Proto-Slavic is the proto-language from which Slavic languages later emerged. It was spoken before the seventh century. As with all other proto-languages, no attested writings have been found; the language has been reconstructed by applying the comparative method to all the attested Slavic languages as well as other Indo-European languages.

Origin

Historical distribution of the Slavic languages. The larger shaded area is the Prague-Penkov-Kolochin complex of cultures of the sixth to seventh centuries, likely corresponding to the spread of Slavic-speaking tribes of the time. The smaller shaded area indicates the core area of Slavic river names (after EIEC p. 524ff.)

The original homeland of the speakers of Proto-Slavic also remains controversial. The most ancient recognisably Slavic hydronyms (river names) are to be found in northern and western Ukraine and southern Belarus (see map). It has also been noted that Proto-Slavic seemingly lacked a maritime vocabulary.

The Proto-Slavic language existed approximately to the middle of the first millennium AD. By the 7th century, it had broken apart into large dialectal zones. Linguistic differentiation received impetus from the dispersion of the Slavic peoples over a large territory - which in Central Europe exceeded the current extent of Slavic-speaking majorities. Written documents of the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries already have some local linguistic features. For example the Freising monuments show a language which contains some phonetic and lexical elements peculiar to Slovenian dialects (e.g. rhotacism, the word krilatec).

In the second half of the ninth century, the dialect spoken north of Thessaloniki- in the hinterlands of Macedonia, became the basis for the first written Slavic language, created by the brothers Cyril and Methodius who translated portions of the Bible and other church books. The language they recorded is known as Old Church Slavonic. Old Church Slavonic is not identical to Proto-Slavic, having been recorded at least two centuries after the breakup of Proto-Slavic, and it shows features that clearly distinguish it from Proto-Slavic. However, it is still reasonably close, and the mutual intelligibility between Old Church Slavonic and other Slavic dialects of those days was proved by Cyril's and Methodius' mission to Great Moravia and Pannonia. There, their early South Slavic dialect used for the translations was clearly understandable to the local population which spoke an early West Slavic dialect.

Historical development

Proto-Slavic is part of the Satem group of Indo-European languages (along with Indo-Iranian, Albanian, and Baltic) wherein palatovelar consonants became affricate or fricative consonants pronounced closer to the front of the mouth. In Proto-Slavic, the former palatovelar stops became coronal fricatives:

• • ? *s
• • ? *z
• • ? *z

Another change shared with much of the Satem group is the ruki sound law, which had the effect in Slavic languages of shifting *s to *x (possibly with *? as an intermediate stage) after a high vowel.

Once it split off, the proto-Slavic period probably encompassed a period of stability lasting 2000 years with only several centuries of rapid change before the breakup of Slavic linguistic unity that came about due to Slavic migrations in the early sixth century.^[1][2] As such, the chronology of changes including the three palatalizations and ending with the change of *? to *a in certain contexts defines the Common Slavic period.

Other changes that occurred include the merger of aspirated consonants with voiced ones and delabialization of labiovelars.

• • ? *
• • ? *
• • ? *
• • ? * ? *
• • ? *

Other important diachronic changes include the merger of long *? and *? into *a, the merger of short *o and *a into *o,^[3] the disappearance of PIE *? when in a non-initial syllable, and the elimination of the distinction between long and short diphthongs.

Also present were the diphthongs *ei and *oi as well as liquid diphthongs *?l, *?l, *?r, *?r; some scholars characterize the liquid diphthongs as syllabic sonorants: .

Progressive palatalization

Eastern Europe in the 3rd century AD:

This palatalization goes as follows: Velar consonants become palatalized (*k, *g, *x ? *, *, *) when following a front high vowel (either long or short) and preceding a mid back vowel (either long or short) across a morpheme boundary. An *n or *r between the velar and the high vowel does not prevent this palatalization. Also, the preceding front high vowel must itself follow a consonant.^[6]

Slavic contact with Germanic tribes (such as the migrating Goths) around the second or third century is the earliest date from which the progressive palatalization could have occurred since loan words such as *kuning ? k?n?dz? ('king') and *pfenning ? *p?n?dz? ('penny') show the reflex of this palatalization.^[7] After the ninth century, this palatalization was likely no longer operating since Varangians (*varying-) were known as (var?g?) in Russian (without the palatalization of *g to *z) while the nominative plural: (var?zi), and locative singular show that either the second regressive palatalization was still operative or that an analogy with other nouns ending in a velar consonant.

