Una parola balkanica e la sua etimologia : kurva

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Paolo Agostini

Abstract

The word kurva, ‘meretrix; whore’ is uniformly spread over a very large
geographical area, from the Balkans to the Balto-Slavic area, occurring with
very slight changes also in languages which differ greatly from each other, as in Neo-Hellenic, Rumanian, Albanese, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Russian and
so on. The author’s aim is to prove that the word in question originates from
Ancient Greek, i.e. dor. κώρα~1ιοπι. Ko6pp~att. κόρη, (*KoOpFa. Thus the
borrowing, affected by the presence of the digamma, had its initial syllable
lengthened either by the borrowing language(s), or by a peculiar pronunciation of the greek κοινή.



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