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SLAVS
235


consonants, in Sorb, Slovak, Lit. R. and mostly in Gt. R., ŭ, ĭ develop into full vowels o, e—R. sonŭ, gen. sua; denĭ, gen. dna. In Polish and Čech both > e, but in P. ĭ softens the preceding cons., in Č. it usually does not—P. sen, dzień; Č. sen, den; in Slovene and Ser. they are not distinguished, Slovene ŭ, a or e, san, dan or den = Ser. a, san, dan, gen. dana, Ser. keeping the middle vowel which is elsewhere dropped. Bulgarian varies dialectically.

II. (y.) y only remains in Gt. Russian, Polish and Sorb though still written in Čech; it has elsewhere become i, but in Polish it becomes * after k and g, in Sorb and R. after k, g, ch-^ O.S. kysnqti, " go sour," gybnqti, “perish,” chytrU, " cunning "; P. kisnqt, gin ad, chyter; R. kisnuti, gibnuti, chit' eric.

III. (r, l.) The treatment of the liquids varies greatly.

(a) r is always a lingual trill, never alveolar. In S. Slav, it is only softened before j and ı̯—O.S. zorja, “dawn.” In N.W. and E. Slav, r became r′ before ǐ, i, e, ę, é̆ and j. Russian and Slovak have remained at this stage, Č., Polish, Kas. have made r into ř (rz) in which r and ž are run into one. (See Table I.)

Table I.
ĭ i e ę č j
O.S. zvěrĭ, “beast” věriti, “believe” remenĭ, “strap” tręsạ tręsei, “tremo” rěka, " river " zorja, “dawn”
Russian  zvěrĭ věritĭ remenĭ tr''asu trasošǐ rěka zora
Polish zwierz wierzyć rzemień trzạsę trzęsiesz rzeka zorza

But P. ę for orig. ą does not soften—P. ręka: O.S. rạka, “hand.”

In Sorb such a change only happened after k, p, t, in which case High S. has f (written f), Low S. S, but in Low S., r after k, p, t becomes s even before hard vowels: Proto-Sl. tri, "three," High S.tsi, Low S.lsi; Proto-Sl. kraj, "edge," High S. kraj, Low S. ksaj.

(b) l occurs in three varieties, I, I, V , but each language has generally either middle / alone or else I and /'. Lit. R. and Bulg. have all three. I has been arrived at in C. and Slovene by the loss of the distinctions, perhaps under German influence; Ser. has l and l′, final l>o; but I occurs in dialects of all lan- guages and was no doubt in O.S., Proto-Sl. and even Balto-Slav. It has a velar and a labial element and in most languages tends to appear as 0, u, t> or w, though this is only written in Ser. and Lit. R. O.S. dalu, " gave," R. dalU, Lit. R. dav, Wh. R. dav, _daw, P. dal (dialect dau), C. dal, Ser. dao. l′ is very soft, like Fr. ville.

(c) N.W. Slav, keeps -tl- -dl- whereas S. Slav, (except some cases of Slovene padl, plella, &c.) and R. drop the t and d—Č. padl, " fell," radio, " aratrum," pletl, " plaited" ; O.S. and R. palu, ralo, plelu, but R. drops I of masc. sing, past, part. II. after other consonants. O.S. neslu, C. nesl, R. n'esu, " carried."

(d) Proto-Sl. , or perhaps ŭr, ĭr, ŭl, ĭl gave S- Slav., Č. and Slovak r, I written in O.S. rii, ri, lu, li indifferently, though soft and hard may once have been distinguished. Of this group Slovene and Ser. later allowed the / to become ol, ou or u. Sorb, Polish and R. developed various vowels, partly according to the original quality, partly according to other influences, e.g. O.S. sridice, " heart," trugu, "market," d^&m, " wolf," slunice, "sol"; Ser. srdce, trg, vuk, sunce; Slovene srdce, trg, volk, solnce; Č. srdce, trh, vlk, since; P. ierce, targ, wilk, slonce; R. s'erdce, torgu, volkii., solnce.

