History of Proto-Slavic
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The
The period from the early centuries AD to the end of the Common Slavic period around 1000 was a time of rapid change, concurrent with the explosive growth of the Slavic-speaking area. By the end of this period, most of the features of the modern Slavic languages had been established. The first historical documentation of the Slavic languages is found in isolated names and words in
This article covers historical developments up through the end of the Common Slavic period. For later developments, see History of the Slavic languages.
Introduction
Proto-Slavic is descended from
- Pre-Slavic (c. 1500 BC – AD 300): A long period of gradual development. The most significant phonological developments during this period involved the prosodic system, e.g. tonal and other register distinctions on syllables.
- Proto-Slavic proper or Early Common Slavic (c. AD 300–600): The early, uniform stage of Common Slavic, a period of rapid phonological change. There are no dialectal distinctions reconstructible from this period.
- Middle Common Slavic (c. 600–800): The stage with the earliest identifiable dialectal distinctions. Rapid phonological change continued, although with the massive expansion of the Slavic-speaking area. Although some dialectal variation did exist, most sound changes were still uniform and consistent in their application. By the end of this stage, the vowel and consonant phonemes of the language were largely the same as those still found in the modern languages. For this reason, reconstructed "Proto-Slavic" forms commonly found in scholarly works and etymological dictionaries normally correspond to this period.
- Late Common Slavic (c. 800–1000, although perhaps through c. 1150 in Kievan Rus', in the far northeast): The last stage in which the whole Slavic-speaking area still functioned as a single language, with sound changes normally propagating throughout the entire area, although often with significant dialectal variation in the details.
Slavic scholars differ widely in both the terminology and periodization of these developments. Some scholars do not use the term "Common Slavic" at all. For some others, the Common Slavic period comes after Proto-Slavic rather than including it. Some scholars (e.g. Frederik Kortlandt) divide the Common Slavic period into five or more stages, while others use as few as two (an early, uniform stage and a late, dialectally differentiated stage).
Origin
Proto-Balto-Slavic
The currently most favoured model, the
Scholars have proposed an association between Balto-Slavic and Germanic on the basis of lexical and morphological similarities that are unique to these languages.[4] Apart from a proposed genetic relationship (PIE forming a Germano-Balto-Slavic sub-branch),[5] the similarities are likely due to continuous contacts, whereby common loan words spread through the communities in the forest zones at an early time of their linguistic development.[4]
Similarly, Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian might have formed some kind of continuum from the north-west to the south-east, given that they share both
Pre-Slavic
A pre-Slavic period began c. 1500 to 1000 BC, whereby certain phonological changes and linguistic contacts did not disperse evenly through all Balto-Slavic dialects. The development into Proto-Slavic probably occurred along the southern periphery of the Proto-Balto-Slavic continuum. The most archaic Slavic
In
Despite these developments, Slavic remained conservative and was still typologically very similar to other Balto-Slavic dialects.
Another important aspect of this period is that the Iranian dialects of the Scythians and Sarmatians had a considerable impact on the Slavic vocabulary, during the extensive contacts between the aforementioned languages and (early) Proto-Slavic for about a millennium,[17] and the eventual absorption and assimilation (e.g. Slavicisation) of the Iranian-speaking Scythians, Sarmatians, and Alans in Eastern Europe by the Proto-Slavic population of the region.[18][19][20][21]
Proto-Slavic (c. 400–600)
Beginning around AD 500, the Slavic speakers rapidly expanded in all directions from a homeland in eastern Poland and western Ukraine. As it expanded throughout eastern Europe, it obliterated whatever remained of easternmost
and the Slav ethnonym spread out considerably. By the 8th century, Proto-Slavic is believed to have been spoken uniformly in the Slavic part of eastern Europe.What caused the rapid expansion of Slavic remains a topic of discussion. Traditional theories link its spread to a demographic expansion of Slavs migrating radially from their Urheimat,
Common Slavic (c. 600–1000)
Due to incompletely understood sociocultural factors, a number of sound changes occurred that uniformly affected all later dialects even well after the Slavic-speaking area had become dialectally differentiated, for at least four or five centuries after the initial Slavic dispersion. This makes it difficult to identify a single point at which Proto-Slavic broke up into regional dialects. As a result, it is customary to speak of a "Common Slavic" period during which sound changes spread across the entire Slavic-speaking area, but not necessarily with uniform results. The Early Common Slavic period, from roughly 400 to 600, can be identified as Proto-Slavic proper. The onomastic evidence and glosses of Slavic words in foreign-language texts show no detectable regional differences during this period.
During the Middle Common Slavic period, from perhaps 600 to 800, some dialectal differences existed, especially in peripheral dialects, but most sound changes still occurred uniformly. (For example, the Old Novgorod dialect did not exhibit the second palatalization of velars while all the other Slavic dialects did.) Reconstructed "Proto-Slavic" forms are normally from this period. It is thought that the distinction of long and short vowels by quality, normally reflected in "Proto-Slavic" reconstructed forms, occurred during this time: Greek transcriptions from the 5th and 6th centuries still indicate Common Slavic *o as a.
