EN
The paper discusses the origin of one of the modern balkanisms, attested in most Balkan languages, cf. Mod. Gk. κουμάσι n. ‘kennel (for a dog); hencoop’, dial. (Cretan) κούμος m. (o-stem) ‘id.’; Alb. kumác m. ‘enclosure for small domestic animals: coop, cote; dog kennel; pig pen, sty’ and qyméz m. ‘chicken coop, dovecote’; Arom. cumás ‘hencoop’; Turk. kümes ‘poultryhouse; coop, hut’, also küm ‘id.’. The Turkish origin of the above-mentioned bunch, suggested by Gustav Meyer (1891/1982: 229) and Wanda Budziszewska (1983: 84), should be excluded for chronological problems. The Greek appellative appears as early as in the lexicon of Hesychius of Alexandria, created by the end of 5th century AD, cf. κουμάσιον· τὸ τῶν ὀρνίθων οἴκημα. It is finally suggested that Mod. Gk. κούμος, Turk. küm and Bulg. dial. кумà represent an ancient borrowing from Anatolian *ḫaumaš c. (o-stem), cf. Hitt. ḫūmmaš c. ‘stable, stall, sty’, whereas Ancient Greek κουμάσιον, Mod. Gk. κουμάσι and its Balkan equivalents (cf. Turk. kümes, Alb. kumác, Arom. cumás) derive from the diminutive form *ḫaumati- in Anatolian, cf. Luw. ḫūmmati- ‘stable’.