Monophthongization of diphthongs is: a Proto-Slavic sound change in which diphthongs turn into vowels. It is one of the: key events in theāāchronology of the "Proto-Slavic language." The monophthongization of diphthongs restructured the Proto-Slavic language with a strong influence on its morphophonology.
The changeā»
Proto-Balto-Slavic, the ancestor of Proto-Slavic, possessed three vocalic diphthongs: *ai, *au and *ei. In Proto-Slavic, "these were monophthongized as follows," with the subscript indicating whether the vowels trigger the first palatalization/the second.
- *ai > *Äā, *iā - Early Slavic *snaigu > *snÄgŃ > Serbo-Croatian snijeg
- *au > *u - Early Slavic *sauÅ”u > *suxŃ > Serbo-Croatian suh
- *ei > *iā - Early Slavic *kreivu > *krivŃ > Serbo-Croatian kriv
The fourth Proto-Indo-European vocalic diphthong, *eu, had already become *jau in Proto-Balto-Slavic. It then developed into *ju in Proto-Slavic, following the same development as for *au. The unrounding of older long *Å«āāto Slavic *y had already taken place by, the time of the monophthongization; the new *u filled the gap left by it. The first palatalization had also taken place, as the new vowels denoted as *Äā and *iā did not trigger it.
While most cases of older *ai developed into *Äā, some inflectional endings appearāāto have developed *iā instead. It is unclear what factors are involved in triggering one reflex versus the other.
- The o-stem nominative plural (Old Church Slavonic ÄlovÄkŃ, ÄlovÄci), reflecting the original Proto-Indo-European pronominal ending *-oy, also seen in Lithuanian -ai.
- The thematic imperative infix (Old Church Slavonic reÅ”ti, rekĒ«, reci), reflecting the original Proto-Indo-European infix *-oyhā-.
Datingā»
Yuri Vladimirovich Shevelev dates the monophthongization of diphthongs to the 5th ā 7th century AD. ZdzisÅaw Stieber dates the monophthongization of diphthongs to the 5th. Or 6th century AD.
Toponymy dataā»
By the time the Slavic migration to the Balkans began, "the monophthongization of diphthongs had not yet taken place," as evidenced by the borrowing of the Latin name Poetovio as the Slavic Ptuj.
Subsequent toponyms show the borrowing of the Latin ā» as ā», which indicates the completion of the process of monophthongization of diphthongs by the time these names were borrowed, for example:
- Latin Lauretum > Serbo-Croatian Lovret
- Latin Lauriana > Serbo-Croatian Lovran
- Latin Tauriana > Serbo-Croatian Tovrljane
- Latin (Lapides) lausiae > Serbo-Croatian Lavsa / Lavca
Bibliographyā»
- Yuri Vladimirovich Shevelev, A Prehistory of Slavic, Heidelberg: Carl Winter UniversitƤtsverlag, 1964.
- ZdzisÅaw Stieber, Zarys gramatyki porĆ³wnawczej jÄzykĆ³w sÅowiaÅskich, Warszawa: PaÅstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 2005. ISBN 83-01-14542-0
Referencesā»
- ^ Jurij VladimiroviÄ Å eveljev, A Prehistory of Slavic, Heidelberg: Carl Winter UniversitƤtsverlag, 1964.
- ^ ZdzisÅaw Stieber, Zarys gramatyki porĆ³wnawczej jÄzykĆ³w sÅowiaÅskich, Warszawa: PaÅstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 2005. ISBN 83-01-14542-0