Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/něga

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

Probably deverbal from *něgati.

Noun

*něga f^[1]

care, nurture
delight, tenderness

Declension

Declension of *něga (hard a-stem)
	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*něga	*nědzě	*něgy
genitive	*něgy	*něgu	*něgъ
dative	*nědzě	*něgama	*něgamъ
accusative	*něgǫ	*nědzě	*něgy
instrumental	něgojǫ, něgǫ^**	*něgama	*něgami
locative	*nědzě	*něgu	něgasъ, něgaxъ^*
vocative	*něgo	*nědzě	*něgy

^* -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).

Derived terms

*něgati, *něžiti (“to tender”)
*Něgomirъ
*Něgoslavъ
*Něgošь
*Něgota
*něgovati (“to caress”)
*Něgovojь
*něžьnostь (“tenderness”)
*něžьnъ (“tender”)

Descendants

East Slavic:
- Old East Slavic: нѣга (něga)
  - Belarusian: нега (njeha)
  - Russian: не́га (néga)
  - Ukrainian: нíга (níha)
South Slavic:
- Church Slavonic: нѣга (něga)
- Bulgarian: нѐга (nèga) (poetic); Нѣга (Něga), Ня́га (Njága) (personal name)
- Macedonian: нега (nega)
- Serbo-Croatian:
  Cyrillic script: њега, нега
  
  Latin script: njega, nega
- Slovene: néga
West Slavic:
- Czech: něhа (dated)
- Old Polish: Niega (personal name)
- Slovak: neha

References

^ Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1999), “*něga”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 25 (*neroditi – *novotьnъ(jь)), Moscow: Nauka, →ISBN, page 97