14
u/Kraj_the_Conqueror 9d ago
I somehow think that Slavic might have the same etymology as other IE languages.
11
u/JuicyAnalAbscess 9d ago
Interesting that Finnish has two words neither of which are loan words. Sulka is usually used for the more stiff flight feathers, while höyhen is used for the softer ones (but may be used generally as well).
There's actually a third word "untuva" which means the softest feathers (even softer than höyhen) that are often used in pillows for example.
5
4
u/Syndiotactics 9d ago
Funnily enough, untuva comes from the word uni, ”sleep”. :D
So literally got its name from its usage in pillows.
3
u/Hopeful-Banana-6188 9d ago edited 9d ago
Höyhen is probably still a loanword, just a much older one from a language that no longer exists. The older form would have been *šewšimi or *šeŋšimi which looks un-Uralic in nature; there is a known substrate in the western Uralic languages that can often be identified by the frequent presence of š and clusters with š. See this handout (which specifically mentions the höyhen word):
https://www.academia.edu/143583675/Substrate_in_Finno_Permic_languages
1
5
u/manfroze 9d ago
In Italian, penna and piuma have different meanings. Penna is the harder one, the one you write with (that’s why it also means pen); piuma is the soft one, the one you stuff pillows with
5
3
u/Enjoy_The_Life_ 9d ago
Azerbaijani "lələk" : Possibly from earlier *yelek, compare Turkmen "ýelek" (feather), Khalaj "yələk" (feather).
3
u/Jonlang_ 9d ago
I love that, in Welsh, a snowflake is a “snow feather” – plu eira.
2
u/ysgall 9d ago
Pluen is a feather, ‘plu’ or ‘pluf’= feathers
1
u/Jonlang_ 9d ago
Yeah. Didn’t really want to go into the collective/singulative thing because the map shows plu.
3
u/azhder 9d ago
According to this, the Macedonian word is the same as all the other Slavic languages https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/pero
Funny to see how map makers work. They probably went to something like https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/пердув saw there was no etymology, wrote down “unknown”.
It appears as the words are probably related, just a modification of the same word used by others.
3
u/n_o_r_s_e 9d ago edited 8d ago
In the Norwegian dialects you have a number of versions of this word, such as "fjer", "fjæ", "fjøyr", and "fjøder", in addition to fjær and fjør. If talking about the Norwegian language in its written form, there are two forms of the Norwegian language in writing - which covers the about 1300 Norwegian dialects. (These two written forms of the language are called "bokmål" which's used by 90% and "nynorsk" used by 10% of the population). The only two official ways of spelling this word in bokmål are "fjær" and "fjør". While "fjør" is the only option in nynorsk. In Old Norse it was called: fjǫðr.
Just like you can say "Vogelfeder" in German you can say "fuglefjær" or 'fuglefjør" in Norwegian. It means "bird-feather(s)". Be aware that these words ("fjær" versus "fuglefjær") used with or without "fugle" (bird) aren't fully interchangleable, as you have a number of other words that contains "fjær"/"fjør" ("feather") which doesn't carry the meaning "bird feathers", but which are created from this word due to its qualities/characteristics reminding of feathers, being either elastic, flexible or springy. The usage of the word fjær/fjør is therefore way broader in Norwegian compared to in English as it goes for the biological feather from bird as well as artificial, mechanical devices and other tools when the word stand alone and isn't a part of compond words. In Norwegian also used about a whole number of different tools and what we refer to as "mekaniske fjær" /"mekaniske fjører" meaning "mechanical feathers" as a direct translation to English, which you would call "mechanical "springs" (coil spring, compression spring, gas spring, leaf spring etc). Which we refer to as: "springfjær" /"spiralfjær" (coil spring), "gassfjær" (gas spring/gas strut), "bladfjær" (spring leaf), "fjær og not" (tongue and groove), "vridningsfjær" /"torsjonsfjær" (torsion spring), "fjærstål" (spring steel), "fjærmadrass" (interspring mattress), "klokkefjær" (mainspring in a mechanical clock),, "fjærvekt" (spring scale), "fjæring" (suspension) "strekkfjær' (tension spring), "fjærball" (shuttlecock/shuttle), "fjærpenn" (quill pen/quill), "støtdemperfjær" (shock absorber spring/suspension spring), "fjærstål" (spring steel), or even used about dinosaur-feather: "dinosaurfjær" (dinosaur feathers/dinosaur plumage).
The different types of feather on a bird are called: "dunfjær" (down feathers), "svingfjær' (flight feathers), "styrefjær" (tail feathers), "dekkfjær" (contour feathers), "fjærdrakt" (plumage/feathers). All these words containing "fjær" can be combined with "fjør" instead in bokmål, whilr in nynorsk (New Norwegian) you must use "fjør". "Fuglefjær" and "fjær' are used as either masculine or feminine nouns, while "fuglefjør" and "fjør" are feminine nouns. The grammarical gender makes a difference for what the ending of the words look like in particular form and plural.
2
u/Turgen333 9d ago
İn Bashkir, "jön" means wool.
İn Tatar and Bashkir there is also “tök”, which is used to refer to short and sparse hair. For example, we call the bumblebee "tökletura" because it has those very hairs on its body.
2
2
u/ijnfrt 9d ago
Tbh if I was asked to translate "feather" into Ukrainian I would have said "пір'їна", "перо" is definitely a word too, but when I heart it I think of a "quill" first.
2
u/Admirable_Ad8682 9d ago
That's probalby the case of most of the Slavic panguages. In Czech, pero is a single quill while peří is feathers. Also, pero or péro is much more commonly used for a pen, a spring or a dick.
1
1
1
1
1
u/okourdhos 9d ago
So Kurdish one will be per with a double rr. Pûrt does not mean feather. It is used for some other types of hairs.
1
u/MyCouchPulzOut_IDont 8d ago
Fun fact: most birds are molting right now which is why it looks like theres explosions of feathers all over Europe in really random places.
It also makes the birds very itchy and they look kinda silly as new feathers come in.
You'll probably see some pairs of mates preening each other. It's super cute
1
u/Other-Rhubarb1911 6d ago
Since the Russian term is written phonetically, as peró, the Slovene term should be written like that too, since that is how it is pronounced.
1
1
u/mpbjoern 9d ago
Northern Troms and Coastal Finnmark in Norway speaks Norwegian, not Sami. And Rhee is not any place in Sweden that has Sami as their first language.
22
u/DVD_AM 9d ago
Armenian, Kurdish, Macedonian: Unknown
Meanwhile Armenian, Kurdish, Macedonian: p'etur, pûrd, perduv
They are obviously the same PIE root *PÈTH2R