Балто-слов'янський суфікс збірності -or-
ENWhile working over the Russian variant of the common Slavic dictionary ("Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Languages. Common Slavic lexical stock" — EDSL in abbreviated form) its compilers were gradually coming to the conclusion that in the common Slavic language there existed the lexical-semantic group of names of trees, bushes and grasses containing the collectivity suffix -an, namely: *bstan 'weed(s)'(EDSL III 1976 240), *kustarpl 'bush' (XIII 1987 135), *leščan 'hazel' (XIV1987262), *lipan Чіте forest' (XV 1988 118 119), *listan 'foliage' (XV ЦЗ) and some other. At the same time as far back as 1971 I.Duridanov finally formulated in his article "Collective nouns in -ar in the names of plants in Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian place names" that semantical word-formative thesis which the authors of EDSL will individually be still coining nearer to. But unlike the latter the Bulgarian researcher considered besides common Slavic version also the probability of the foreign influence trace on the investigated by him territory limited by South Slavic region of the Balkan (Peninsula) (the basis of the Morava and the west of Bulgaria in landmarks Kiustendil — Sofia) (cp. Latin rosarium 'rose garden'). Quite a few facts from the North Slavic region have already been given in the materials of the EDSL: *bstarb — also Russian (dialectal), *kustarb — exclusively Russian and Byelorussian (dialectal in both cases), *listan — also Russian (dialectal). Besides isolated examples also continuous area of sought-for formation use speak in favour of the common Slavic version. Cp. the map of the old unmown grass names in "Lexical Atlas of Byelorussian dialects" (V 1 1993 N 278), where the contradistinction of the forms віш and вішар takes place. The latter of the forms is localized to the east and the west of the former, that is in theoretically more archaic regions.Nevertheless the weightiest argument serving as evidence of just common Slavic character of the collectivity suffix -an is the presence of its correspondence in Baltic languages. As far back as 1913 K. Buga pointed out that dendronyms beržas 'birch' and liepa 'lime' gave names to the lake Beržoras and two villages Lieporai Lithuania. The author of there lines got the clue to the interpretation of the pointed out forms created from dendronyms when he paid attention to the fact that under 1331 one and the same mountain in Prussia had two word-formative variants of the name: Leypiten and Lepare. Cp. In modern Lithuanian collectivity suffix -ytė and actually registered appellative liepytė 'lime bushes'. Hence, we have the names of two Lithuanian villages Lieporai as well as Balto South Slavic lexical word-formative isoglottic line Lith. Lieporai - Serb, jiùnàp' lime grove'.