During the Late Common Slavic period, from c. 800 to 1000, conceptual sound changes (e.g. the conversion of TORT sequences into open syllables and the development of the neoacute accent) still occurred across the entire Slavic area, but often in dialectally differentiated ways. In addition, migrations of Uralic speaking peoples into modern
Periodization
The terminology of these periods is not consistent. For example, Schenker speaks only of "Early Proto-Slavonic" (= Early Common Slavic, the period of entirely uniform developments) and "Late Proto-Slavonic" (= Middle and Late Common Slavic), with the latter period beginning with the second regressive palatalization, due to the differing outcomes of pre-Proto-Slavic *x.[30] (Note that some authors, e.g. Kortlandt, place the beginning of dialectal developments later by postulating an outcome *ś of the second regressive palatalization, which only later developed into *s or *š.[31]) Kortlandt's chronology, on the other hand, includes six stages after the Balto-Slavic period:[32]
- "Early Slavic" (≈ pre-Proto-Slavic)
- "Early Middle Slavic" (≈ Early Common Slavic)
- "Late Middle Slavic" (≈ Middle Common Slavic)
- "Young Proto-Slavic" (≈ first part of Late Common Slavic)
- "Late Proto-Slavic" (≈ second part of Late Common Slavic)
- "Disintegrating Slavic" (widespread post-Common-Slavic developments, e.g. loss of nasalization)
The first regressive palatalization of velars (see below) may well have operated during Early Common Slavic and is thought by Arnošt Lemprecht to have specifically operated during the 5th century. The progressive palatalization of velars, if it is older, can predate this only by 200 to 300 years at most, since it post-dates Proto-Germanic borrowings into Slavic, which are generally agreed to have occurred no earlier than the 2nd century. The monophthongization of /au/, /ai/ is thought to have occurred near the end of Early Common Slavic or beginning of Middle Common Slavic (c. 600), and the second regressive palatalization of velars not long afterwards. This implies that, until around the time of the earliest Slavic expansion, Slavic was a conservative language not so different from the various attested Baltic languages.
First written Slavic languages
In the second half of the ninth century, the Slavic dialect spoken north of
Notation
See Proto-Balto-Slavic language#Notation for much more detail on the uses of the most commonly encountered diacritics for indicating prosody (á, à, â, ã, ȁ, a̋, ā, ă) and various other phonetic distinctions (ą, ẹ, ė, š, ś, etc.) in different Balto-Slavic languages.
Vowel notation
Two different and conflicting systems for denoting vowels are commonly in use in Indo-European and Balto-Slavic linguistics on the one hand, and Slavic linguistics on the other. In the first, vowel length is consistently distinguished with a macron above the letter, while in the latter it is not clearly indicated. The following table explains these differences:
Vowel | IE/B-S | Slavic |
---|---|---|
Short front closed vowel (front yer) | i | ĭ or ь |
Short back closed vowel (back yer) | u | ŭ or ъ |
Short front open vowel | e | e |
Short back open vowel | a | o |
Long front closed vowel | ī | i |
Long back closed vowel | ū | y [ɨː] |
Long front open vowel (yat) | ē | ě |
Long back open vowel | ā | a |
For consistency, all discussions of sounds up to (but not including) Middle Common Slavic use the common Balto-Slavic notation of vowels, while discussions of Middle and Late Common Slavic (the phonology and grammar sections) and later dialects use the Slavic notation.
Other vowel and consonant diacritics
Other marks used within Balto-Slavic and Slavic linguistics are:
- The háčekon consonants (č š ž), indicating a "hushing" quality [tʃ ʃ ʒ], as in English kitchen, mission, vision.
- Various strongly palatal(ized) consonants (a more "hissing" quality in case of sibilants) usually indicated by an acute accent (ć ǵ ḱ ĺ ń ŕ ś ź) or a háček (ď ľ ň ř ť).
- The ogonek (ą ę ǫ), indicating vowel nasalization (in modern standard Lithuanian this is historical only).
Prosodic notation
For Middle and Late Common Slavic, the following marks are used to indicate prosodic distinctions, based on the standard notation in Serbo-Croatian:
- Long rising (á): This indicates the Balto-Slavic acute accent in Middle Common Slavic only.
- Short rising (à): This indicates the Balto-Slavic acute accent in Late Common Slavic, where it was shortened.
- Long falling (ȃ): This normally indicates the Balto-Slavic circumflex accent. In Late Common Slavic, it also indicates originally short (falling) accent that was lengthened in monosyllables. This secondary circumflex occurs only on the short vowels e, o, ь, ъ in an liquid diphthong).
- Short falling (ȁ): This indicates the Balto-Slavic short accent. In Late Common Slavic, this accent was lengthened in monosyllables (see preceding entry).
- Neoacute (ã): This indicates the Late Common Slavic neoacute accent, which was pronounced as a rising accent, usually long but short when occurring on some syllable types in certain languages. This results from retraction of the accent, i.e. the Middle Common Slavic accent fell on the following syllable (usually specifically a weak yer).
Other prosodic diacritics
There are multiple competing systems used to indicate prosody in different Balto-Slavic languages (see Proto-Balto-Slavic language#Notation for more details). The most important for this article are:
- Three-way system of Proto-Slavic, Proto-Balto-Slavic, modern Lithuanian: Acute tone (á) vs. circumflex tone (ȃ or ã) vs. short accent (à).
- Four-way Serbo-Croatian system, also used in Slovenian and often in Slavic reconstructions: long rising (á), short rising (à), long falling (ȃ), short falling (ȁ). In the Chakavian dialect and other archaic dialects, the long rising accent is notated with a tilde (ã), indicating its normal origin in the Late Common Slavic neoacute accent (see above).
- Length only, as in Czech and Slovak: long (á) vs. short (a).
- Stress only, as in Russian, Ukrainian and Bulgarian: stressed (á) vs. unstressed (a).
Historical development up to Proto-Slavic
This section may be too technical for most readers to understand.(December 2010) |
Split from Indo-European
Proto-Balto-Slavic has the
- *ḱ → *ś → *s
- *ǵ → *ź → *z
- *ǵʰ → *ź → *z
This sound change was incomplete, in that all Baltic and Slavic languages have instances where PIE palatovelars appear as *k and *g, often in doublets (i.e. etymologically related words, where one has a sound descended from *k or *g and the other has a sound descended from *ś or *ź).
