Etymological Analysis of the Lexemes “Šubha” and “Šuhva” in the Bosnian Language – Two Words or One?

Abstract

Pairs of Bosnian Words of Oriental Origin: “Šubha” and “Šuhva” (as well as “Šupha,” “Šuvha,” and “Šuva”), and “Šuhveli” and “Šubheli” (including “Šupheli,” “Šuvheli,” and “Šuveli”), which express doubt, suspicion, dubiousness, intuition, unease, restlessness, and insecurity, are described in dictionaries of the standard language and in other linguistic literature as a single word due to their pronounced formal and semantic similarity, as well as their identical practical linguistic usage. The different variants of a single word are explained through the process of modification, that is, phonetic changes—assimilation, omission, or metathesis (the rearrangement of consonants). This paper, through additional etymological analysis and a comparison of the contextual meanings of the mentioned lexemes, questions the possibility that these may not be a single term but rather two distinct words of different origins, which, despite their differences, still exhibit overlapping semantic fields according to etymological analysis.