Etymology Explorer › Old East Slavic

Where does “-ь” come from?

-ь (Old East Slavic) comes from Proto-Slavic -ь, from Proto-Indo-European -is — Forms nouns from verbs.

Ancestry of “-ь”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Proto-Slavic-ьForms nouns; From adjectives; From participles
2Proto-Indo-European-isForms nouns from verbs

Words derived from “-ь”

  • недоросль
  • связь
  • связной
  • прорубь
  • надпись
  • топь
  • пьянь
  • пропись
  • одурь
  • стынь
  • занавесь
  • резь
  • -ь
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -is →