Carpathian historical development: Difference between revisions

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Carpathian historical development (view source)

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 *'''Common Carpathian''' (1000 BCE — 500 CE) — the stage with the earliest identifiable dialectal distinctions and borrowings from other languages. At this stage Paleo-Balkan influence is prominent.
 *'''Late Carpathian''' (500 BCE — present) — gradual development of individual Carpathian dialects. The influence of the Slavic languages is prominent at this stage.
+[[Category:Carpathian]]
 ==Split from Late Proto-Indo-European==
 Proto-Carpathian exhibits the [[w:Centum and satem languages|satem]] development wherein Proto-Indo-European (PIE) palatovelar consonants became affricates or fricatives, conventionally indicated as *ś and *ź.
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 according to which the dental sibilant ''*s'' became retroflex ''*š'' after ''*r, *u, *k or *i''. In Eastern Carpathian this new ''š'' reverted back to ''s'' before plosive consonants (in some southern dialects before all consonants), but was retained in other positions, being the only source of the retroflex sibilant in these dialects. In Western Carpathian, on the other hand, ''*ś'' and ''š'' merged with very few exceptions, such as ''tor̃sā'' “bristle” corresponding to Eastern ''tar̃šā'' “crumb”.
-The final consonants, except for *n and *s were lost. Final ''*m'' changed to ''n''. Final resonants were preserved by addition of a new ending: PIE ''*péh₂wr̥'' “wheat” > ''*púhr-an'' > Car. ''pūrha'' “bromegrass”. Final plosives were dropped: PIE ''*tod'' > Car. ''ta'' “it”.
+The final consonants, except for *n and *s, were lost. Final ''*m'' changed to ''n''. Final resonants were preserved by addition of a new ending: PIE ''*péh₂wr̥'' “wheat” > ''*púhr-an'' > Car. ''pūrha'' “bromegrass”. Final plosives were dropped: PIE ''*tod'' > Car. ''ta'' “it”.
 PIE voiced aspirated consonants merged with their plain counterparts:
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 It took place before the addition of epenthetic vowels before syllabic sonorants, so at the time of the change, syllabic sonorants still acted as a vocalic nucleus like the true vowels and could attract the accent as well.
 ==Syllabic sonorants==
 Syllabic sonorants become liquid diphthongs with ''*i'' (sometimes ''*u'') inserted before them. ''*u'' instead of ''*i'' is expected before labiovelars, which means that the change happened before the delabialisation of velars. This change occurred after Hirt's law, which operated on original syllabic sonorants but not on sonorant diphthongs. Another change that happened during the same period was *wl, *wr > *l, *r word-initially (but ''*wrōdnas'' > W. ''wōrdanas'', E. ''wōrdaras'' “dawn” (cognate with Sl. ''*rànъ'' “morning”), which preserves the initial ''*w'' through vowel metathesis, however the reconstruction ''*wōrdnas'' is also possible, likely related to ''war̃dinas'' “early”). It occurred after the prothetic vowels had appeared: ''*wĺ̥kʷos'' > ''wul̃kas'' “wolf”.
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 Because Carpathian preserves consonantal reflexes of PIE laryngeals at least in some positions, it is often compared to the Anatolian languages and Armenian, although in other regards it shares more in common with Balto-Slavic, than with the former two.
-Between consonants PIE laryngeals became ''*a'' in initial syllables and were lost in non-initial syllables.
+Between consonants PIE laryngeals became ''*a'' in initial syllables and were lost in non-initial syllables:
 * PIE ''*sp'''h₁'''rós'' > Proto-Carpathian ''sp'''à'''ras'' “abundant”;
 * PIE ''**dʰug'''h₂'''tḗr'' > Proto-Carpathian ''duktī̃'' “daughter”.
+However, there is some evidence pointing towards preservation of ''h₃'' in initial syllables as ''*u'': PIE ''*h₂éh₃mōl~*h₂h₃m̥lés'' > Carpathian ''hùmōlis'' “yellow sorrel”.
 PIE ''*h₁'' was lost in all positions, but it made its preceding vowel (or a syllabic sonorant) long and gave it a rising acute accent: PIE ''*spéh₁ti'' > Proto-Carpathian ''*spḗtei'' “to hurry”. A semivowel (''*j'' or ''*w'') was inserted to break a vowel hiatus: ''*dʰeh₁eti'' > ''dējetei'' “to be doing”.