Other satem sound changes are delabialization of labiovelar consonants before rounded vowels[33] and the ruki sound law, which shifted *s to *š after *r, *u, *k or *i. In Proto-Slavic, this sound was shifted backwards to become *x, although it was often shifted forward again by one of the three sound laws causing palatalization of velars.[34]
In the Balto-Slavic period, final *t and *d were lost.[35]
Also present in Balto-Slavic were the diphthongs *ei and *ai as well as
Around this time, the PIE aspirated consonants merged with voiced ones:[38]
- *bʰ → *b
- *dʰ → *d
- *gʰ → *g
Once it split off, the Proto-Slavic period probably encompassed a period of stability lasting 2,000 years with only several centuries of rapid change before and during the breakup of Slavic linguistic unity that came about due to Slavic migrations in the early sixth century.[39][40] As such, the chronology of changes including the three palatalizations and ending with the change of *ě to *a in certain contexts defines the Common Slavic period.
Long *ē and *ō raised to *ī and *ū before a final sonorant, and sonorants following a long vowel were deleted.[41] Proto-Slavic shared the common Balto-Slavic merging of *o with *a. However, while long *ō and *ā remained distinct in Baltic, they merged in Slavic (after the previous change), so that early Slavic did not possess the sounds *o or *ō.[42][43]
Elimination of syllable codas
A tendency for rising sonority in a syllable (arrangement of phonemes in a syllable from lower to higher sonority) marks the beginning of the Common Slavic period. One aspect of this, generally referred to as the "Law of Open Syllables", led to a gradual elimination of
When the cluster was not permissible as a syllable onset, any impermissible consonants were deleted from the coda. Thus, e.g. PIE *supnós > Slavic *sъnъ, eliminating the impermissible onset pn-. With regard to clusters of stop + sonorant, not all Slavic languages show the same outcome. The cluster *dl is preserved in West Slavic, but simplified to *l in East and South Slavic, e.g. *ordlo > Czech rádlo, Polish radło, but not Serbo-Croatian ralo. The verb *dvignǫti appears with the cluster gn intact in South and West Slavic, while it is simplified to n in East Slavic. The verb *kydnǫti, on the other hand, preserves the cluster dn only in Czech and Slovak, simplifying it to n elsewhere.
As part of this development, diphthongs were
After these changes, a CV syllable structure (that is, one of segments ordered from lower to higher sonority) arose and the syllable became a basic structural unit of the language.
Syllable synharmony
Another tendency arose in the Common Slavic period wherein successive segmental phonemes in a syllable assimilated articulatory features (primarily place of articulation).[47] This is called syllable synharmony or intrasyllabic harmony. Thus syllables (rather than just the consonant or the vowel) were distinguished as either "soft" (palatal) or "hard" (non-palatal). This led to consonants developing palatalized allophones in syllables containing front vowels, resulting in the first regressive palatalization.[48] It also led to the fronting of back vowels after /j/.
Nasalization
Syllable-final nasals *m and *n (i.e. when not directly followed by a vowel) coalesced with a previous vowel, causing it to become nasalized (indicated with an ogonek diacritic below the vowel):[32][49]
Balto-Slavic | Early Proto-Slavic | Proto-Slavic | Common Slavic |
---|---|---|---|
*am, *an, *ām, *ān | *ą̄ | *ǫ | |
*em, *en, *ēm, *ēn | *ę̄ | *ę | |
*im, *in, *īm, *īn | *į̄ | *ę̄ | *ę |
*um, *un, *ūm, *ūn | *ų̄ | *y | |
*Jum, *Jun, *Jūm, *Jūn | *Jų̄ | *Jį̄ | *Ję̇ |
The nasal element of *im, *in, *um, *un is lost word-finally in inflectional endings, and therefore does not cause nasalization.
Examples showing these developments:
Late PIE | Balto-Slavic | Meaning | Lithuanian | Proto-Slavic | Late Common Slavic |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
*ǵómbʰos | *źambas | "tooth" | žam̃bas "sharp edge" | *zą̄̂bu | *zǫ̂bъ |
*ǵenh₃tis | *źénˀtis, *źénˀtas | "son in law" | žéntas | *zę̄́ti | *zę̀tь |
*deḱmtos | *deśimtas | "tenth" | dešim̃tas | *desę̄tu | *desętъ |
*lnHkom | *lúnˀka | "bast" | lùnkas | *lų̄́ka | *lỳko |
? | *kanjun(s) | "horses" (acc.) | — | *kanjį̄ | *koňę̇ |
The nasalization of *ų̄ was eventually lost. However, when *ų̄ followed a palatal consonant such as /j/ (indicated generically as *J), it was fronted to *į̄, which preserved its nasalization much longer. This new *į̄ did not originally merge with the result of nasalizing original *im/*in, as shown in the table. Instead, it evolved in Common Slavic times to a high-mid nasal vowel *ę̇, higher than the low-mid vowel *ę. In South Slavic, these two vowels merged as *ę. Elsewhere, however, *ę̇ was denasalized, merging with *ě, while *ę was generally lowered to *æ̨ (often reflected as ja). Common Slavic *desętyję̇ koňę̇ "the tenth horses (accusative plural)" appears as desętyję koňę in Old Church Slavonic and desete konje in Serbo-Croatian (South Slavic), but as desáté koně in modern Czech and dziesiąte konie in Polish (West Slavic), and as десятые кони (desjatyje koni, nominative plural) in Russian (East Slavic). Note that Polish normally preserves nasal vowels, but it does not have a nasal vowel in the accusative plural ending, while it retains it in the stem of "tenth".
Nasalization also occurred before a nasal consonant, whenever a vowel was followed by two nasals. However, in this case, several later dialects denasalized the vowel at an early date. Both pomęnǫti and poměnǫti "remember" (from earlier *pa-men-nantī?) are found in Old Church Slavonic. The common word *jĭmę "name" can be traced back to earlier *inmen with denasalization, from a PIE zero grade alternant *h₁n̥h₃mén-.
