Previous part – Back to the first page
The author presents his own opinion on many of the touched issues here.
Old quantitative oppositions of vowels (e.g. a : ā) in the Slavic languages were replaced by qualitative ones (e.g. o : a) while a new quantitative, depending on intonation, opposition developed. New long vowels originated also as a result of contraction of particular groups of vowels. Moreover, the yers underwent transformations in all the Slavic languages: the weak yers began to disappear already as old as in the latter part of the period of the Slavic language commonwealth. It cased changes of intonation and related to them changes of length of preceding vowels. At last long and short varieties of all vowels (also syllabic sonants) were separated.
The possibility of appearing of certain back vowels after the palatal consonant j broke the correlation of palatalness. Early also things came (in many Slavic dialects) to dispalatalization of e, ě (to o, a respectively) in some positions after j, č, š, ž, e.g. *kelnus > *čelnъ > *čolnъ > człon ‘element, segment’, *gelbus > *želbъ > *žolbъ > żłób ‘manger, crib’, *kēsus > *čěsъ > časъ > czas ‘time’. Deterioration of the j after a palatalized consonant, and, afterwards, deterioration of the weak yers, caused arising of palatalized and non-palatalized consonants as separate phonemes what began to occur more and more independently on the type of the following vowels.
In the proto-Polish dialects the vowels e, ě underwent the umlaut to o, a when before a hard (non-palatalized) dental consonant, with the preceding consonant still palatalized. As if new varieties of the o, a developed, which palatalized the preceding consonant. That process became the reason of numerous alternations in inflexion, quite often living till today. E.g. gvězda : gvězdě > gwiazda : gwieździe, nesla : nesli > niosła : nieśli.
Under the same conditions the palatal varieties of sonants: ŕ̥, ĺ̥ underwent the umlaut but the preceding consonant lost its palatalization then. It is interesting that the ŕ̥ undergoing the umlaut mixed with the hard r̥ (> ar), while the ĺ̥ generated the independent variety (> ъł > eł), different both than the palatalized not undergoing the umlaut (> il) and then the non-palatalized one (> oł, ół). Soon after that all sonants were replaced with groups with a vowel. Rules of that process were quite complicated and results were various according to the type of adjoining consonants. The examples:
| Hard r̥, l̥ | Soft ŕ̥, ĺ̥ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| with the umlaut | without the umlaut | |||
| r̥, ŕ̥ | *tr̥gъ > targ | *mŕ̥tvъjь > martwy | *svŕ̥ščь > świrszcz > świerszcz | |
| *br̥zo > bardzo | *dŕ̥lъ > darł | *vŕ̥xъ > wirzch > wierzch | ||
| l̥, ĺ̥ | 1 | *ml̥va > mołwa > mowa | *pĺ̥nъjь > *pъłny > pełny | *vĺ̥kъ > wilk |
| *pl̥kъ > półk > pułk | *mĺ̥lъ > *mъłł > mełł | *pĺ̥stь > pilść > pilśń | ||
| 2 | *sl̥nьce > słuńce > słońce | *tĺ̥stъjь > tłusty | *tĺ̥kǫ > tłukę | |
| *stl̥pъ > *stłup > słup | ||||
| 3 | *kl̥basa > *kъłbasa > kiełbasa | *čĺ̥no > czółno | *žĺ̥vь > żółw | |
| *xl̥mъ > *chъłm > chełm | *žĺ̥na > żołna | *čĺ̥gati > czołgać | ||
targ – market; martwy – dead; świerszcz – cricket; bardzo – very; darł – he tore; wierzch – top, surface; mowa – speech; pełny – full; wilk – wolf; pułk – regiment; mełł – he milled, he ground; pilśń – felt; słońce – sun; tłusty – fat; tłukę – I break, I smash, I shatter, I crack, I knap, I cudgel; słup – pillar, pole, post; kiełbasa – sausage; czółno – canoe, dinghy; żółw – turtle, tortoise; chełm (Old Polish) – hill; żołna – bee-eater (Merops apiaster); czołgać się – to crowl, to creep
Also the nasal vowel ę underwent the umlaut becoming the new palatalizing ǫ. However in the later history of the language all nasals mixed in one sound – nasal a, in other words ą, of course in two varieties: long and short. Much later the long variety developed the nasal o spelt traditionally ą while the short variety gave ę. E.g. *mǫ́ka > mąka ‘flour, meal’, *mǫka > męka ‘torture, passion, torment’, *mę́ti > miąć ‘to crumple, to crush’, *mękъkъjь > miękki ‘soft’.
