Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/vila

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

Unknown. Sometimes compared with *viljati or vyti. Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weh₁- (“to blow (of wind)”).

Noun

*vila f

1. (South Slavic) A kind of female nature spirit with supernatural powers, similar to a nymph or a fairy.

Declension

Declension of *vila (hard a-stem)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*vila	*vilě	*vily
genitive	*vily	*vilu	*vilъ
dative	*vilě	*vilama	*vilamъ
accusative	*vilǫ	*vilě	*vily
instrumental	*vilojǫ, *vilǫ**	*vilama	*vilami
locative	*vilě	*vilu	*vilasъ, *vilaxъ*
vocative	*vilo	*vilě	*vily

^* -asъ is the expected Balto-Slavic form but is found only in some Old Czech documents; -axъ is found everywhere else and is formed by analogy with other locative plurals in -xъ.
^** The second form occurs in languages that contract early across /j/ (e.g. Czech), while the first form occurs in languages that do not (e.g. Russian).

Descendants

• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic:

    Old Cyrillic script: вила (vila)

    Glagolitic script: ⰲⰻⰾⰰ (vila)

    • → Old East Slavic: вила (vila)
      • Belarusian: віла (vila)
      • Russian: вила́ (vilá)
      • Ukrainian: вила (vyla)
  • Bulgarian: вила (vila)
  • Macedonian: вила (vila)

  ⇒ Macedonian: самовила (samovila)

  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: вила

    Latin script: vȉla

  • Slovene: vila
  • → Czech: víla
    • → Upper Sorbian: wiła
  • → German: Wilis pl (in the context of Giselle)
    • → Russian: вилисы pl (vilisy) and виллисы pl (villisy) (in the context of Giselle)
  • → Polish: wiła
  • → Slovak: víla

References

• Reiter, Norbert (1973). "Mythologie der alten Slaven". In Haussig, Hans Wilhelm (ed.). Wörterbuch der Mythologie (in German). 2. pp. 163–208.

Further reading

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “вила́”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Anikin, A. E. (2013) “вила”, in Русский этимологический словарь [Russian Etymological Dictionary] (in Russian), issue 7 (вершь – вняться), Moscow: Russian Language Institute, →ISBN, page 173