dlya

[Beli Orao]

What's the derivation of this word? As a South Slavic speaker, it sounds very strange, and since Russian already has "za" I don't see the point.

[Niedokonany]

Well, there is a difference in meaning, I don't know if they're ever interchangeable in Russian - I've just found such a page:

http://www.alphadictionary.com/rusgrammar/for.html

According to Vasmer для is a shortened form of ORu. дѣлꙗ, from Common Slavic *dělja (similarly, modern Polish has dla, while in OPl. dziela is attested, too).

According to the ЭССЯ, Slavic adpositions such as дѣлꙗ/для, dziela/dla, dľa, dle, źěla, in South Slavic: dijel, delj have arisen due to a merger of the reflexes of Common Slavic words *dьlja (ultimately related to the adj. *dьlgъ or the nouns *dьlь, *dьlina) and *dělja (related to the noun *dělo), with a spatial and causal meaning, respectively. Also cf. such prepositions as Polish wedle (*vъ-dьlě).

I don't have my Boryś with me, so I can't tell you what he says.

BTW, in early records of some languages the forms tended to show up as postpositions (or inpositions?), just like ради.

[Silk]

I know that I`m resurrecting a semi-old thread here, but I thought this was interesting.

Belarusian apparently has two forms, дзеля and для. They seem to mean the same thing, though I`m no expert in Belarusian - I don`t know if there are subtle differences in the way the two forms are used. Are there any other Slavic languages besides Belarusian that have two separate forms?

[Niedokonany]

Why aren't you asking on lingvoforum?

[Silk]

I visited that forum once a few years ago but I've forgotten about it. Maybe the people there might have some answers though, thanks for reminding me.