Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!EU.net!sun4nl!mcv
From: mcv@inter.NL.net (Miguel Carrasquer)
Subject: Re: Plurals
Message-ID: <D15x95.D34@inter.NL.net>
Organization: NLnet
References: <42794@dog.ee.lbl.gov> <42874@dog.ee.lbl.gov> <42882@dog.ee.lbl.gov>
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 1994 13:24:41 GMT
Lines: 22

In article <42882@dog.ee.lbl.gov>,
Eugene Veklerov <veklerov@spindle.ee.lbl.gov> wrote:
>
>Someone can probably explain all these idiosyncrasies by going
>through the history of the usage of these words.  I know that
>the word lyudi referred to servants in the 19th century.

This is quite ironic given the etymology of ljud-, which
derives from the PIE stem *leudh, which also gives Greek 
eleutheros and Latin liber, both meaning "free".  Of course,
many servants in Rome were "liberti", freedmen, one step up
from slave/serf.

>The nobles had a room called lyudskaya where the servants lived.
>However, there is another old expression, 'vyshel v lyudi',
>which can be translated as 'became a person of importance or
>position'.

-- 
Miguel Carrasquer         ____________________  ~~~
Amsterdam                [                  ||]~  
mcv@inter.NL.net         ce .sig n'est pas une .cig 
