Le denominazioni del sangue in area baltica
The Blood Denominations in the Baltic Area

Summary/Abstract: In this paper I discuss the divergence between Baltic languages over the denomination for blood. While the Latvian form asins stems from the ancient IE denomination, the type represented by the Lithuanian kraujas and the ancient Prussian crauyo may date back to the age of the individual languages, but may also have been inherited, although it is in any case more recent than asins. Since the latter possibility seems more plausible, we can hypothesize that at some prehistorical stage both denominations of blood must have been simultaneously present, albeit with different functions, in the whole IE area, or at least in part of it. In the Baltic area this pair was preserved unaltered during the common age. Subsequently it underwent, within each individual Baltic language, a process of simplification whose Latvian outcomes where different from the Lithuanian and Ancient Prussian ones. If this reconstruction is correct, it follows that all three Baltic areas show an innovative behaviour towards the inherited situation.

• Details
• Contents