Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/esmь

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

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *esmi, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésmi.

Baltic cognates are Lithuanian esmì, Old Prussian asmai.

Indo-European cognates are Tocharian A ṣem, Tocharian B ṣeym, Sanskrit अस्मि (asmi), Avestan 𐬀𐬵𐬨𐬍 (ahmī), Old Armenian եմ (em), Hittite 𒂊𒌍𒈪 (esmi), Ancient Greek εἰμί (eimí), Aeolic Greek ἔμμι (émmi), Albanian jam, Latin sum, Proto-Germanic *immi, English am, Old Norse em.

Verb

*esmь

1. first-person singular present of *byti (I am)

Descendants

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: есмь (esmĭ)
    • Russian: есмь (jesmʹ)
    • Ukrainian: єсьм (jesʹm)
  • Old Novgorodian: есмь (esmĭ)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic: ѥсмь (jesmĭ)
  • Bulgarian: съм (sǎm), сам (sam)
  • Macedonian: сум (sum)
  • Serbo-Croatian:
    • Cyrillic script: јѐсам, сам
    • Latin script: jèsam, sam
  • Old Slovene: ieſem
    • Slovene: sem
• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: jsem,
    • Czech: jsem
      • Bohemian (Chod dialect): sem
  • Kashubian: jem
  • Old Polish: jeśm (iesm/gesm)
    • Polish: -m
    • ⇒ Old Polish: jest jeśm, jestem
      • Polish: jestem
  • Slovak: som
  • Sorbian:
    • Upper Sorbian: sym
    • Lower Sorbian: som

Further reading

• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1979), “*esmь”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 6 (*e – *golva), Moscow: Nauka, page 32
• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “есмь”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Chernykh, P. Ja. (1993) “быть”, in Историко-этимологический словарь русского языка [Historical-Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), 3rd edition, volumes 1 (а – пантомима), Moscow: Russian Lang., →ISBN, page 129