Cognate Set 283 – Meaning: salt

IE-CoR reference form:
*sal-
IE-CoR reference language:
Proto-Indo-European
Ideophonic:
no
Parallel derivation:
no
Justification:
Tocharian, Hellenic, Armenian, Balto-Slavic, Germanic, Italic, and Celtic lexemes derived from PIE *sal- 'salt' (NIL 586-590, EIEC 498, IEW 878-879, cf. Adams 2013:742, Beekes 2010:177, Martirosyan 2010:24, 40-41, ALEW 887-888, Derksen 2015:548-549, Derksen 2008:461, Kroonen 2013:425, de Vaan 2008:535, Matasović 2009:319). The root is difficult to reconstruct; the traditional reconstruction as *sal- has been followed here after NIL, but note in order to avoid reconstructing PIE *a the Leiden school reconstructs a hysterokinetic l-stem: nom.sg. *séh₂‑l‑s, acc.sg. *sh₂‑el‑m, gen.sg. *sh₂‑l‑ós (Kortlandt 1985b:119, Beekes 1995:177, cf. also Rieken 1999:424n2103). The Germanic forms in this set show an extension in *d which may be on analogy to *su̯eh₂d- 'sweet' cognate set 5109, alternatively the *-d- might be explained as a compound with the root *deh₃- 'give' (cf. ALEW 886-887 s.v. Old Lithuanian saldùs 'sweet' and further discussion in cognate set 5157).
Found in clades:
Armenian, Balto-Slavic, Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, Italic, Tocharian
Revised by:
Matthew Scarborough
Found in 7 clades by 94 lexemes.
