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===Morphophonology=== | ===Morphophonology=== | ||
2.2 Morphophonemic alternations inherited from Proto-Slavonic | |||
Among the oldest alternations are those of the velar consonants k, g, ch with | |||
c, z, s and с, j. They originated from the Proto- | |||
Slavonic first and second palatalizations. | |||
The alternations resulting from the first palatalization were greatly | |||
reduced in Polabian and were chiefly limited to derivation: rpka (< *rpka) | |||
'hand' versus rpcnek (< *греьткъ) 'towel', bug (< *bogb) 'God' versus | |||
biizac (< *botbCb) 'God (DIMIN)', тех (< *техъ) 'sack' versus mesak | |||
(< *mešbfo) 'little sack'. | |||
Residual instances of the first palatalization are encountered in | |||
inflection. In nominal declension we find it only in the nouns v&t' й | |||
(< *(v)oko) 'eye' and vauxii (< *(u)xo) 'ear', compare vieai (< *(v)oči | |||
(NOM—ACC DU), vausai (< *( v)uši (NOM-ACC DU)). In conjugation it could | |||
be used to oppose the present-tense forms to past tenses or the infinitive: | |||
plocfi (< *plačp) 'I cry' versus plokol (< *р1ака1ъ) '(he) cried', plokat | |||
(< *plakati) 'to cry', р&кпё (< *ръкпегь) 'falls' versus pčci (< *ръеегъ | |||
(AOR) ) 'fell', muzes (< *mozešb 'you can' versus mug (< *mogb (AOR)) 'I | |||
POLABIAN 805 | |||
could'. For the most part, however, verbal stems tended to be levelled in | |||
the entire conjugation: joz rical-me (< *jazъ гес1ъ mu) T told him', nemezalo- | |||
jeg noit (< *ne motala jego najiti) '(she) could not find him', | |||
taucal-sa (< *Цс1ъ sę) 'it was haunted' (instead of *гек1ъ, * mogla, *ф1ъ sę | |||
on the model of rice, muze, tauci-sa (< *rečetb, *moietb, *tfčetb sę). | |||
In general, however, both consonantal and vocalic alternations (with the | |||
exception of stress alternations and the related alternations between nonreduced | |||
and reduced vowels) were considerably limited within the | |||
Polabian conjugation. Present-tense forms abandoned consonantal alternations | |||
completely: ricą (instead of rekp < *rekp) '(I) say', picą (instead of | |||
pekp < *pekptb) '(they) roast'. | |||
The alternations k/c, g/j occurred in the declension of nouns, where | |||
they reinforced morphological oppositions: grauk (< *grufo) 'pear tree' | |||
versus graucai (< *gruci) 'pear trees', krig (from German Krieg) 'war' | |||
versus va krije (< *vb (krig-)-e), ntiga (< *noga) 'foot, leg' versus ntije | |||
(< *M>JE(NOM-ACC DU)) 'feet, legs'. | |||
The opposition of hard and soft consonants, which originated from the | |||
depalatalization of consonants before front vowels, is the most | |||
frequent consonantal alternation in Polabian morphology. It occurred in | |||
the declension of nouns where it replaced the opposition of originally front | |||
vowels to originally back ones: | |||
The declension of nouns also made use of the alternations k,g,ch and their soft counterparts, which originated through the Polabian palatalisation. | |||
This type of alternation is most noticeable in the inflection of adjectives, | |||
where it contributes, among other things, to the distinction of | |||
genders. | |||
====Vocalic alternations==== | |||
The reduction of vowels brought about the most productive vocalic | |||
alternation in Polabian. This alternation was closely related to the alternation | |||
of stress and it affected both inflection and derivation as in the | |||
endings -o/-a (coso/zena < *čaša 'bowl', *tena 'woman') or in the derivative | |||
aibet' to kill' (< * ubiti) versus bait' to beat' (< *biti). | |||
It was, however, in conjugation that these alternations played the most | |||
essential role, thanks to the enclitic character of the reflexive particle sa | |||
(< *sę) and of the monosyllabic pronominal forms. Since the present-tense | |||
8 0 6 WEST SLAVONIC LANGUAGES | |||
forms generalized the penultimate stress, the stress had to shift to the | |||
desinence when followed by an enclitic, given the Polabian limitation of | |||
stress to the penultimate syllable. In this way there arose the alternation of | |||
non-reduced and reduced vowels: aide(< *idetb) 'goes', biile(< *bolitb) 'it | |||
hurts' versus kok aidi-sa (< *kako idetb sę) 'how are you doing', btili-me | |||
(< *bolitb тьпе) 'it hurts me'. | |||
Other vowel alternations were due to various metaphonies. Some of | |||
them occurred in Lechitic or early Polabian, others took place in later | |||
periods. To the former belong vowel-zero, е-о, a-p and ar-or alternations | |||
(as well as their variants stemming from the reduction of vowels), | |||
to the latter e-i, a-i, a-i, o-u, d-a, ai-a, di-a alternations. | |||
Owing to the different treatment of the weak jers in Polabian from that | |||
of other Slavonic languages, the vowel-zero alternations were practically | |||
limited to final/penultimate syllables and occurred mainly in the declension | |||
of nouns: d'olpbak (< *golpbъkъ) 'small pigeon' but d'olppt'e (PL) | |||
(< *golpbъky)9 pican (< *ресьпь) 'loaf of bread' but picne (PL) | |||
(< *ресьпе). | |||
The e-o alternation is attested mainly in the inflection of nouns: lotil | |||
(< * leto) 'summer, year' versus vd leta (< *vb lete) 'in summer'. We find | |||
some examples of the ar-or alternation in derivation: sdmart(< *sbmftb) | |||
'disease of chicks' but dimorte (< *umfrbjb) 'dead', come (< *cfirbjb) | |||
'black' but carnaića (< *čfnica) 'blackberry'. The ą- p alternation is found | |||
in some individual forms: plęisft (< *plęśp) '(they) dance' versus pipsat | |||
(< *plęsati) 'to dance', dispt (< *desętb) 'ten' versus diśpte (< *desętbjb) | |||
'tenth'. | |||
The vowel alternations due to later developments in Polabian were used | |||
in inflection: cesat 'to comb' but cise 'combs', woda | |||
'water' but wo wida 'in water', smöla | |||
'Hell' but va smȯla 'in Hell', pȧs (< *рь5ъ) 'dog' but pasai | |||
'dogs', dipaustaix (< *upustixb) 'I dropped (AOR)' but dipaustdl | |||
(< *upustih>) '(he) has dropped (PRF)' | |||
==Morphology== | ==Morphology== | ||
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