Syllabic Synharmony

After the progressive palatalization took place, a tendency arose in the Common Slavic period wherein successive segmental phonemes in a syllable assimilated articulatory features (primarily place of articulation).^[8] Another tendency, generally referred to as the "Law of Open Syllables" marks the beginning of the Common Slavic period in which an arrangement of phonemes in a syllable (from lower to higher sonority) led to final consonants being deleted, consonant clusters being simplified (either by deletion or epenthesis), diphthongs being monophthongized, nasal consonants in the syllable coda becoming the nasalization of the preceding vowel (*? and *), etc.^[9] 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. Thus syllables (rather than just the consonant or the vowel) were distinguished as either "soft" or "hard;" most consonants having developed palatalized allophones in soft syllables (a situation dubbed "syllable synharmony" or the "syllabeme").^[10]

Regressive palatalizations

As an extension of the system of syllable synharmony, velar consonants were palatalized to postalveolar consonants before front vowels (*i, *?, *e, *?) and *j. ^{[11] [12]}

• • k ? *?
• • g ? *? (possibly via )
• • x ? *?

This was the first regressive palatalization. Subsequently, a number of vowel changes took place: *? shifted to a central unrounded vowel (possibly , as in modern Russian) both *ou and *eu became *u,^[13] and back vowels became front vowels after palatal consonants (including *j). This was closely followed by the monophthongization of diphthongs in all environments.^[14]

• • ? ? *y
• • ou ? *u
• • eu ? *u
• • o ? *e / J
• • ? ? *? / J
• • y ? *i / J
• • oi ? *ei / J
• • ei ? *i
• • oi ? *?

By this point, Proto-Slavic had the following vowel system:

Proto-Slavic was still operating under the system of syllabic synharmony; because it had a new front vowel, yat (possibly an open front vowel ), the language underwent the second regressive palatalization in which velar consonants preceding *? were palatalized.^[15][16] As with the progressive palatalization, these became palatovelar. Soon after, palatovelar consonants from both the progressive palatalization and the second regressive palatalization became sibilants.

• ? *c ()
• ? *dz ? *z
• ? *s/*?

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.^[17]

Dialectal differentiation

It is at this point that dialectal variation becomes more apparent. Some dialects (such as those ancestral to Old East Slavic), allowed the second regressive palatalization to occur across an intervening *v. ^[18]

• Russian: *gwojzda ? *gw?zda ? zv?zda ? ('star')
• Polish: *gwojzda ? *gw?zda ? gwiazda ? ('star')
• Czech: *gwojzda ? *gw?zda ? hv?zda ? ('star')
• South Slavic languages: *gwojzda ? *gw?zda ? zvezda ? ('star')

The phonetic realization of subsequent sibilants varied from dialect to dialect. According to Aleksandar Beli?, the phonetic character of the palatalizations was uniform throughout Common Slavic and West Slavic languages developed *? later on by analogy.^[19] In all dialects (except for Lechitic), was deaffricated to :^[20] The following table illustrates the differences between the different dialects as far as phonetic realization of the palatalizations.

The Proto-Slavic period ended when syllabic synharmony ended. The first trigger was the change of *? to *a after palatal consonants and *j, which then created *?a/*ka contrasts.^[21]. Also, weak yers (*?/? and *?/?) were shortened and then elided (see Havlík's law) creating newly formed closed syllables.^[22] By which point, Common Slavic had the following consonants.

For many Common Slavic dialects?including most of West Slavic, all but the northernmost portions of East Slavic, and some western parts of South Slavic? *g lenited from a voiced velar plosive to a voiced velar fricative ( ? ). Because this change was not universal and because it did not occur for a number of East Slavic dialects (such as Belarussian and South Russian) until after the application of Havlík's law, calls into question early projections of this change and postulates three independent instigations of lenition, dating the earliest to before 900 AD and the latest to the early thirteenth century.^[23]

Loanwords

The lexical stock of Proto-Slavic also includes a number of loanwords from the languages of various tribes and peoples that the Proto-Slavs came into contact with. However, the list of the borrowings, their sources and other details are under discussion. According to most sources), the earliest traceable lexical or semantic borrowings were loans from the Northeastern Iranian languages spoken by the Scythian, Alanian, and Sarmatian tribes. Most of these borrowings appertain to the religious sphere: *bog? 'God', *gatati 'to divine', *div? 'demon', *raj? 'paradise'. Yet non-religious terms such as *(j)a??er? 'serpent', *patriti 'to look after', *radi 'for the purpose of', *sobaka 'dog', *topor? 'axe', *xvala 'glory' and (at least according to some scholars)) *xata 'hut, house' are also of Iranian origin.

