Abstract
The paper considers the verbs which in Slavonic languages mean dying. The starting point is Bulgarian verbs and their equivalents in the other languages. The material relative to the remaining languages is not complete, but large enough to represent the whole. The subjects of interest are the verbs and phrases from the rural dialects only. The Slavonic world of dying is very rich. It offers old associations going back to proto-Slavic, as well as modern local ones. Out of 47 verbs and 10 phrases, 15 verbs and 2 phrases can be regarded as proto-Slavonic, because they occur in the form and meaning discussed here in a considerable part of all Slavic territory. Variety of the associations is amazing: Dying makes the Slavs think of the end, as such of the termination of any action symbolising life (the way of life, going, running, doing something, burning), of expiration, departure, leaving the body by the soul, of the symptoms concomitant with the death of a man or animal (becoming stiff, grinning, kicking, staring, straightening), and of sounds (cracking, snapping, striking). It is astonishing that the departure of a man from this world seems to produce many more emotions than the birth of a new man.
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