upon Wiesław Boryś’s article on etymological research in Poland. (1) The present writer claims that in all languages the form of words depends on three main factors, not only on regular sound change and analogical development, but also on what he calls irregular sound change due to frequency. Word groups, words and morphemes which are very frequently used sometimes show irregular reductions, e. g. Polish wasza miłość> waść, podobno> ponoor *(děl)-ajetь> (dział)-a. The present writer reproaches Boryś that he does not mention irregular sound change due to frequency although in Polish texts this development sometimes occurs in more than 60% of cases. (2) The present writer criticizes the laryngeal theory. (3) The present writer criticizes Kuryłowicz’s opinion according to which the Indo-European apophony e/o was of analogical origin. (4) The present writer draws attention to an important difference between his theory of irregular sound change due to frequency, which concerns all languages of the world, and Winter’s “law” which deals only with one language, namely Balto-Slav.

Zoonims provide information in the fields of linguistics, history, archeology, and ethnography. However, they are rarely examined comprehensively. This article investigates the words used for three most popular domesticated animals in the Slavic world, namely the horse, the dog and the cat. It studies these words, focusing on the history of animal husbandry in the Slavic countries and their contemporary geography.

The article outlines the history of Slavic etymological lexicography and presents a concise characterization of Slavic of etymological dictionaries. The first Slavic etymological dictionaries by Matzenauer, Miklosich, and the Russian dictionary by Gorjaewa were compiled in the late nineteenth century. However, a number of comparative dictionaries and dictionaries of word formation had been published even before those dictionaries. Although few dictionaries were published in the first half of the twentieth century, the second half of that century was a period of true prosperity of Slavic etymological lexicography. Most etymological dictionaries were published during that time, including a number of multi-volume dictionaries whose publication continues to the present day. More new dictionaries are being published or edited in this century. The paper presents scientific etymological dictionaries and historical and etymological dictionaries, as well as selected dictionaries addressed to non-specialist audience, including dictionaries of Pan-Slavic and Balto-Slavic lexicology and etymological dictionaries of individual Slavic languages (excluding the Polish dictionaries discussed in the previous volume of Rocznik Slawistyczny), which are either completed or in progress. The paper also addresses a novel issue in Slavic etymology, namely the publication of etymological dictionaries of some Slavic dialects. Moreover, the paper discusses specialized types of etymological dictionaries that contain information relevant to etymological studies, such as dictionaries of borrowings, proper names, and idioms.

The words for the thigh have a complex distribution in Slavic. Thus, the word * lęžьka is found mainly in Russia and in the eastern parts of Belarus and Ukraine. The word *stegno is found in a few large and several smaller clusters in the Czech Republic, parts of Slovakia, in a large part of Ukraine and Belarus, in northern Russia, in some areas in Slovenia, Montenegro, and it is scattered in numerous other places. These words make extensive transitional belts along the border between Belorussia and Russia as well as between Ukraine and Russia. In Poland both the variants *udon and * udъ m are used. In a vast area in Northern Russia the term * χolъka is used. The Turkish borrowings *butъ and *butina occur in a large area in South Slavic. Along the border between Poland and the Czech Republic we find compact, although relatively small areas in which the forms *kyta i *kyto are found, whereas the areas next to the border between Poland and Slovakia use compound forms such as * grubO t ě lo , *noga v ъ grubizně, etc. Moreover, in large areas in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia we find Lithuanian borrowings. Many of the words for the thigh also refer to other parts of the body, such as the hip (the meanings “hip” and “thigh” are provided by many dictionaries alongside), the hip bone, the kidney, the calf, the shin, the foot or parts of the foot. Many of these words have been recorded in The General Slavic Linguistic Atlas (OLA) only in very rare instances, at times only at one point. However, most of them have been referred to in comparative documents other than the OLA.