vatră

See also: vatra, Vatra, Vatră, and vatrã

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Tosk Albanian vatër (definite form vatra), from Proto-Albanian *ōtar, obtained through the *o to *vo-/*va- development which is observed exclusively in the Albanian language as the dipthongization of *o in the two major dialect groups (cf. also vadhë, varfër, vesh, etc.).^[1]^[2]^[3] Borrowed also into Serbo-Croatian vatra (“fire”), Czech vatra, Polish Watra Some of the Slavic forms are explained as being borrowed from proto-Romanian or other Vlach languages, through semi-nomadic Aromanian shepherds. Compare Aromanian vatrã.^[1]

Noun

vatră f (plural vetre)

fireplace, hearth, fireside
(by extension, figuratively) home, house, dwelling, abode
Synonyms: casă, domiciliu, locuință

Declension

	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
	singular		plural
nominative-accusative	vatră	vatra	vetre	vetrele
genitive-dative	vetre	vetrei	vetre	vetrelor
vocative	vatră, vatro		vetrelor

Descendants

→ Gagauz: vatra

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1
2008, Willem Vermeer, “The prehistory of the Albanian vowel system: A preliminary exploration”, in Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics, volume 32, page 606:
"As is well known, the rise of Tosk as a recognizable dialec-tal unit involves two innovations that have parallels in early Romanian: Romanian centralized its *a in nasal contexts and part of the dialects under-went the development of intervocalic -n- to -r-. Romanian also famously borrowed vatër 'hearth' with patently Tosk va- and proceeded to spread it to wherever Vlachs expanded subsequently. The shared Tosk-Romanian innovations obviously constitute the final stage of the crucial and well-publicized period of Albanian-Romanian convergence. Since these inno-vations are found either not at all or only marginally in the Slavic loans into Romanian and Albanian, it follows that the rise of Tosk preceded both the expansion of Romanian and the influx of Slavic loans."
^ Hyllested, A., Joseph, B. D. (2022) “Albanian”, in Olander, T., editor, The Indo-European Language Family: A Phylogenetic Perspective, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 232
^ Curtis, Matthew C. (2017–2018) “Chapter XV: Albanian”, in Klein, Jared S., Joseph, Brian D., Fritz, Matthias, editors, Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics: An International Handbook (Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft [Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science]; 41.2), Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, →ISBN, § The dialectology of Albanian, page 1805

[Vermeer-1] 1.0 ^1.1
2008, Willem Vermeer, “The prehistory of the Albanian vowel system: A preliminary exploration”, in Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics, volume 32, page 606:
"As is well known, the rise of Tosk as a recognizable dialec-tal unit involves two innovations that have parallels in early Romanian: Romanian centralized its *a in nasal contexts and part of the dialects under-went the development of intervocalic -n- to -r-. Romanian also famously borrowed vatër 'hearth' with patently Tosk va- and proceeded to spread it to wherever Vlachs expanded subsequently. The shared Tosk-Romanian innovations obviously constitute the final stage of the crucial and well-publicized period of Albanian-Romanian convergence. Since these inno-vations are found either not at all or only marginally in the Slavic loans into Romanian and Albanian, it follows that the rise of Tosk preceded both the expansion of Romanian and the influx of Slavic loans."

[2] Hyllested, A., Joseph, B. D. (2022) “Albanian”, in Olander, T., editor, The Indo-European Language Family: A Phylogenetic Perspective, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 232

[3] Curtis, Matthew C. (2017–2018) “Chapter XV: Albanian”, in Klein, Jared S., Joseph, Brian D., Fritz, Matthias, editors, Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics: An International Handbook (Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft [Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science]; 41.2), Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, →ISBN, § The dialectology of Albanian, page 1805

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