After finishing the process of the umlaut things came to so called vocalization of yers. In that period there was not the weak yers yet however there were still traces of weak soft yers in the shape of palatalized consonants. Both strong yers merged in one sound which mixed with the e and the ě. That new e did not undergo the umlaut any longer (exceptionally we have however forms made by analogy: *kotьlъ, *kotьla > kocioł, kotła ‘kettle, boiler’; *kozьlъ, *kozьla > kozioł, kozła ‘he-goat’; *osьlъ, *osьla > osioł, osła ‘ass, donkey’). In other grammatic forms of a word that new e could disappear, hence its name – the floating e. Let’s call to mind that a consonant was palatalized before a soft yer while before a hard yer it remained non-palatalized. In spite of merging both yers in one sound that difference remained. Examples of the e of different origin:
Another e developed from old i, y before r, ř: *širokъjь > szeroki ‘wide, broad’, umirati > umierać ‘to die’, *vŕ̥xъ > wirzch > wierzch ‘top, surface’, *sěkyra > siekira > siekiera ‘axe, hatchet’, *syrъ > ser ‘cheese’, *pyrь > *pyř > perz ‘wheat-grass (Agropyron)’. Sometimes also an unetymological floating e appeared to divide consonant clusters: *ognjь, *ognja > ogień, ognia ‘fire’; osmь, osmero > ośm, *ośmiero > osiem, ośmioro ‘8’.
Let’s observe that on that stage of development of the language things came to nearly completely break of the correlation of palatalness. Beside the old, palatalizing e (< ě, e, ь) the non-palatalizing e (< ъ) appeared. Beside old not palatalizing a, o the palatalizing a, o (from ě, e) appeared. The only trace of the old relations is the opposition i after soft : y after hard.
After finishing of the discussed processes things came to the dispalatalization (hardening) of the dental affricates c, dz as well as the alveolar cz, dż, sz, ż, rz (the last coming from the old soft r). It did not disturb the existing correlation of softness because the following i had been changed into the y. E.g. *taci > tacy ‘such (pl. m-pers.)’, *naʒi > nadzy ‘naked (pl. m-pers.)’, *činъ > czyn ‘act, deed, action’, *šiti > szyć ‘to sew, to make clothes’, *žiti > żyć ‘to live, to be alived’, *pri > *při > przy ‘at, by’.
In position before the non-palatalizating e (which had come from the vocalization of the hard yer) as well as before the y things came to palatalization of the k, g, and under some conditions also of the ch. Also that time the rule of the correlation of softness was not broken: here the y went into the i, e.g. *takoje > *také > takie ‘such (neutr.)’, *taky > taki ‘such (m)’, *nagъjь > *nagyj > *nagy > nagi ‘naked’. The rule was shaken only by recent borrowings, like kelner ‘waiter’, gen ‘gene’, kynologia ‘cynology’, gynandria, as well as by denasalization of the word-final ~ę, e.g. rękę, pronounced usually as reŋke.
During development of the Polish language the long vowels changed their tone (that process is defined as inclination), and afterwards they shortened. In the literary language the long á, é, í, ý, ú finally lost their separateness and merged with their short equivalents (in dialects the separate character of the á, é often lasted). The long nasal vowel developed into the ą (nasal o) while the short nasal vowel gave the ę. On the other hand the long ó merged with the u.
The table presents the origin of the Polish vowels:
| The Proto-Slavic state | i, y | e | ě | a | o | u | ę, ǫ | ъ, ь | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The pre-Polish state | i, í, y, ý | e, é | o | ó | e, é | a, á | a, á | o | ó | u, ú | ą | ą́ | e | 0 |
| The Polish state | i, y, e | e | o | ó | e | a | a | o | ó | u | ę | ą | e | 0 |
Remarks:
2008-02-21