The development of word-initial *V- and
*jV- in Slavic (and in Baltic) is a good topic for a long lecture. I'll focus on
*(j)e-, *(j)o- and *(j)a- only, but it's going to be a rather complex affair
anyway. Here are the most basic changes:
*e-, *je-, *jo-, *ja- > PSl *(j)e-
(> East Slavic o- ~ je-)
*a-, *o- > PSl *o-
Apparently in a few words *e < *a-/*o-,
e.g. *(j)esetrU 'sturgeon' < ak^etro- or *(j)elU-kU 'gone bitter' : *olU
'beer' < North IE *alu-, cf. English ale. This is probably due to a
dialectal merger of *a- and *e- in Proto-B-Sl.
When lengthened e.g. before plain voiced
stops ("Winter's Law"), the vowels ultimately merge:
*(j)e:-, *(j)a:-, *(j)o:- > PSl *(j)a-
[~ *(j)E-]
Examples:
*eg^om > *e:zU > *(j)azU- (OCS azU,
P./R./Cz. etc. ja)
*abl- 'apple' > *a:bl- >
*(j)ablUko
The preconsonantal sequence VR- (R = {l,
r}) developed as follows:
*orC, *arC- > B-Sl *arC > PSl
*orC- > roC- (Northern), raC- (Czech/Slovak and South Slavic)
There are very few convincing examples
of *eRC-, *jeRC or *jorC- (all could be expected to have developed into PSl
*(j)erC-); it seems that these combinations either underwent the same
treatment as *orC-/*arC- or yielded *roC-/*raC- (distributed as above) in free
(originally dialectal?) variation with *reC-.
If there was originally a syllable-final
laryngeal after the sonorant, or if C was a plain voiced stop, the vowel was
lengthened:
*(j)orHC, *arHC, *(j)erHC- > *a:rC-
> PSl *arC- > raC- (in all subbranches)
In the literature you will often find the
contrast *orC- : *arC- transcribed as ôrC- : órC- (circumflex : acute) --
the two transcriptions may be regarded as roughly equivalent, referring to
different historical stages. The contrast between the short and long
vowel is well visible in Polish (dots signify syllable divisions where these are
relevant):
*orbH- > PSl *orb- > Polish rob-
(e.g. robota 'work, job')
*elk^- > PSl *els- > Polish los'
'elk'
*xarh- 'plough'
*xarh-je-ti > *ar.hje.ti > *o.rje.ti
> Polish orze 'he ploughs'
*xarh-dHlo- > *arh.dHla- > *a:r.dla-
> *ardlo > Polish radło 'ard, plough'
*elho:n, *elhen- 'red deer'
*elhen-(jo-) > *elenjI > Polish
jelen' 'stag'
*elhn-ix- > *e:lni: > *a:lni:
> *alni > Polish l/ania 'hind'
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, November 12, 2000 2:20 AM
Subject: [tied] IE > Slavic
What's the evolution of IE initial syllabes *YER-
and YOR-/YAR- in Church Slavic?
*yer- > *jre- ? jire- ?
yor-/yar- > *jra- ? *jira- ?