First regressive palatalization
As an extension of the system of syllable synharmony, velar consonants were palatalized to postalveolar consonants before front vowels (*i, *ī, *e, *ē) and before *j:[50][51]
- *k → *č [tʃ]
- *g → *dž [dʒ] → *ž [ʒ]
- *x → *š [ʃ]
- *sk → *šč [ʃtʃ]
- *zg → *ždž [ʒdʒ]
This was the first regressive palatalization. Although *g palatalized to an affricate, this soon lenited to a fricative (but *ždž was retained).[52] Some Germanic loanwords were borrowed early enough to be affected by the first palatalization. One example is *šelmŭ, from earlier *xelmŭ, from Germanic *helmaz.
Iotation
In a process called iotation or yodization, *j merged with a previous consonant (unless it was labial), and those consonants acquired a palatal articulation. Compare English
- *tj → *ť
- *dj → *ď
- *stj → *šť (→ presumably šč)
- *zdj → *žď (→ presumably ždž)
- *sj → *š
- *zj → *ž
- *lj → ľ /lʲ/
- *nj → ň /nʲ/
- *rj → ř /rʲ/
The combinations *gt and *kt merged into *ť in Proto-Slavic times and show outcomes identical to *ť in all languages. This combination occurred in a few lexical items (*dъťi "daughter" < *dъkti, *noťь "night" < *noktь), but also occurred in infinitives of verbs with stems ending in -g and -k, which would have originally ended in *-gti and *-kti. This accounts for the irregular infinitive ending some verbs such as Polish móc, Russian мочь from Proto-Slavic *moťi < *mog-ti, where normally these languages have infinitives in -ć and -ть respectively.
In the case of the palatal consonants that had resulted from the first regressive palatalization, the *j simply disappeared without altering the preceding consonant:
- *čj → *č [tʃ]
- *(d)žj → *(d)ž [ʒ]
- *šj → *š [ʃ]
- *ščj → *šč [ʃtʃ]
- *ždžj → *ždž [ʒdʒ]
In both East and South Slavic, labial consonants (*m, *b, *p, *v) were also affected by iotation, acquiring a lateral off-glide ľ /lʲ/:
- *mj → mľ
- *bj → bľ
- *pj → pľ
- *vj → vľ
Many researchers believe that this change actually occurred throughout Proto-Slavic and was later 'reversed' in West Slavic and in most dialects of the Eastern subgroup of South Slavic languages (
- *zemja (→ *zemľa) → *zemьja →
- Bulgarian: земя [zɛˈmʲa]
- Macedonian: земја [ˈzɛmja]
- Torlakian: zemja [ˈzɛmja]
- Polish: ziemia [ˈʑɛmʲa]
Some Northern Macedonian dialects, however, acquired an *n (e.g. [ˈzɛmɲa] < *zemja).
A few words with etymological initial *bj- and *pj- are reflected as *bľ- and *pľ- even in West Slavic:
- *pľьvàti "to spit" < PIE *(s)pieHu-, cf. Lithuanian spjáuti.[53]
- *bľustì "to watch, to perk up" (1sg. *bľudǫ̀) < PIE *bʰeudʰ-.[54]
Vowel fronting
Syllabic synharmony also worked in reverse, and caused the palatal articulation of a consonant to influence a following vowel, turning it from a back vowel into a front vowel. There were two sources for this process. The first was a preceding *j or a consonant that had undergone iotation. The second was the progressive palatalization (see below), which produced new palatal consonants before back vowels. The result of this fronting was as follows (with J acting as a cover symbol for any consonant with a palatal articulation):
- *Ja → *Je
- *Jā → *Jē
- *Ju → *Ji
- *Jū → *Jī
- *Jai → *Jei (→ *Jī)
- *Jau → *Jeu (→ *Jū)
- *Jų̄ → *Jį̄ (→ *Ję̇)
Towards the end of the Late Common Slavic period, an opposing change happened, in which long *Jē was backed to *Jā. This change is normally identified with the end of the tendency for syllabic synharmony.
Vowel fronting clearly preceded monophthongization, in that the outputs *Jei, *Jeu were later affected by monophthongization just as original *ei, *eu were. However, there is no guarantee that vowel fronting followed the progressive palatalization despite the fact that the output of the latter process was affected by vowel fronting. The reason is that the rule triggering vowel fronting may well have operated as a surface filter, i.e. a rule that remained part of the grammar for an extended period of time, operating automatically on any new palatal consonants as they were produced.[55]
Vowel fronting did not operate on the low nasal vowel *ą (later *ǫ), cf. Old Church Slavonic znajǫ "I know". However, it did operate on the high nasal vowel *ų, leading to alternations, e.g. Old Church Slavonic accusative plural raby "slaves" (< *-ų̄) vs. koňę "horses" (< *-jį̄ < *-jų̄). See the section on nasalization for more discussion.
Prothesis
During the Common Slavic period, prothetic glides were inserted before words that began with vowels, consistent with the tendency for rising sonority within a syllable. These cases merged with existing word-initial sequences of glide + vowel, and show the same outcome in the later languages. *v was inserted before rounded vowels (*u, *ū), *j before unrounded vowels (*e, ē, *i, *ī). Not all vowels show equal treatment in this respect, however. High vowels generally have prothesis without exception in all Slavic languages, as do *e, *ě and nasal *ę:
- *i- > *ji- (> *jь-)
- *ī- > *jī- (> *ji-)
- *u- > *wu- (> *vъ-)
- *ū- > *wū- (> *vy-)
- *e- > *je-
- *ę- > *ję-
- *ē- > *jē- (> *jě- or *ja-)
In later Slavic, *jь- and *ji- appear to have merged, and both are reflected as simple i- in many modern Slavic languages. In Common Slavic itself, however, they were still distinguished by length for the purpose of intonation. The sequence *ji- could belong to accent paradigm a, while the sequence *jь- could not.
Prothesis generally did not apply to short *a (which developed into *o or nasal *ǫ), although some East Slavic dialects seem to have developed it regardless. There seems to have been some uncertainty concerning the interpretation of long *ā as a rounded or unrounded vowel. Prothesis seems to have applied intermittently to it. When it does apply, *ā- > *jā- is frequent, but *ā- > *vā- is also found.
