betulla

Italian

Etymology

From Latin betulla, diminutive of Gaulish *betua, from Proto-Celtic *betwiyos, *betuyā (birch), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷet-.

Compare Portuguese bétula, Spanish abedul, Catalan bedoll, French bouleau.

Noun

betulla f (plural betulle)

  1. birch

Further reading

  • betulla in internazionale.it – Dizionario Italiano di Internazionale – Il Nuovo di Mauro
  • betulla in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latin

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Gaulish *bitu, from Proto-Celtic *betwiyos, *betuyā, *betu, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷetu-yo-s, *gʷetw-iyo-s, from *gʷet-.[1][2]

Compare Welsh bedwen. See also Latin bitūmen (tar), which was instead borrowed through another Italic language.

Pronunciation

Noun

betulla f (genitive betullae); first declension

  1. birch tree

Notes

  • The form betula as meaning "birch tree" appears to have been discarded from antique lexicography altogether since the 20th century, as it does not appear in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, nor in the Oxford Latin Dictionary. However, betula was common in early New Latin.

Declension

First-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative betulla betullae
genitive betullae betullārum
dative betullae betullīs
accusative betullam betullās
ablative betullā betullīs
vocative betulla betullae

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Balkano-Romance:
    • Romanian: betulă
  • Italo-Romance:
  • Gallo-Italic:
    • Lombard: bedola, bedoia, bèula
      Alpine: bedora, bedra
      Ossolano: bèula
    • Piedmontese: biola, bola, bèula
  • Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • Southern Gallo-Romance:
    • Gascon: bedora
    • Vivaro-Alpine: bèula (Valadas)
  • Ibero-Romance:
    • Aragonese: abetocha
  • Vulgar Latin: *betullus
    • Gallo-Italic:
      • Emilian: bedul
      • Lombard: bedoi, bedogn
    • Northern Gallo-Romance:
    • Southern Gallo-Romance:
      • Catalan: bedoll
      • Gascon: bedoth, betoth
    • Ibero-Romance:
      • Aragonese: abetoch
  • Vulgar Latin: *betūlus
  • Borrowings:

References

  1. ^ Matasović, Ranko (2009) Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 64
  2. ^ Schrijver, Peter C. H. (1995) Studies in British Celtic historical phonology (Leiden studies in Indo-European; 5), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, page 326