Quote:
Originally Posted by kestutisturbo
ORIGIN: Праслав. *medve^dь (первонач. "поедатель меда", от ме'д и *e^d-)
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'Pojedatelj meda'... Very interesting.
Med-jed (from jesti, jedem - to eat) could be an explanation for hyper-jotted form MEĐED.
Btw., some notes for Serbian latinic script: Š and Ž are SH and ZH (Ш and Ж); Ć and Č are soft and hard CH (Ч), often undistinguishable to foreign ear (compared to Russian, maybe Ч and ЧЬ); Đ is a soft DŽ (ДЖ) and J is "consonanted I" (Й). Modern Serbian ortography is phonetic, so Russian
естество, ёж, ёлка are in Serbian
jestestvo, jež, jelka.
So far, I've heard explanations for MEDVĚD being 'the one that knows where honey is' or 'honey-knower'.