 The laryngeals ''*h₂'' and ''h₃'' merged in Proto-Carpathian, just as in Proto-Anatolian, and was preserved as a glottal fricative /h/. When preceding a consonant this new ''*h'' was lost, acting in the same way as ''*h₁'': Proto-Carpathian ''*stáhtei'' > ''stā́tei'' “to become” (from PIE ''*stéh₂ti''). In other positions the reflex of PIE laryngeals was retained: PIE ''*stoh₂éyeti'' > Carpathian ''stàhītei'' “to determine”; PIE ''*kruh₂és'' (genitive) > Carpathian ''kurùhis'' “blood” (dialectal ''karaũhis'', from nominative ''*kréwh₂s''); PIE ''*welh₃is'' > Carpathian wel̃his “ghost”. Word-finally, however, the laryngeals were also lost, probably at the same time as all final consonants, except for ''*s'' and ''*n'': PIE ''*dʰoHnéh₂'' > Carpathian ''dṓnā'' “grain”.
+==Consonant assimilation==
+Many heterorganic consonant clusters were assimilated in Proto-Carpathian, giving rise to geminate consonants: PIE ''*h₁n̥h₃mén'' > Carpathian ''immin'' “name”; PIE ''*déḱsinos'' > Common Carpathian ''deśśinas'' “right”.
+The consonant *w was elided in clusters with labial consonants, followed by it: PIE ''*bʰuHeh₁t'' → Pre-Proto-Carpathian ''b'''w'''ēt'' — Carpathian ''bē'' “was”. Clusters with ''*h'' simplified by eliding the glottal fricative, except for clusters with sonorants, where ''h'' was the second element, which were preserved in most dialects (sometimes as plain voiceless sonorants).
+Clusters of sonorants or sibilants, followed by plosives were permissible and thus remained unchanged. The reverse clusters (with plosives as the first element of a cluster), as well as clusters with more than two consonants and some heterorganic clusters, were resolved by vowel [[w:Epenthesis|anaptyxis]], also called '''pleophony''' after a similar process in the East Slavic languages: PIE ''*bʰrodʰos'' > Carpathian ''baràdas'' (Western ''boràdas'') “ford”. This also affected borrowings from the neighbouring languages: Slavic ''*korl′ь'' > Carpathian ''koròlias/karàlias'' “king”, the "rl"-cluster being a heterorganic sonorant cluster, difficult to pronounce. However, some complex consonant clusters were simply reduced instead: ''*dilbtilas'' > ''diltilas'' “woodpecker”. Clusters with a dental or velar plosive followed by a sibilant were usually resolved by assimilation to that sibilant: PIE ''*pleth₂-som'' — Modern Carpathian ''pelessa'' “glacial lake”; ''*muHdʰ-stlom'' — ''mūslis'' “thought” (via ''*mūssəsla'' → ''*mūsslis'' → ''mūslis''). When a sibilant is in a cluster between two consonants, it disappears: Proto-Carpathian ''*lōk'''š'''tawis'' — modern ''lōktawis'' “swallow” (from PIE ''*lek-ti'' “to jump”). A special case is initial clusters with a plosive, followed by a sibilant, in which case instead of pleophony, metathesis took place: PIE ''*k⁽ʷ⁾sowdós'' — Carpathian ''skaudùs'' “small, dispersed”.
+The clusters of two plosives typically resulted in a geminate second consonant: PIE ''*septḿ̥'' > Proto-Carpathian ''se'''pt'''əmas'' > Eastern Carpathian ''se'''tt'''imas'' “seven” (Western ''settemas''). However, early geminate dental plosives were broken into homorganic clusters with fricatives as the first element: PIE ''*h₁éd-ti'' > Early Proto-Carpathian ''ē'''tt'''ei'' > Carpathian ''ē'''st'''ei'' “to eat”. The ''kt''-cluster was preserved unchanged: ''na'''kt'''is'' “night”, ''pa'''kt'''as'' “baked goods” (but ''*təranktas'' → ''tarankatas'' “crowd, throng”; ''*penktas'' → ''penkitas'' “fifth” because of a complex "nkt"-cluster).
