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Re: Language change that complicates the syllable structure

From:Pavel Iosad <edricson@...>
Date:Wednesday, August 27, 2003, 20:30
Hello,

> > You could also have the language undergo a process similar > to Havlik's Rule > > in Russian. (Havlik's Rule was a natural process that > really seems too > > weird to be true. It seems like someone must have made it up > > artificially.) Havlik's rule dramatically altered the > structure of a lot > > of Russian words leading to some great new consonant clusters. > > Isidora, would you care to elaborate a bit on this? I'm not > into Slavicistics, but now you've made me intrigued!
Well, the essence is that the jers (Proto-Sl. *U and *I) are weak in odd syllables (counting from the last one), and so fall (disappear), but in even syllables they are strong and so appear as full vowels. So the neat Proto-Sl. syllable structure, where the maximum you can get is sTRV (T - plosive, R - sonant), you get monstrosities. Polish is noted for that even more than Russian - just look at words like _pstra,g_ or _gl/upstw_! Examples: *dInI (DAY-nom.sg) > R. den' *dIn'a (DAY-gen.sg.) > R. dn'a *dInIsUkUjI (an adjective, derived from the above) -> den'skoj. *sUnU (SLEEP-nom.sg.) > son *sUna (SLEEP-gen.sg.) > sna Of course there are some restrictions. Thus, in a TURT sequence (T - polsive, U - jer or jer', R - liquid), they always appear as full vowels in Russian (but in, say. Czech). Also, as one sees, the rule produces vowel-null alternations in the paradigms. In longer words, there could be two point of alternations, and Old Russian permitted only one, so the first alternation point became a full vowel regardless of what Havlik's rule says. Hope this clears things up a bit. Pavel -- Pavel Iosad pavel_iosad@mail.ru Nid byd, byd heb wybodaeth --Welsh saying

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Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>