The old diphthongs *ei- and *ai- develop the same as *ī- and *ē- respectively, although *ai- never develops into *ja-. The diphthong *au-, later *u-, mostly resists prothesis, but some cases (e.g. *utro) also show *ju-.
Monophthongization and other vowel changes
*ū lost its labialization[56] (possibly [ɯː] or [ɨː], represented hereafter as ⟨y⟩, as in modern Polish), but not before prothesis occurred, as prothesis of *v before unrounded *y seems unlikely. This was closely followed by the monophthongization of diphthongs in all environments, in accordance with the law of open syllables.[57] Following this change, short *a acquired non-distinctive rounding (probably [ɒ] in first instance), and is denoted as *o from this point onwards.
- *ū → *ȳ → y
- *au, *eu → *ū
- *ei → *ī
- *ai → *ē or ī†
- *a → *o
^† In many common grammatical forms such as the nominative plural of o-stems (Schenker 2002:89), the second person imperative (Schenker 2002:103), in the second singular of athematic verbs and in the dative singular of the clitic personal pronouns, *ai became *ī (Schenker 2002:90).
Second regressive palatalization
Proto-Slavic had acquired front vowels, ē (possibly an open front vowel [æː][58]) and sometimes ī, from the earlier change of *ai to *ē/ī. This resulted in new sequences of velars followed by front vowels, where they did not occur before. Additionally, some new loanwords also had such sequences.
However, Proto-Slavic was still operating under the system of syllabic synharmony. Therefore, the language underwent the second regressive palatalization, in which velar consonants preceding the new (secondary) phonemes *ē and *ī, as well as *i and *e in new loanwords, were palatalized.[50][51][59] As with the progressive palatalization, these became palatovelar. Soon after, palatovelar consonants from both the progressive palatalization and the second regressive palatalization became sibilants:
- ḱ → *c ([ts])
- ǵ → *dz (→ *z in most dialects)
- x́ → *ś → *s/*š
In noun declension, the second regressive palatalization originally figured in two important Slavic stem types: o-stems (masculine and neuter consonant-stems) and a-stems (feminine and masculine vowel-stems). This rule operated in the o-stem masculine paradigm in three places: before nominative plural and both singular and plural locative affixes.[60]
'wolf' | 'horn' | 'spirit' | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | singular | *vьlkъ | *rogъ | *duxъ |
plural | *vьlci | *rozi | *duśi | |
Locative | singular | *vьlcě | *rozě | *duśě |
plural | *vьlcěxъ | *rozěxъ | *duśěxъ |
Progressive palatalization
An additional palatalization of velar consonants occurred in Common Slavic times, formerly known as the third palatalization but now more commonly termed the progressive palatalization due to uncertainty over when exactly it occurred. Unlike the other two, it was triggered by a preceding vowel, in particular a preceding *i or *ī, with or without an intervening *n.[30] Furthermore, it was probably disallowed before consonants and the high back vowels *y, *ъ.[61] The outcomes are exactly the same as for the second regressive palatalization, i.e. alveolar rather than palatoalveolar affricates, including the East/West split in the outcome of palatalized *x:
- k → *c ([ts])
- g → *dz (→ *z in most dialects)
- x → *ś → *s/*š
Examples:
- *atiku(s) "father" (nom. sg.) → *aticu(s) → (with vowel fronting) Late Common Slavic *otьcь
- Proto-Germanic *kuningaz "king" → Early Common Slavic *kuningu(s) → Late Common Slavic *kъnędzь
- *vixu(s) "all" → *vьśь → *vьšь (West), *vьsь (East and South)
There is significant debate over when this palatalization took place and the exact contexts in which the change was phonologically regular.[62] The traditional view is that this palatalization took place just after the second regressive palatalization (hence its traditional designation as the "third palatalization"), or alternatively that the two occurred essentially simultaneously. This is based on the similarity of the development to the second regressive palatalization and examples like *atike "father" (voc. sg.) → *otьče (not *otьce) that appear to show that the first regressive palatalization preceded the progressive palatalization.[63]
A dissenting view places the progressive palatalization before one or both regressive palatalizations. This dates back to Pedersen (1905) and was continued more recently by Channon (1972) and Lunt (1981). Lunt's chronology places the progressive palatalization first of the three, in the process explaining both the occurrence of *otĭče and the identity of the outcomes of the progressive and second regressive palatalizations:[64]
- Progressive palatalization: *k > *ḱ (presumably a palatal stop) after *i(n) and *j
- First regressive palatalization: *k/*ḱ > *č before front vowels
- Fronting of back vowels after palatal consonants
- Monophthongization of diphthongs
- Second regressive palatalization: *k/*ḱ > *c before front vowels
(similarly for *g and possibly *x)
Significant complications to all theories are posed by the Old Novgorod dialect, known particularly since the 1950s, which has no application of the second regressive palatalization and only partial application of the progressive palatalization (to *k and sometimes *g, but not to *x).
More recent scholars have continued to argue in favor of the traditional chronology,[65][66][67] and there is clearly still no consensus.
The three palatalizations must have taken place between the 2nd and 9th century. The earlier date is the earliest likely date for Slavic contact with Germanic tribes (such as the migrating Goths), because loanwords from Germanic (such as *kъnędzь "king" mentioned above) are affected by all three palatalizations.[68] On the other hand, loan words in the early historic period (c. 9th century) are generally not affected by the palatalizations. For example, the name of the Varangians, from Old Norse Væringi, appears in Old East Slavic as варѧгъ varęgъ, with no evidence of the progressive palatalization (had it followed the full development as "king" did, the result would have been **varędzь instead). The progressive palatalization also affected vowel fronting; it created palatal consonants before back vowels, which were then fronted. This does not necessarily guarantee a certain ordering of the changes, however, as explained above in the vowel fronting section.