+The clusters with nasal as a second element typically survive as geminate "nn" (PIE ''*h₂e'''gʷn'''ents'' > Carpathian ''hà'''nn'''ēn'' “lamb”), unless they comprise a cluster with more than two consonants: PIE ''*ml̥dʰnis'' — Western Carpathian ''mil̃dinis'' “lightning” (Eastern Carpathian ''lùkkawis'' from ''*lukskawis''). Labial consonants, however, become [m] before nasals: PIE *swé'''pn'''os — Standard Carpathian ''swa'''mn'''as'' [ˈswɑ̀m.nɑs] “dream”; ''*dʰu'''bʰ'''nóm'' — ''du'''m'''na'' “bottom”.
+The clusters ''*sr'', ''*śr'' and ''*źr'' were rare in Carpathian, but had a unique development of prothetic dental stops between the two elements, which resulted in the only allowed clusters consisting of more than two consonants: PIE ''*h₂ewsrom'' — ''hauštra'' “morning, east”. This process likely happened early in the Carpathian development, since the initial clusters were also affected: PIE ''*sroumḗn'' → Pre-Proto-Carpathian ''s'''t'''raumēn'' — Carpathian ''staraũmū'' “stream”. The development is still productive, affecting later loanwords: ''Iz'''d'''rajelis'' “Israel”.
+===Palatalisation===
+The combinations with ''*w'' and ''*j'' as a second element survived, although the clusters of dental consonants and *j underwent [[w:Iotation|iotation]]: ''*weĩśśinjāh'' > ''weisiniā'' “cherry” (Eastern [weɪ̀.si.ɲɑ], Western [weɪ̀.ʂi.ɲɑ], later degemination of *ś after a diphthong); labial consonants were not affected, while velar consonants show variation among various dialects: ''liaugā'' ~ ''liaudiā'' “puddle” (''"diV"'' represents the [ɟ] sound). Thus, while the clusters with ''*j'' as their second element were resolved, the palatal articulation of that element affected the first element of the cluster, causing '''palatalisation''', e.g. moving the articulation of that consonant towards palatal with only labial consonants remaining unchanged (they probably lost their palatalisation later, although this cannot be confirmed, since no Carpathian dialect preserves any evidence of the palatalisation of labials). This new distinction resulted in an opposition of plain and palatal consonants: ''wa'''l'''ītei'' “to prefer” (plain consonant) – ''wa'''li'''ā'' “will” (palatal). The palatal reflexes of the clusters ''*kj'' and ''*gj'' did not merge with the respective reflexes of ''*tj'' and ''*dj'' in Proto-Carpathian, as can be seen from dialects, which have distinct affricate phonemes. In those dialects ''*tj'' and ''*dj'' became ''č'' and ''dž'' (or ''ts'' and ''dz'') respectively, while all other dialects merge both into one palatal series. The rare cluster ''*hj'' usually simply dispalatalised, following the same path, as the labial consonants: ''*stāhjā'' - ''stāhā'' “shelter”. A consonant cluster followed by ''*j'' palatised as a whole: Proto-Carpathian ''*nìštjas'' – modern ''nistias'' [nìɕ.cɑs] “poor”.
+Some dialects, particularly in the eastern highlands, also undergo [[w:Labialization|labialisation]], though this process is not regular or widespread: Standard ''swestī'' “sister” — [sʷɛ̀s.tiː] or [sỳs.tiː], sometimes spelt ''süstī'' in those dialects.
+==Dialectal differentiation==
+Approximately by the beginning of the Common Era Proto-Carpathian began splitting into two main branches: Western, spoken nowadays primarily in Slovakia and some districts of the Transcarpathian region, and Eastern, mostly spoken in Southern Poland, Western Ukraine and Northern Romania (region, called [[w:Maramureș|Marišas]]).
+The primary distinction that defines Western and Eastern branches is the reflexes of Proto-Carpathian ''*ś'' and ''*ź''. In Western Carpathian the two became retroflex or postalveolar '''š''' and '''ž''' (with ''*ś'' merging with old ''*š''), while in Eastern Carpathian they resulted in '''s''' and '''z''' instead (with ''*ś'' merging with old ''*s'', keeping old ''š'' distinct and having no "ž"-phoneme in the native vocabulary).
