# all Slavic: different meanings of prepositions?



## Gavril

Are there any "false friends" among the prepositions/prefixes in Slavic languages?

It seems that many or most Slavic languages use *v*/*w* to mean "in(side)", *na* to mean "on", *za* to mean "for" or "behind", and so on. Are there any cases where a preposition has developed in a noticeably different direction (semantically) in different languages?

Thanks


----------



## ilocas2

preposition* pro* in Czech means "for"
preposition* про* in Russian means "about"


----------



## ahvalj

The etymological meaning of several prepositions is preserved in prefixes, e. g. in _u-jiti_, _u-vesti_ _u_- means ‘from’ whereas as a preposition it means ‘at’; _pro_- in _pro-jiti_ means ‘forward’, in _pro-vesti, __pro-ložiti_, _pro-stǫpiti_ (and sometimes also in _pro-jiti_) it means ‘through’, whereas as a preposition it has lost its original spatial meaning; the original meaning of _po_ ‘from’ (Sanskrit _apa_, Greek _apo_, Germanic _af_) is still deducible in _po-jiti_, _po-vesti_, but in other cases this prefix has the meaning ‘onto’, as in _po-staviti_, _po-ložiti_, and the preposition has a meaning of moving on the top of a surface or through an environment (with no English equivalent).


----------



## ahvalj

Also, about a half of the modern Slavic languages have merged for phonetical reasons the prepositions/prefixes _vъ(n)/u_ (OCS _vъniti/ujiti_, Russian _войти/уйти_) and _jьz/sъ(n)_ (OCS _jьziti/sъniti_ Russian _изойти/сойти_).


----------



## iobyo

There are only minor differences in the use of the descendants of  *bez(ъ), *medju, *ot(ъ), *nadъ, *podъ, *perdъ, *sъ, *vъ, *za.

Czech, Macedonian, Slovak and Slovene use descendants of *po to mean 'after'. BCS (_posl(ij)e_), Bulgarian (_след_) and Russian (_после_) more often use another preposition, although BCS and Russian can use also descendants of *po in the same sense.

There's some variation in the relatively younger prepositions like, for example, the one that means 'except': Blr. _акрамя, _Cz. _kromě,_ Russ. _кроме, _Slvk. _okrem,_ Ukr. _крім_ (*(ob-)kromě); BCS _osim, sem_, Bulg. _освен, _Mcd. _освен_ (*ob-svěnь); Pol. _oprócz_ (*ob-pročь), Slvn. _razen _(*orzьn-).



Gavril said:


> Are there any cases where a preposition has developed in a noticeably different direction (semantically) in different languages?



I believe (but may be mistaken) that the preposition *do did not originally indicate direction of movement, but some modern Slavic languages (such as Czech, Polish and Slovak) do use it in this way.

Here's an opposite example: the Macedonian interrogative adverb _каде _came to be used, in its elided form _кај,_ as a preposition meaning 'at' (cf. Russian _у, при_).


----------



## ahvalj

iobyo said:


> I believe (but may be mistaken) that the preposition *do did not originally indicate direction of movement, but some modern Slavic languages (such as Czech, Polish and Slovak) do use it in this way.


It is hard to tell. The Slavic meaning ‘up to’ is secondary (but present in non-standard Lithuanian and Latvian _da_, which are sometimes considered Slavic borrowings: _davesti — dovesti, danešti — donesti, dabėgti — doběžati_), the original IE meaning being ‘to, towards’ (http://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/до#.D0.AD.D1.82.D0.B8.D0.BC.D0.BE.D0.BB.D0.BE.D0.B3.D0.B8.D1.8F_2), so that the West-Slavic and Ukrainian meaning may be both ancient or recapitulating the original one.


----------



## ahvalj

The preposition _mimo_ has diverged considerably. The original meaning ‘by’ (from the same root as _minǫti_ ‘to pass by’ — http://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/мимо#.D0.AD.D1.82.D0.B8.D0.BC.D0.BE.D0.BB.D0.BE.D0.B3.D0.B8.D1.8F) has preserved in East Slavic and part of South Slavic, but has changed in West Slavic.


----------



## marco_2

For me in Bulgarian the preposition *из *(iz) is often used in the meaning which is not typical for other Slavic languages - it describes the movement without determined direction: *разхождам се из града, ходя из стаята, скитам се из горите, из тия места *etc.


----------



## iobyo

marco_2 said:


> For me in Bulgarian the preposition *из *(iz) is often used in the meaning which is not typical for other Slavic languages - it describes the movement without determined direction: *разхождам се из града, ходя из стаята, скитам се из горите, из тия места *etc.



I suspect that the Bulgarian _из _may actually be descended from *nizъ (Church Slavonic uses _низъ_ adverbially) and not *jьz (or perhaps by contamination or merging).


----------



## FairOaks

iobyo said:


> I suspect that the Bulgarian _из _may actually be descended from *nizъ (Church Slavonic uses _низъ_ adverbially) and not *jьz (or perhaps by contamination or merging).



Contamination is much more likely than derivation (*низъ* = *down*). I'd also like to throw in one of my favourite quotes from people living in Southwestern Bulgaria:
_Немой гваца низ перцело! = Don't trample about in the garden!_


----------



## Kartof

FairOaks said:


> Contamination is much more likely than derivation (*низъ* = *down*). I'd also like to throw in one of my favourite quotes from people living in Southwestern Bulgaria:
> _Немой гваца низ перцело! = Don't trample about in the garden!_


Wow, the only word I would remotely recognize in that sentence is _низ! _Then again I only have had exposure Eastern & Rhodope Bulgarian dialects.


----------

