Gutieva E.T. Reflexes of the Root אָדָם / adam / адам in the Ossetic Language

The Ossetiс language, alongside with most languages of the Euro-Asian linguistic area has borrowed the root אָדָם. The uniqueness of the situation is that the reflex of this root in Ossetic has the seme of plurality and is equivalent to “people”, “men”, whereas in most cases known cognates of this root have the seme of singularity and mean “a human being”, “a man”. In the languages closely related to the Ossetic language the reflexes of this root are bisemic “a man” – “people”. Semantics of the word in Ossetic, in our opinion, reflects the age and nature of the borrowing. In this article, the direct nature of the borrowing is assumed from the languages where it originated and functioned as bisemic unit at a stage when they were languages of communication, rather than written sources.

Keywords: borrowings, Hebraism, reflexes, semantic development, assimilation of a borrowing, etymon.

References:

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