The Proto-Indo-European syllabic resonants in Balto-Slavic

• Published in: Indogermanische Forschungen 2004-01, Vol.109 (2004), p.337-354
• Main Author: Matasovic, Ranko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Linguistics; Phonetics; Phonology; Proto-Indo-European; Resonants; Slavic languages
• ISSN: 0019-7262; 1613-0405
• DOI: 10.1515/16130405.337

[...]the PIE. and Balto-Slavic word for "wool" was an a-stem, having no ablaut in its inflection, and being probably unconnected to any ablauting verbal root, at least in BaltoSlavic. [...]the reflex il seen in BSl. *wilHna(H) (OPr. wilna "skirt", Lith. vìlna) must be regular after *w. Therefore, particular attention should be paid to two kinds of data: * words in which we find both kinds of reflexes in different Baltic and Slavic languages, where only one can be phonologically regular. * morphologically isolated words, and words showing no ablaut in Balto-Slavic; in such words we can expect to find the regular reflexes, uncontaminated by the generalized ablaut pattern. The first assumption is by no means self-evident; precisely the converse could just as easily have been the case, namely, that the more frequent reflex was initially restricted to only one environment, and then spread analogically. [...]it is very improbable that the U-reflexes could have spread beyond their original environment, since we have seen that IR was generalized as the regular zero-grade in Balto-Slavic roots ending in a resonant. [...]in very few IE. languages do we have uniform reflexes of all syllabic resonants: to my knowledge, only in Germanic, Anatolian, and Tocharian do all syllabic resonants develop uniformly in all environments, by receiving a prothetic u (in Germanic), a (in Anatolian), viz. ä (in Tocharian); in all other branches of IE., reflexes are more complex. [...]another preliminary methodological remark is in order; in the work of other linguists who dealt with the subject, all Baltic and Slavic words showing IR and UR received equal importance, irrespective of whether they have well established IE. etymologies, or not.