Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/telę

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *tel- + *-ę (diminutive suffix), cognate with Latvian teļš, telēns, Lithuanian tẽlias. Three types of hypotheses exist for the origin of the root:

• Native origin: Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- (“to bear”), akin to Latin tollo (“to carry”), possibly Proto-Slavic *telěga (“cart”) (supported by Snoj). Machek tentatively proposes as an alternative ad hoc simiplificaiton of (formally incompatible) Proto-Indo-European *wetélas (“yearling”) cognate with Latin vitulus (“calf”), Ancient Greek ἔταλον (étalon, “yearling”) and akin to Proto-Germanic *weþruz (“wether, year-old lamb”).
• Temematic origin: Per Holzer, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suckle”) via a hypothetical Indo-European dialect which devoiced aspirated stops. If right, then akin to directly inherited Proto-Slavic *dětę (“child”) and further Latin filius (“son”), Albanian dele (“ewe”). Disputed by Matasović.
• Turkic loanword: From Proto-Turkic *tẹ̄l (“calf”), attested in Kazakh тел (tel), Yakut тиил (tiil) (supported by Matasović).

*telę̀ n^[1][2][3]

1. calf (young bovine)

• *telenьce, *telenъkъ (diminutive)

• *telьcь (“calf of taurus”)
• *telica (“cow with a (recently born) youngling”)

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: телѧ (telę)
    • Old Ruthenian: телѧ (telja)
      • Middle Belarusian: цєлѧ (cjelja)
        • Belarusian: цяля́ (cjaljá)
      • Carpathian Rusyn: теля́ (teljá)
      • Ukrainian: теля́ (teljá)
    • Russian: теля́ (teljá) (regional)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic: телѧ (telę)
  • Bulgarian: теле́ (telé)
  • Macedonian: теле (tele)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: тѐле

    Latin script: tèle

  • Slovene: téle (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: tele
    • Czech: tele
  • Old Polish: cielę
    • Polish: cielę
    • Silesian: cielã
  • Old Slovak: teľa
    • Slovak: teľa
  • Polabian: tilą
  • Pomeranian:
    • Kashubian: celã
    • Slovincian: cêlã
  • Sorbian:
    • Upper Sorbian: ćelo
    • Lower Sorbian: śele

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “телёнок”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Todorov, T. A., Racheva, M., editors (2010), “теле”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 7 (слòво – теря̀свам), Sofia: Prof. Marin Drinov Pubg. House, →ISBN, page 914
• “telias”, in Lietuvių kalbos etimologinio žodyno duomenų bazė [Lithuanian etymological dictionary database], 2007–2012