Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/bolto

Etymology
Most likely substantivized from. Cognate with 🇨🇬,, 🇨🇬, and the second part of 🇨🇬 placename.

The semantic connection between "white" and "swamp, mud" is not obvious, but has been attested in many languages. Beside the mentioned Lithuanian, also in e.g., 🇨🇬 (<, from ). This is probably due to the widespread presence of the marsh grass called cottongrass (genus Eriophorum), whose the white fluffy seed heads are white, or the color of the dried clay taking light hue, depending on soil.

Though formally and semantically derivable from, with cognates such as 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, it is often considered an Illyrian substratum word (or from another, unidentified language; cf. 🇨🇬) due to the fact that most of the cognates are restricted to the Balkan peninsula, or its surroundings. However, these can also be borrowings from early Slavic; indirect evidence shows that the Slavic liquid metathesis and pleophony happened well after the spread of Slavic to the Balkans and the word must have been pronounced as or  as recently as the late 8th century.

Noun

 * 1)  swamp
 * 2) mud

Descendants
undefined
 * East Slavic:
 * South Slavic:
 * Old Church Slavonic:
 * Cyrillic:
 * Glagolitic:
 * West Slavic:
 * Bohemian :
 * Moravian :
 * Sorbian:
 * Cyrillic:
 * Glagolitic:
 * West Slavic:
 * Bohemian :
 * Moravian :
 * Sorbian:
 * West Slavic:
 * Bohemian :
 * Moravian :
 * Sorbian:
 * Bohemian :
 * Moravian :
 * Sorbian:
 * Moravian :
 * Sorbian:
 * Sorbian:
 * Sorbian:
 * Sorbian:
 * Sorbian:
 * Non-Slavic: