Jālgab

jālgab Livonian Etymology Latvian proper noun lv Jelgava and 17th century countable noun lv jelgava town, city (later replaced by lv pilsēta) are popularly believed to be a borrowing from Livonian liv jālgab town, city. Karulis, however, thinks that this word doesn't have a plausible Finnic etymology and suggests it being a borrowing from liv lv -, in Latvian ultimately from ine-pro *Heh₃l- to bend whence also lv leja underside, depression, valley, dialectal meanings of lv elks elbow, part of sleeve around elbow, turn, angle, lv elkonis elbow. The name of Jelgava could also be related to dialectal lv jelgs wet or the noun lv jelga a swampy place.elkonis I 263-264 Karulis' version, however, raises questions as Jelgava has been historically called lv Mītava and de Mitau in Latvian and German respectively (according to Karulis himself of Baltic stock, cognate with the verb lv mīt to stagger, shift, trade). (Kersti Boiko also tangentially mentions lv Nītauja as an earlier name for Jelgava.) Suggesting Livonian borrowing from Latvian a term that perhaps was not even used in Latvian at that time is anachronistic. Pronunciation Proper noun liv proper noun liv town c/Latvia Jelgava Jālgab – Jelgava – Jelgava Jelgava – Jelgava – Jelgava Usage notes 1 gives type 156 for this word. This type in singular is identical to type 157 but has vowel shift in plural, since Jālgab is an uncountable proper noun such plural vowel shift is unknowable and perhaps this is an error, thus type 157 is indicated in this entry. The countable noun version liv jālgab has type 159 indicated which too is almost identical to type 157 except for short locatives (a common variation), the declension table in this entry gives both short and long locatives. Declension 157 sg 159 sg References