(e) Proto-Sl. rii, ri f lit, U had in S. Slav, and partly in C. the same fate as r, I; in Polish and R. the vowel comes after the liquid. O.S. 'bruvi, "brow," kristu, "cross," plM, " flesh," sliza, " tear "; Ser. brv, krst, put, suza; Slovene, brv, krst, polt, solza; C. brv, but plet'; P. brew, krzest, plec, {s)lza; R. brovi, kr'estu, ploti, sl'eza.

(f) Proto-Sl. -or-, -ol-, -er-, -el- before a consonant.

(i.) Type ort, olt (ert, elt are not certain) beginning a word.— The liquid mostly comes first, sometimes the same vowel persists in all languages, e.g. Proto-Sl. *ordlo (Lithu. drklas, aratrum) , O.S. , Bulg., Ser., Slovene, R. ralo, C. Polab. P., radio. But Proto-Sl. eldii (Lithu. eldija), O.S. alUdiji, ladiji, "boat," Ser., Slovene, ladja, R. lodija, C. lodi, Polab, Itid'a and *orm (Pruss. arms), O.S. ravinu, " even," Ser. rdvan, Bulg. Slovene, rdven, R. rov'enu, C. rovny,F. rdwny show Russian agreeing with N.W. Slav against S. Slav. The difference probably depends on intonation.

(ii.) Type tort, tolt, tert, telt with a consonant before as well: the various treatments of this combination are among the chief criteria for classification, esp. the Russian speciality called full vocalism (polnoglasie) torol, tolot, teret, telet (or tolot, teloi) which is probably archaic, is one of the chief reasons for putting Russian in a separate division; Polish and Sorb come nearest to it, with trot, Hot, tret, tlet, but the N.W. division is not uniform as Kasube and the extinct Polab have the interesting forms tort, llit, trit, tlat, which are partly archaic, partly a transition to the most novel forms of the southern group to which Čech and Slovak^in this particular accede, trat, tlat, tret, tilt, but after I and z Čech has tlat for tlet. Deviations due to intonation have not been set forth. (See Table II.)

Table II.

Proto-Sl. Stem.

R.

P.

Polab, Kas.

C.

S. SI. e.g. O.S.

  • gord- " hortus," " town "

gorodU

grod


gord


hrad


gradu


  • molt- " hammer " . ;


molotU


mfot


mlat


mlat


mlatu


  • berg- Ger. " berg," " shore "


b'er'egU


brzeg


brig


bfeh


bregH


  • melk- " milk "...


moloko


mleko


mlak—


mleko


mliko


  • helm- " hdm " . . .


sel'emu of Selomib

Hemrt

  • gelb- " groove " . . .

zelobil | zldb

(Kas.) Hob

zlab

zlebU

IV. The Proto-Slavonic nasals a and e could be either long or short. This distribution is fairly kept in languages which have quantity and governs the results in Polish in which the nasal sound is preserved. The examples below show the main repre- sentatives. Traces of nasal pronunciation survive in Bulgarian, Slovene and Kasube. (See Table III.)

Table III.

Proto-Sl.

O.S.

Bulg. usu.

Ser.

Slovene.

c.

Sorb, High, Low.

R.

P.

Kasube.

611, on; in, en.

a; e.

ii, or d; e.

u; c.

d, 0; e, e.


u, ou; e, e.


u; a, je; e, I.


u;ja.


c,a;je,ja.


a; i, I.

 *mŏnka, “pain”

mqka

m&ka

muka

mdka, monka,

muka

muka

muka

meka

mqka

 *mōnká, " flour "

mqka

mUnka

muka

moka, muka

mouka

muka

mukd

mqka

mqka

 *desĕmtĭ, “ten”

deseti

deseti

deset

deset

deset

dzesac, zases

d'e's'ati

dziesiet

dzesic

penlt, " five "

peti

peti

pel

pit

p'el

pjec, pes'

p'ati

piać>pięc

pic or pšinc

In Kašube remains; ę becomes nasalized i or ī and this may lose the nasal or restore it as a full n or m; it has also nasalized all the other vowels and has the power of using nasals in loan- words, e.g. testamạt, as did O.S. e.g. kolęda, kalendae, sqdŭ = sund. Polab has (i and e—ronka, O.S. rqka, "hand," mengsie—mesa, “carnis,” but swante = svelu, " holy."