The
Old Church Slavic (Old Bulgarian) front vowels were i, I (a brief lax
vowel), e, e^ (a rather open vowel, as in English "cat") and e~ (a nasal vowel,
as in French "pain"). They could all be preceded by an automatically
inserted palatal glide in word-initial position or in hiatus (i.e., after
another vowel), hence such spelling variants as
je-/e-
je^-/e^-/ja- (in OCS etymological ja- <
*ja:- fell together with e^- < *ai-, *oi-, *e:-)
je~-/e~-
Additionally, initial *I- and *jI- (<
*jU- < ju-) fell together with *i- (from pre-Slavic *ei-, *i:-) as OCS
i- [(j)i-]
The preposition <iz> (<izU> is
a secondary isolation form) and the etymologically identical prefix <iz->
cannot have developed out of *(j)ez-. Initial <i-> may regularly continue
older *i:-, *ei-, *i-, *ju-, *ju:- and sometimes even *oi-, but not *e- or *je-.
Comparison with other Slavic languages and with such Baltic forms as Lith. i`s^
(is^-) and OPr. is (is-) points to *i- as the actual pre-Slavic source of the
vowel. The preposition does resemble the IE adverb *ek^s 'out, outside'
(possibly = underlying /eg^Hs/) as reconstructed for Greek, Italic and Celtic,
and given the identity of meaning a connection is likely, but the
Balto-Slavic vowel is difficult to explain.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
From: Patrick C. Ryan
To:
LIST-Cybalist
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2001 10:14 PM
Subject: [tied] Old
Bulgarian izU
I know there are some very knowledgeable Slavicists on
the list, and I would like to ask a question which I do not intend to discuss
but to which I merely would be interested in having an informed
opinion.
In Old Bulgarian, we have e and e:.
Were these vowels
preceded by a y-glide in Old Bulgarian as the modern Russian equivalent e is
(=[ye])?
Is it possible that in izU, 'out of', an earlier Slavic form
might have been [yezU]?
Thanks for your help.