Treća palatalizacija velara
The third palatalisation of velars

Summary/Abstract: The third palatalisation of velars is a progressive sound change which affected velars */k/ and */g/ in the environment Co)(N)_H) changing them into »softened« */k'/ and */g'/. In the later development these reflexes became assibilated, perhaps together with the outcome of the second palatalisation. The results of the third palatalisation are mainly observed in derived nouns before the grammatical morpheme, whereas the nouns in which the root consonant is affected are extremely rare. Most examples contain the sound /k/ in the environment Ci_a). These are certain masculine nouns with the ending -bcb along with certain feminine and neuter nouns with the suffixes -bca and -bce respectively, and feminine nouns with the extremely productive suffix -ica. There are a small number of other examples - the word lice (»face«), the only noun in which the root consonant /k/ is affected, a limited number of words with the sound /g/ and three original Slavic nouns containing the environment CiN_a) , which also existed in certain Germanic loan-words derived by the ending -ing. The third palatalisation also operated in a small group of imperative verbal forms and certain duratives which later became a model for creating a derivational rule for deriving duratives from verbal stems which originally did not contain the appropriate environment. The fricative /h/ was not subject to this change since the outcome of the ruki-rule still had not become velar at that time. The first example that was considered to contain /h/ affected by the third palatalisation, the pronoun vbsb (»whole«), contains /s/ from Proto-Indo-European */k'/, and the other, the verb nasmisati sja (»to mock«), is a later product of the derivational rule for creating duratives. Most exceptions did not originally contain the environment of the third palatalisation or were derived or adopted much later, when that sound change was finished as a phonetic process and its results had acquired a phonemic status. The third palatalisation most likely operated at an early date in the history of the Proto-Slavic language being the first among the three palatalisations. Its progressivity and operation across the syllabic boundary connect it to certain other early sound changes, e. g. ruki-rule. It must have ceased operating at least about AD 400, when eventual distribution of the results of the ruki-rule /h/ : /š/ was carried through, and the first palatalisation started. After the Slavic settling on the Balkan peninsula the third palatalisation no longer operated, which is clear from loan-words like Croatian loćika (from Romance *laktüka) containing an unchanged velar. The existence of the reflex */k'/ is proven by certain place-names of Slavic origin in Greece and perhaps those in Austria, whereas other, probably younger toponyms, contain sounds that imply the assibilated /c/.

• Details
• Contents