At many stages of its development the Japanese language has shown a marked tendency to replace analytic constructions with synthetic forms. In the article this phenomenon is presented and investigated by taking the example of some volitive expressions, among other things the Old Japanese construction -(a)maku posi-, which evolved into the Classical Japanese suffix -(a)mafosi-, as well as the Classical Japanese suffix -(a)mau-, whose origin, however, is to be associated with analogical formation rather than phonetic reduction. All phases of the development of these expressions are here copiously illustrated with textual examples.

This article investigates the problem of the lexeme for ‘apple’ in the reconstructed Indo-European for which there are two roots possible, namely *meh2-lo and *h2ebol-, both meaning ‘apple’ or a fruit similar to it. The former has been usually taken as a borrowing while the latter as a true PIE root for ‘apple’. However, there are problems with this assumption – the presence of the vowel */a/ and the consonant */b/, both of marginal status, and the attestation of this lexeme mostly in the North-West Indo-European languages. It is shown that the lexeme in question might actually be an ancient Wanderwort.

The planet Venus, which is the brightest celestial body in the sky after the Moon, takes its astronomical name from the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility. It is known in Turkic as Yaruk Yulduzı ‘light star’, Akşam Yıldızı ‘Evening Star’, Sabah Yıldızı ‘Morning Star’, Tan Yıldızı ‘Dawn Star’, Seher Yıldızı id., Kervan Yıldızı ‘Caravan Star’, Kervankıran ‘Caravan-perishing’, Zühre (< Arabic ةرهز), Čolpan and Čoban Yıldızı ‘Shepherd’s Star’. This paper will discuss whether the word Čolpan is etymologically connected with the Proto-Bulgarian title čoban and the Slavic title župan.

The Balto-Slavic root *leup- ‘to peel’ (Lith. lùpti, lùpa, Sl. *lupti) can be derived from the root *lep- ‘id.’ (Gk. λέπω) by assuming an original paradigm pres. *lep-e/o- : aor.-inf. *p-. The aorist-infinitive stem developed as follows: *p- > *ulp- → *lup- (after pres. *lep-) → new full grade *leup-.

Five short articles are presented offering, in some, new etymological suggestions (§§ 1. μάχομαι ‘fight’, μισθός ‘reward’, 2. βούλομαι ‘want, wish’ : Slavic *gòlъ ‘bare, naked’, 4. εἵλη ‘warmth, heat of the sun’), in others, comments on existing etymologies (§§ 1. μισθός ‘reward’, 3. οὖτα ‘wound’, 5. ὄνυξ ‘nail’ and delabialization by *l in North and East Germanic). Two of the items present alternatives to reconstructions with PIE *a (§§ 1, 3).