Metatony
In
accent (its intonation, or tone), usually within the same syllable. When the accent also changes its syllable, the process is called metataxis. Metataxis can also be analyzed as a combination of accent movement and metatony. The term is usually used when referring to accentual developments in the history of Baltic and Slavic languages which exhibited numerous such developments, representing the accentual equivalent of sound change
.
Slavic metatony
In South Slavic languages (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene) Proto-Slavic old acute accent ⟨ő⟩ was shortened.[1] Its direct reflex is the short falling accent ⟨ȍ⟩ in standard Serbo-Croatian, whereas standard Slovene has long rising accent ⟨ó⟩ with younger length.[2]
- Common Slavic *bra̋trъ "brother" > Serbo-Croatian brȁt/бра̏т, Slovene bràt
In all Serbo-Croatian and Slovene dialects, in nominative singular of o- and i-stems the stem-final syllable of accent paradigm c words is lengthened.[3] For monsyllabics this amounts to lengthening of short circumflex accent ⟨ȍ⟩ to long circumflex ⟨ȏ⟩:
- Common Slavic *bȍgъ "god" > Serbo-Croatian bȏg/бо̑г, Slovene bóg
Slavic metataxis
During the
prosodeme on short and long vowels, respectively. Neoacute is traditionally reconstructed as a rising intonation on the basis of Slovene and Russian, and the description of dialectal Serbo-Croatian (Chakavian) ⟨õ⟩ as a rising tone.[4]
Short neoacute has a distinct reflex in Slovak and some Russian dialects.
Baltic metatony
In Aukštaitian
Žemaitian dialects of Lithuanian where Balto-Slavic accented acute is reflected as a broken tone.[5]
Notes
- ^ Kapović (2008:9–11)
- ^ This is due to secondary lengthening of all non-final syllables. This lengthening, however, has not occurred in all Slovene dialects.
- ^ Kapović (2008:12–13)
- ^ Kapović (2008:3)
- ^ Derksen (1996:9)
References
- Kapović, Mate (2008), "Razvoj hrvatske akcentuacije", Filologija (in Croatian), 51, Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti: 1–39
- Derksen, Rick (1996), Metatony in Baltic, Amsterdam-Atlanta: Rodopi