+===Affective š and z===
+The only source of the ''š'' sound in the Eastern dialect of Carpathian was the '''ruki''' law. However, the law was reversed before plosive consonants later, making the original ''š'' a relatively rare phoneme. This was likely the reason for why it gained an affective nature, substituting the original ''*s''. This change was not regular, however, and it did not affect Western Carpathian, in which ''š'' was common. Examples of such words include: Eastern ''pal'''š'''as'' “commotion”, ''pil'''š'''as'' “dormouse”, '''''š'''armas'' “harm” (from ''*śar̃mas''), but Western ''pol'''s'''as'', ''pel'''s'''as (“mouse”), '''''š'''armas'' (with a regular outcome of ''*ś'').
+In the Western dialects, since ''ź'' became ''ž'', there was no separate phoneme ''*z'', which was only present before ''d'' and ''g'' as an allophone of ''*s'': ''mo'''z'''gū'' “brain” from PIE ''*mosgʰḗn''. After the Western-Eastern split a new affective ''z'' appeared in Western Carpathian from the original ''s'' in a similar fashion to ''š'' of Eastern Carpathian, however, this sound change was more regular and is called '''Zupitsa's law''' which formulates the following: in words with a nasal consonant initial or an initial voiced plosive followed by ''r'' or ''l'', ''*s'' becomes ''z'': ('''#*NV(N)s->#NV(N)z-''' or '''#*DVRV(N)s->#DVRV(N)z-'''): ''mem'''z'''a'' “meat”, ''golō'''z'''a'' “glitter”, ''girim'''z'''is'' “dirt” (Eastern ''messa'', ''galōsa'' and ''girissis'' respectively). The only exception from this law is the final ''-s''.
+===Nasal assimilation===
+The nasal consonants did not assimilate to following consonants in Proto-Carpathians, which is also true for almost all modern dialects: Western Carpathian ''šu'''m'''ta'' “hundred”, Eastern Carpathian ''i'''m'''tei'' “to take, to have”. However, in Eastern Carpathian a nasal consonant always assimilates to its following fricative: dial. ''gassis'' “goose” (standard ''gansis''), ''sassēdas'' “neighbour” (dial. ''sansēdas'', Western ''samsēdas''). In the standard only ''*m'' assimilates, while ''*n'' usually stays intact, only becoming [ŋ] before velars. The dialect of the Eastern Carpathian Highlands keeps the cluster ''nh'' distinct from ''n'', usually as voiceless [n̥], since /h/ is typically voiceless near other consonants in that dialect: ''swanhas'' “sound”, ''tinhus'' “thin” (most dialects have ''swanas'' and ''tinus'', Western standard ''swonas'', ''tinus'').
+===Alternations between *e and *a reflexes===
+Initial *a and *e (as well as their long counterparts) tend to alternate between two Carpathian dialect groups. In Eastern Carpathian the reflex is usually '''a''', while in Western Carpathian it is '''e''' instead. Long "ē" and "ā" are more stable, but can appear in affective terminology: Western ''d'''ē'''dis'' — ''d'''ā'''dis'' “uncle”; ''d'''ē'''la'' ― ''d'''ā'''la'' “deed, action”; ''r'''ē'''nā'' — ''r'''ā'''nā'' “wound”. A special case in the ''er-ar''-vacillation, because the process is regular in the two branches: Western '''''e'''r'''e'''llas'' — Eastern '''''a'''r'''a'''llas'' “plough”, '''''e'''rmū'' — '''''a'''rmū'' “shoulder”. Rozwadowski's rule, shared with Balto-Slavic, may be a part of this general trend. According to this rule the original *e and *a were mixed, and both became "e" in Western Carpathian and "a" in Eastern Carpathian with few rare exceptions: Proto-Carpathian ''*éźera'' “lake” resulted in Western '''''e'''žera'' and Eastern '''''a'''zera''; ''*eske'' “still” → ''eske'' — ''aske''; ''*àlawa'' “lead” → ''elowa'' — ''alawa''; ''*àpsā'' “aspen” → ''espā'' — ''aspā'' (dial. ''àssis''). The rule only affected the absolute initial position, and is thus different from other e-a-vacillations.
+===Western a-labialisation===
+The phoneme *a likely had two allophones already in Proto-Carpathian – plain *a and labialised *å, also called "strong a" and "weak a" respectively. In Eastern Carpathian the two allophones merged into a single open back vowel, while in most Western Carpathian dialects *å rose to /o/, becoming a short counterpart to the original long *ō. This new short "o" was phonemised by separating the alternations of "o" and "ō" from "a" and "ā", as well as borrowing of new words, which contained this sound.
 [[Category:Carpathian]]