Accentual developments
The
The Balto-Slavic languages inherited from PIE a free, mobile
- There was (at most) a single accented syllable per word, distinguished by higher pitch (as in e.g. Mohawk) rather than greater dynamic stress (as in English).
- The accent was free in that it could occur on any syllable, and was phonemic (i.e. its position could not be automatically predicted).
- The accent was mobile in that its position could potentially vary among closely related words within a single paradigm.
In inflectional paradigms, Proto-Slavic inherited the distinction between fixed-accented and mobile-accented paradigms from Proto-Balto-Slavic.
Acute, pitch and vowel length
Proto-Balto-Slavic "long" syllables could have an additional feature known as "acute". This feature was inherited by Proto-Slavic, and was still present on all syllables throughout the Middle Common Slavic period. At this time, this distinction could occur on the following syllable types:
- Those containing the long vowels *a *ě *i *u *y.
- Those containing the nasal vowels *ę *ǫ.
- Those containing a liquid diphthong.
When accented, acuted vowels developed a rising intonation, while non-acuted long vowels became falling in pitch. Short vowels, i.e. the vowels *e *o *ь *ъ, did not have distinctive intonations, but developed different pitch contours in different positions in the word. In the first syllable of the word, the pitch was falling, while in non-initial syllables the pitch was rising.[69]
The development of vowel length in Proto-Slavic remains controversial, with different linguists and linguistic schools holding different positions on the matter. Traditionally, it is held that Late Common Slavic retained the original distribution of short and long vowels, as it was inherited from Proto-Balto-Slavic. Under this position, vowel length was an automatic consequence of vowel quality, with *e *o *ь *ъ being always short, and all other vowels, including nasal vowels and liquid diphthongs, being always long. The decoupling of length from quality is ascribed to the post-Common Slavic period.
Linguists of the Leiden accentological school, on the other hand, posit accentual changes that disrupted the original distribution of length, so that length became independent of quality. The most important early changes are:[70]
- The loss of the acute feature in all syllables, except in accented syllables and syllables that immediately followed the accent. The length of these syllables was retained.
- The loss of the acute feature in syllables immediately following the accent, this time with shortening of the vowel.
- Loss of all length distinctions in syllables preceding the accent.
- Shortening of acuted accented syllables. The acute feature was converted into short rising pitch contour, while non-acuted long syllables received a long falling intonation.
- Van Wijk's law: Lengthening of vowels (except for yers and nasal vowels) following palatal consonants. This led to the increased occurrence of long vowels in the endings of jā and jo stems, which had consequences for Ivšić's law. Some of these long vowels were later shortened by analogy, especially in endings that were unstressed in the mobile paradigm.
- Loss of *j between two unaccented vowels, resulting in contraction of the adjacent syllables into a long vowel. This occurred only in some languages, especially Czech, and did not occur at all in Russian. This, again, affected Ivšić's law, which retracted the accent from these contracted long vowels but not from the uncontracted vowels.
- Eventual loss of length in final syllables in most languages. However, the former long vowels are reflected to some extent in Slovene and Serbo-Croatian, and more directly by the neo-circumflex accent in Slovene, which developed early on from former acute-register syllables when followed by a long syllable or internal yer.
Meillet's law
According to Meillet's law, words with a mobile accent paradigm lost the acute feature in the first syllable of the word, if there was one. Such words consequently do not show any difference in intonation in forms where the accent is on the first syllable; the pitch is always falling. Where the accent is on a non-initial syllable, the distinction is maintained.
Dybo's law
Dybo's law was the first of the major accent shifts in Proto-Slavic. In fixed-accent inflectional paradigms, non-acute syllables (both short and long) lost the accent to the following syllable. This caused a split in the fixed-accented paradigms, between the acuted "accent paradigm a", which retained the accent on the stem of the word, and the non-acuted "accent paradigm b", where the accent had shifted onto the inflectional ending.
In the traditional interpretation, the newly-accented syllable retained its acuteness until this point, and became rising or falling in pitch accordingly. Following the Leiden school, a formerly accented long syllable remained distinctively long, resulting in new long vowels before the accent. Newly accented long vowels gained a falling tone, while short vowels (whether originally short or shortened acute) received a rising tone.
Dybo's law occurred before the loss of *j between unstressed vowels, and could shift the accent onto the resulting long vowel. The accent would then be retracted again by Ivšić's law.
Havlík's law, Ivšić's law and the neoacute accent
During the Late Common Slavic period, the short close vowels *ь *ъ (known as yers) developed into "strong" and "weak" variants according to Havlík's law. The weak variants could no longer be accented, and if they were accented before, the accent was retracted onto the preceding syllable if there was one. This change is known as Ivšić's law or Stang's law. The newly-accented syllable gained a new type of rising accent, termed the neoacute.
Example:
- Early Slavic *sȃndu(s) "court of law, trial" > Middle Common Slavic *sǫ̂dъ > MCS *sǫdъ̀ (by sudá).
The neoacuted vowel could be either short or long, depending on the original length of the syllable before the retraction. The short neoacute is denoted with a grave accent (ò), while the long neoacute is variously written with an acute accent (á, following Serbo-Croatian and Slovene notation) or with a tilde (ã, following Chakavian notation). In West Slavic (except southern Slovak), short e and o gaining the neoacute were automatically lengthened.[citation needed]
Retraction also occurred from long falling ("circumflex") vowels, such as in the following cases:
- In verbs with a present tense in *-i(tь), e.g.:
- MCS *nosȋ(tь) "s/he carries" > *nòsi(tь) > Russian но́сит nósit
- From a vowel immediately preceded by an original *j, i.e. where Van Wijk's law operated:
Ivšić's law produced different results in different Slavic dialects. In languages that show long vowels through loss of *j, followed by a shift of the accent onto the long vowel by Dybo's law, the accent is retracted again by Ivšić's law. In languages that retain *j, the accent is shifted forward by Dybo's law, but then remains there if the vowel is short.