Language Lexeme Native script Phonetic Phonemic Notes
15   Armenian: Western ał աղ ɑʁ ɑʁ
14   Armenian: Eastern ał աղ ɑʁ ɑʁ
77   Bulgarian sol сол sɔɫ sol
96   Belarusian sol′ соль sɔlʲ solʲ
140   Catalan sal saɫ sal
91   Czech sůl suːl suːl
108   Danish salt ˈsalˀd
114   Dutch zout zɑut
110   English salt sɔlt
102   Faroese salt sal̥t
115   Flemish zout
135   French sel sɛl sɛl
112   Frisian sâlt sɔːt
120   German Salz ˈzalts ˈzalts
8   Greek: Modern Std aláti αλάτι aˈlati aˈlati
101   Icelandic salt sal̥t
160   Gaelic: Irish salann ˈsˠalˠən̪ˠ ˈsˠalən̪ˠ
127   Italian sale ˈsaːle ˈsale
129   Ladin sel ˈsel
93   Sorbian: Lower sol sɔlʲ sol
92   Sorbian: Upper sól, sel sʊl, sɛl, sɘ̟l sʊl, sɛl, sɘ̟l
78   Macedonian sol сол so̞ɫ sol
86   Polish sól sul sul
143   Portuguese sal sal sal
103   Norwegian: Bokmål salt sɑlt sɑlt
95   Russian sol' соль sɔlʲ solʲ
132   Sardinian: Logudoro sale ˈsaːlɛ ˈsaːlɛ
131   Sardinian: Nuoro sale ˈsaːlɛ ˈsaːlɛ
81   Serbo-Croat sol sô̞ːɫ sôːl Regional (eastern) variant: 'so' [sɔ̂:].
89   Slovak soľ sɔlʲ solʲ
83   Slovene sol sóːw sóːv
142   Spanish sal sal sal
107   Swedish salt salt
97   Ukrainian sìl′ сіль sʲilʲ silʲ
136   Walloon sé se se
3   Tocharian A sāle sale sale
4   Tocharian B salyiye səˈlʲije saˈlʲəje
122   Latin sāl saːɫ saːl G.sg. salis
6   Greek: Ancient háls ἅλς háls háls G.sg. ἁλός
119   Luxembourgish Salz zɑlts zɑlts
72   Latvian sāls ˈsɑːls sɑːls
75   Old Prussian sali
76   Old Church Slavonic solĭ соль sɔlɪ̆ solɪ
128   Friulian sâl ˈsaːl ˈsaːl
157   Old Irish salann ˈsˠalˠan̪ˠ ˈsalan̪
13   Armenian: Classical ał աղ ɑʁ ɑɫ-i-
146   Umbrian šalu Native script: šalu (acc.sg., IIa 18).
105   Elfdalian solt solt solt
106   Old Swedish salt salt salt
154   Middle Breton holen, olen, olèn, hòalen ˈhoːlen, ˈoːlen
7   Greek: New Testament háls ἅλς als als
88   Polabian süli syˈli syˈli Genetive sg.
87   Kashubian sól sul sul
11   Greek: Cypriot álas άλας ˈɐlɐs ˈɐlɐs
73   Latgalian suoļs suɔlʲs suɔlʲs
9   Greek: Cappadocian álas άλας ˈalas ˈalas
10   Greek: Pontic álas άλας ˈalas ˈalas
12   Greek: Italiot ála άλα ˈala ˈala It.
126   Neapolitan sale ˈsalə ˈsalə
133   Old French sel
134   Anglo-Norman sel
138   Franco-Provençal sö ˈsɒː ˈsɔː
141   Old Spanish sal sal
123   Romanian sare ˈsaɾe ˈsare
159   Gaelic: Manx sollan ˈsolan ˈsolan salann
158   Gaelic: Scottish salann sal̪ˠən̪ˠ
156   Breton: Treger holen ˈho̞ːlën ˈholën
155   Breton: Gwened halèn häːlɛ̃ːn
150   Welsh: North halen ˈhalan ˈhalan
85   Old Polish sól soːlʲ soːlʲ
149   Middle Welsh halen halen
90   Old Czech sól ˈsɔ̝ːl soːlj
94   Old Novgorod solĭ соль sɔlʲ sɔlʲ
98   Rusyn s′ïl′ sʲi̞(lʲ/ʎ) sʲi̞lʲ
79   Macedonian: Suho sòl′ so̞lʲ solj
80   Macedonian: Visoka sòl′ so̞lʲ solj
84   Slovene: Kostel sol so̝w so̝l
82   Slovene: Early Modern ſul
121   German: Bernese Salz saʊts salts
137   Old Occitan sau also: sal
124   Megleno-Romanian sári
139   Old Catalan sal sal sal
117   Old High German salz salts salts
111   Old Frisian salt salt salt
118   Middle High German salz salts salts
109   Old English sealt sæɑ̯lt sæɑ̯lt
116   Old Saxon salt salt salt
113   Middle Dutch sout zɔu̯t zɔu̯t
100   Old Icelandic salt salt salt
99   Gothic salt 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐍄 salt salt
152   Late Cornish holan, hollan ˈholən
104   Norwegian: Nynorsk salt sɑlt sɑlt
144   Portuguese: Brazilian sal
130   Milanese sã saː
References
  • Adams, Douglas Q.: 742
    S.v. TochB salyiye 'salt', reflecting pre-Proto-Tocharian *sali-h₂en-, a derivative of PIE *sali- 'salty' (cf. Skt. sali-la- 'salty, ocean', Arm. sał (an i-stem), Old Lat. sale 'salt', OCS salь; more distantly Gk. ἅλς, Lat. sāl, etc.).
  • Beekes, Robert: 177
    Reconstructs a hysterokinetic l-stem with the following ablaut: NSg. *séh₂‑l‑s, ASg. *sh₂‑el‑m, GSg. *sh₂‑l‑ós, cf. Kortlandt (1985:119).
  • Beekes, Robert: 74-75
    S.v. ἅλς, ἁλός 'salt' < PIE *seh₂-l- 'salt'.
  • Derksen, Rick: 461
    S.v. *solь 'salt', from PIE *sh₂el- (cf. Gk. ἅλς, Lat. sāl, OHG salz, OIr. salann).
  • Derksen, Rick: 548-549
    S.v. Latv. sā̀ls 'salt', from PIE *seh₂-l-, *sh₂-el-. Latv. sā̀ls reflects the N.sg. *sēh₂-l-s of a hysterodynamic paradigm according to Kortlandt (1985b:118-119).
  • Hock, Wolfgang and Fecht, Rainer and Feulner, Anna Helene and Hill, Eugen and Wodtko, Dagmar S.: 887-888
    Cf. s.v. OLith. sálti 'süß werden' (BSl. Latv. sā̀ls 'Salz', OPr. sal 'Salz', OCS solь 'Salz', etc.), from PIE *sal- 'Salz' (cf. Gk. ἅλς, ἁλός 'Salz', Arm. ał 'Salz', Lat. sāl, G.sg. sălis 'Salz; Meerwasser', OIr. sál 'Salzwasser, Meer', MW halwyn 'Salz', Goth. salt 'Salz', TochB salyiye 'Salz').
  • Kortlandt, Frederik: 119
    Reconstructs N.sg. *seh₂ls, A.sg. *sh₂elm, G.sg. *sh₂los.
  • Kroonen, Guus: 425
    S.v. Proto-Germanic *salta- 'salt', a neuter collective noun derived from the strong verb saltan- 'to salt (down), pickle', from *sh₂ld-ie-, an extended form of the stem *sh₂el-, cf. (Lith. saldùs 'sweet', OCS sladъkъ 'id.', Ru. dial. solódkij 'id.').
  • Martirosyan, Hrach: 24, 40-41
    S.v. Arm. ał 'salt' and ałt 'salt'; connected to Gk. ἅλς, Lat. sāl, etc.
  • Matasović, Ranko: 319
    S.v. Proto-Celtic *salano- 'salt', a derivative of PIE *seh₂l- 'salt'.
  • Rieken, Elisabeth: 424, fn. 2103
    The reconstruction of the PIE form is difficult. The underlying noun may be either root noun or an l-stem, belonging to one of several possible accentual patterns. The proto-forms of the individual branches display thus varying degrees of analogical levelling. Possibilities: *săl- < *sh₂l- or *sh₂al-; *sāl- < *sah₂l-; alternatively < *sh₂ḗl- or *sh₂ṓl- with analogical influence of *săl-.
  • Wodtko, Dagmar S. and Irslinger, Britta and Schneider, Carolin: 586-590
    S.v. *sal- 'Salz' (IEW 878f., EIEC 498). Cf. n1 on possible alternative reconstructions and references to further literature. Cf. esp. Rieken (1999:424f.) for further discussion.
  • de Vaan, Michiel: 535
    S.v. Lat. sāl, salis 'salt', from PIE *sē̆h₂-l-s (nom.), *sh₂-él-m (acc.), *sh₂-l-ós (gen.) 'salt'; *sh₂l-d- (or *sh₂el-d- or *seh₂l-d- 'salt'), cf. OIr. salann 'salt', Gk. ἅλς 'salt', Latv. sā̀ls 'salt', OCS solь, 'salt', Lith. saldùs 'sweet', OCS sladъkъ 'sweet', Goth. salt, OHG salz, etc.