Some words may be of Celtic origin: *bagno 'bog', *jama 'cave', *korsta 'canker', *s?ta 'grief', *sluga 'servant' *trag? 'foot(step)'.

It is generally acknowledged that of the various languages which left their mark on the early lexical stock, Germanic occupies a pivotal position), and many early Germanic loanwords into Proto-Slavic are known.

Examples of early Germanic loanwords: *xl?b? 'bread' (Eng. cognate "loaf"), *xl?v? 'pigsty', *m??? 'sword', *st?klo 'glass', *?elm? 'helmet', *x?lm? 'hill', *plug? 'plough', *skot? 'cattle', possibly also *melko 'milk', *xyz?/*xyzja 'hut' (? PGmc. *h?s). The words *l?k? 'medicine' (Eng. "leech") and *tyn? 'fence' (Eng. cognate "town") were borrowed from Germanic (cf. Goth. l?keis 'physician'; PGmc. *t?naz), but are believed to be originally of Celtic origin.

Later Germanic (Gothic and Old High German) borrowings are 'penny, money', 'king, prince, priest' (? OHG kuning), *ist?ba 'room, apartment' (? OHG stuba), *bjudo 'bowl, basin; table', *buk? 'beech-tree', *tjudj? 'foreign, stranger, somebody else's' (? Gothic *ţiuda 'people'), *smoky 'fig', *opica 'monkey' (? OHG affo).

Germanic also transmitted some Latin and Greek loans into Slavic:

• Latin: *kupiti 'to buy' (Goth. kaup?n from Lat. caup? 'merchant', ultimately from Etruscan), *d?ska 'board' (? Lat. discus through OHG tisk), *kot?l? 'kettle', *c?sarj? 'king, imperator', *kr?st? 'cross' (? Lat. Chr?stus through OHG Krist), *?er?n'a 'cherry' (Popular Lat. ceresia, Old Bavarian chersia), *os?l? 'ass, donkey' (Lat. asinus, Goth. asilus);
• Greek (with Gothic mediation): *c?rky 'church', 'camel' (? Gk. elephas 'elephant' through Goth. ulbandus);

Some Latin (including words from Balkan Romance) and Greek words entered Late Proto-Slavic even without Germanic mediation:

• Latin: *konopja (? Popular Lat. *canapis), *vino 'wine' (? Lat. v?num), *pogan? 'pagan' (? pag?nus), *k?l?da 'carol' (? Lat. calendae);
• Greek: *korabj? 'ship' (Byzantine Gk. karábion), *polata 'abode' (Byzantine Gk. palátion 'palace'), *pop? 'priest', 'Sabbath' (Byzantine Gk. sámbaton).

There is a number of local Slavic words which are suspected to be of Turkic origin: *kobyla 'mare', 'horse's yoke', *gat? 'dam', *k?n?ga/*k?niga 'book', *kov??eg? 'box', *kolpak?/klobuk? 'hat/cowl'.

Some words may also have originated from Dacian/North Thracian languages [1]; e.g., *mogyla 'kurgan, tomb, grave' is considered etymologically uncertain but has been compared to Albanian magulë 'hill' and Romanian m?gur? 'hill, elevation'.

Loanwords in Proto-Slavic lexical stock are outlined in Schenker (1996): 159-160.

References

Bibliography

• Kiparsky, Valentin, Russische Historische Grammatik, 3 vols., 1963, 1967, 1975.
• Moszy?ski, Leszek. Wst?p do filologii s?owia?skiej. PWN. Warszawa, 1984.
• Paliga, Sorin. Phd linguistics. Lexicon Etymologum Elementorum Thraecorum.
• Schenker, Alexander M. The Dawn of Slavic. Yale Language Series, 1995.
• Snoj, Marko. Slovenski etimolo?ki slovar. Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2003.
• Vasmer, Max. Russisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Heidelberg, 1950-1958.

See also

• Balto-Slavic languages
• Old Church Slavonic

External links

• The Indo-European Etymological Dictionary (IED)
• From Proto-Indo-European to Slavic, Frederik Kortlandt 1983

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