After these changes, falling pitch could only occur on the first syllable of the word, where it contrasted with rising pitch. In non-initial syllables, all accented syllables were rising in pitch. The complicated accentual patterns produced by Ivšić's law were levelled to some degree already within Common Slavic. In jā-stems this resulted in neoacute on the stem in all forms, and in jo-stems in all plural forms.
See also
- Proto-Slavic
- History of the Slavic languages
- Proto-Balto-Slavic
- Old Church Slavonic
- Slavic languages
- Balto-Slavic languages
- Proto-Slavic accent
- Slavic liquid metathesis and pleophony
Notes
- ^ a b Kortlandt (1990:134)
- ^ Anthony DW (2019). "Archaeology, Genetics, and Language in the Steppes: A Comment on Bomhard". Journal of Indo-European Studies: 1–23.
- ^ Andersen (2003:46)
- ^ a b c d Mallory & Adams (2006:78)
- ^ Mallory & Adams (2006:73)
- ^ Nichols (1999:245)
- ^ Andersen (2003:72)
- ^ Andersen (1998:415–416)
- ^ Andersen (2003:49, 50)
- ^ Andersen (2003:48)
- ^ Matasović (2008:114)
- ^ Andersen (2003:49)
- ^ Kobylinski (2005:529)
- ^ cited in Curta (2001:284): "...fourth century sites in that area of the Chernyakhov culture, in which Baran believed the early Slavic culture originated..."
- ^ Curta (2001:325-250)
- ^ a b c Nichols (1999:240)
- ^ The Journal of Indo-European Studies, Number 1-2 (original from the University of California) Vol. 21 Journal of Indo-European Studies, 1993, digitalized in 2007. p 180
- ^ Brzezinski, Richard; Mielczarek, Mariusz (2002). The Sarmatians, 600 BC–AD 450. Osprey Publishing. p. 39.
(..) Indeed, it is now accepted that the Sarmatians merged in with pre-Slavic populations.
- ^ Adams, Douglas Q. (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. p. 523.
(..) In their Ukrainian and Polish homeland the Slavs were intermixed and at times overlain by Germanic speakers (the Goths) and by Iranian speakers (Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans) in a shifting array of tribal and national configurations.
- ^ Atkinson, Dorothy; Dallin, Alexander; Warshofsky Lapidus, Gail, eds. (1977). Women in Russia. Stanford University Press. p. 3.
(..) Ancient accounts link the Amazons with the Scythians and the Sarmatians, who successively dominated the south of Russia for a millennium extending back to the seventh century B.C. The descendants of these peoples were absorbed by the Slavs who came to be known as Russians.
- ^ Slovene Studies. Vol. 9–11. Society for Slovene Studies. 1987. p. 36.
(..) For example, the ancient Scythians, Sarmatians (amongst others), and many other attested but now extinct peoples were assimilated in the course of history by Proto-Slavs.
- ^ Nichols (1999:243)
- ^ E.g. Andersen (1998:417): "During the first few centuries of our era, Slavs begin to expand their territory. In the east they move northward, infiltrating the Baltic-speaking areas...founding colonies.. and assimilation of local populations..."
- ^ Nichols (1999:241)
- ^ Teodor (2005:243): "...the 'Romance population' looks barbarian and the 'barbarians' Roman... Ambiguity takes over the historiography of the problem..."
- ^ Curta (2001:344): "...contemporary sources attest the use of more than one language by individuals who their authors viewed as Antes or Sclavenes."
- ^ Curta (2004:146): "...a language already used in the 500s for cross-cultural communication in the lower Danube area..."
- ^ Curta (2001:342): "Such dress accessories point to long-distance relations with communities in Mazuria and Crimea . . . it is possible that these dress accessories served as markers of social identity, which served as markers of social status for newly emerging elites."
- ^ Curta (2004:146)
- ^ a b Schenker (2002:73)
- ^ Kortlandt (1994:101)
- ^ a b Kortlandt (1994)
- ^ Kortlandt (1994:93)
- ^ Schenker (2002:65–66)
- ^ Kortlandt (1994:94)
- ^ Schenker (2002:64)
- ^ Kortlandt (1994:95)
- ^ Schenker (2002:65)
- ^ Van Wijk (1956:21–27)
- ^ Lehr-Spławiński (1957:255–256)
- ^ Kortlandt (1994:97)
- ^ Schenker (2002:66)
- ^ Lightner (1972:130)
- ^ Schenker (2002:68).
- ^ Bethin (1998:12)
- ^ Schenker (2002:74).
- ^ Channon (1972:11)
- ^ Bethin (1998:13)
- ^ Derksen (2008)
- ^ a b Thomason (1976:372)
- ^ a b Channon (1972:9)
- ^ Kortlandt (1994:99)
- ^ Derksen (2008:402)
- ^ Derksen (2008:46)
- ^ Kortlandt (1994:9–10)
- ^ Schenker (2002:72)
- ^ Channon (1972:44)
- ^ Schenker (2002:79)
- ^ Schenker (2002:71)
- ^ Thomason (1976:373)
- ^ Vermeer (2000:8)
- ^ Vermeer (2000:6)
- ^ Channon (1972:12)
- ^ As simplified by Schenker (1995:91).
- ^ Vermeer (2000)
- ^ Kortlandt (1984)
- ^ Kortlandt (1989)
- ^ Channon (1972:34)
- ^ Jasanoff, Jay (2017). The Prehistory of the Balto-Slavic Accent. Leiden, Boston: Brill. pp. 43–44.
- ^ Kortlandt (2011)
- ^ ô indicates a high-mid stressed /o/ stemming from a formerly lengthened vowel, caused by either an acute or neoacute accent.
