# All Slavic: sawmill



## Encolpius

Hello, I wonder how you say *sawmill *in your language? Do you have any short colloquial form? Thanks. Enc. 

*Czech*: pila (it also means saw)
*Slovak: *píla
*Polish*: tartak  (etymology???)


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## robin74

Encolpius said:


> *Polish*: tartak  (etymology???)


It's the same root as "trzeć" = to grind, which was also used to mean "to saw" when referring to lumber.


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## Azori

Slovak:*

píla *or* piliarsky závod/podnik
*


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## Majalj

BCS: pilana (saw = pila)


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## Sobakus

Russian: лесоп*и*лка(saw=пил*а*).


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## Natalisha

Sobakus said:


> Russian: лесоп*и*лка(saw=пил*а*).



лесопилка (wood+saw)


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## Duya

Majalj said:


> BCS: pilana (saw = pila)



Interestingly, for the saw itself, in Serbia (and Bosnia, as far as I know), the Turkish (stemming from Persian) term "testera" is used, rather than "pila" (which is common Slavic), prevailing in Croatian. However, the "testera" is not a productive root, so we have only "pilana", "piljevina" (sawdust).


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## DenisBiH

Hm, I usually immediately spot words that are Croat-sounding, but _pila_ sounds pretty neutral to me, not any more marked than _testera_. Could be though that I don't use it (the word or the object ) regularly. There is also _žaga_ which is an Old High German (stemming from Latin) borrowing. That's a nice collection of words from all over.


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## TriglavNationalPark

Duya said:


> "pila" (which is common Slavic)


 
The meaning is not the same in all Slavic languages, though. In Slovenian, *pila* refers to a file (_"a steel hand tool with small sharp teeth on some or all of its surfaces; used for smoothing wood or metal"_).

The Slovenian term for a saw or a sawmill is *žaga*, from the Old German "sage" (according to Snoj). EDIT: I see that DenisBiH beat me to it with the etymology.


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## phosphore

I've never heard of _pila_ before, it's definitely not used around here, although I've heard of _pilana_ and _piljevina_. As to _testera_, I wouldn't say it's not productive, since there is the noun t_esterica _and the verb _testerisati, _but anyway that is the word we use. I haven't heard of_ žaga_ either.


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## werrr

TriglavNationalPark said:


> The meaning is not the same in all Slavic languages, though. In Slovenian, *pila* refers to a file (_"a steel hand tool with small sharp teeth on some or all of its surfaces; used for smoothing wood or metal"_).


That’s the original meaning. The Slavic word comes from the Germanic predecessor of German *Feile *and English *file*.

In Czech, the meaning was extended to *saw* and later on a new cognate *pilník* replaced *pila* in its original meaning. But the related verb *pilovati* (= to file/rasp) is still used only in the original meaning.


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## DenisBiH

werrr said:


> That’s the original meaning. The Slavic word comes from the *Germanic* predecessor of German *Feile *and English *file*.
> 
> In Czech, the meaning was extended to *saw* and later on a new cognate *pilník* replaced *pila* in its original meaning. But the related verb *pilovati* (= to file/rasp) is still used only in the original meaning.




I'm somewhat confused, and it's not just this supposed German borrowing that's got me confused. As far as I can see (and I may well be mistaken) Germanic cognates show the effects of the First Germanic Sound Shift (Grimm's law), and the Slavic word doesn't. Can we even call something that doesn't show the effect of this sound shift Germanic? And if we can, where exactly is the proof that this indeed was borrowed from Germanic? Or is it claimed that Slavs when borrowing substituted p- for f- due to not having the /f/ sound?


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## Ante Portas

Encolpius said:


> Hello, I wonder how you say *sawmill *in your language? Do you have any short colloquial form? Thanks. Enc.
> 
> *Czech*: pila (it also means saw)
> *Slovak: *píla
> *Polish*: tartak  (etymology???)


Prva takva radionica u Crnu Goru dobila je ime _Šegarnica_ _(*saw*_ = _šega_)..


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