- ^ Bethin (1998:130)
References
- In English
- Andersen, Henning (1998), "Slavic", in Ramat, Anna Giacalone (ed.), The Indo-European Languages, London and New York: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-06449-1
- Andersen, Henning (2003), "Slavic and the Indo-European Migrations", Language contacts in prehistory: studies in stratigraphy, John Benjamins Publishing Company, ISBN 1-58811-379-5
- Bethin, Christina Yurkiw (1998), Slavic Prosody: Language Change and Phonological Theory, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-59148-1
- Channon, Robert (1972), On the Place of the Progressive Palatalization of Velars in the Relative Chronology of Slavic, The Hague: Mouton
- ISBN 0-415-28078-8
- ISBN 9781139428880.
- ISBN 9780521815390.
- Curta, Florin (2004), "The Slavic Lingua Franca. Linguistic Notes of an Archaeologist Turned Historian" (PDF), East Central Europe, 31 (1): 125–148, doi:10.1163/187633004X00134, archived from the original(PDF) on 2009-07-04
- Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series, vol. 4, Leiden: Brill
- Kobylinski, Zbigniew (2005), "The Slavs", in Fouracre, Paul (ed.), The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. 1: c. 500–c. 700, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-36291-1
- Kortlandt, Frederik (1984), "The Progressive Palatalization of Slavic", Europaea, 5 (2): 211–219
- Kortlandt, Frederik (1989), "On Methods of Dealing with Facts and Opinions in a Treatment of the Progressive Palatalization of Slavic", Folia Linguistica Historica, 9 (2): 3–12
- Kortlandt, Frederik (1990), "The spread of the Indo-Europeans" (PDF), Journal of Indo-European Studies, 18: 131–140
- Kortlandt, Frederik (1994), "From Proto-Indo-European to Slavic" (PDF), Journal of Indo-European Studies, 22: 91–112
- Kortlandt, Frederik (2011), "Rise and development of Slavic accentual paradigms", Baltische und slavische Prosodie, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, pp. 89–98
- Lightner, Theodore M. (1972), Problems in the Theory of Phonology, I: Russian phonology and Turkish phonology, Edmonton: Linguistic Research, inc
- Lunt, Horace (1981), The Progressive Palatalization o/Common Slavic, Skopje: Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts
- Lunt, Horace (2001), Old Church Slavonic grammar, Mouton de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-016284-9
- Mallory, J.P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (1997), ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5
- Mallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (2006), The Oxford introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European world, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-928791-0
- Nichols, Johanna (1999), "The Eurasian Spread and the Indo-European dispersal", in Blench, Roger; Spriggs, Matthew (eds.), Archaeology and Language: Correlating archaeological and linguistic hypotheses, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-11761-5
- Novotná, Petra; Blažek, Václav (2007), "Glottochronology and its application to the Balto-Slavic languages" (PDF), Baltistica, XLII, 2: 185–210, archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-10-31
- Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 21 (1): 39–87, S2CID 13470826
- Samilov, Michael (1964), The phoneme jat' in Slavic, The Hague: Mouton
- Schenker, Alexander M. (1995), The Dawn of Slavic, Yale Language Series
- Schenker, Alexander M. (2002), "Proto-Slavonic", in ISBN 0-415-28078-8
- Schenker, Alexander M. (1993), "Proto-Slavonic", in Comrie, Bernard; Corbett, Greville G. (eds.), The Slavonic languages (1 ed.), London, New York: Routledge, pp. 60–121, ISBN 0-415-04755-2
- Stang, C.S. (1957), "Slavonic accentuation", Historisk-Filosofisk Klasse, Skrifter utgitt av Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi i Oslo, II, vol. 3, Oslo: Universitetsforlaget
- Sussex, Roland; Cubberley, Paul (2006), The Slavic Languages, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521223157
- Teodor, Eugene S. (2005), "The Shadow of a Frontier", in Florin, Curta (ed.), Borders, Barriers and Ethnogenesis: Frontiers in late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Brepols, ISBN 2-503-51529-0
- Thomason, Sara G (1976), "What Else Happens to Opaque Rules?", Language, 52 (2), Linguistic Society of America: 370–381, JSTOR 412565
- Timberlake, Alan (2002), "Russian", in ISBN 0-415-28078-8
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- In other languages
- Belić, Aleksandar (1921), "Најмлађа (Трећа) Промена Задњенепчаних Сугласника k, g и h у Прасловенском Језику", Јужнословенски Филолог (in Serbian), II: 18–39
- Bräuer, Herbert (1961), Slavische Sprachwissenschaft, I: Einleitung, Lautlehre (in German), Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., pp. 69–71, 89–90, 99, 138–140
- Holzer, Georg (1995), "Die Einheitlichkeit des Slavischen um 600 n. Chr. und ihr Zerfall", Wiener Slavistisches Jahrbuch (in German), 41: 55–89
- Lehr-Spławiński, Tadeusz (1957), "Z dziejów języka prasłowiańskiego (Urywek z większej całości)", Езиковедски Изследвания В Чест На Академик Стефан Младенов (in Polish), Sofia
- Matasović, Ranko (2008), Poredbenopovijesna gramatika hrvatskoga jezika (in Croatian), Zagreb: Matica hrvatska, ISBN 978-953-150-840-7
- Mihaljević, Milan (2002), Slavenska poredbena gramatika, 1. dio, Uvod i fonologija (in Croatian), ISBN 953-0-30225-8
- Moszyński, Leszek (1984), "Wstęp do filologii słowiańskiej", PWN (in Polish), Warszawa
- Pedersen, H. (1905), "Die nasalprasentia und der slavische akzent", Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung (in German), 38: 297–421
- Vaillant, André (1950), Grammaire comparée des langues slaves, t.I: Phonétique (in French), Lyon—Paris: IAC, pp. 113–117
- Van Wijk, Nikolaas (1956), Les langues slaves: de l'unité à la pluralité, Janua linguarum, series minor (in French) (2nd ed.), 's-Gravenhage: Mouton
Further reading
- Blazek, Václav. Iranian and Slavic. In: Encyclopedia of Slavic Languages and Linguistics Online. Editor-in-Chief: Marc L. Greenberg. First published online: 2020