"Syllabic rhotics" in Polish

Miguel, here's the first (and easiest) instalment of the promised story.

For convenience, I have divided this exposition into three parts: "Syllabic rhotics" (including a general introduction containing spelling conventions, etc.), "Syllabic laterals", and "Discussion", each to be sent as a separate posting. In this part, I simply assume that the Proto-Slavic "syllabic liquids" were *Ir/Ur and *Il/*Ul combinations. Alternative solutions will be evaluated in the last part.

Piotr

INTRODUCTION

Pre-Polish reconstructions (asterisked):

*I, *U = yers (lax high vowels)

*& = schwa (lax mid central vowel)

*C’ = palatalised *C (palatality is automatic and therefore not marked before front vowels; in clusters, only the palatality of the last element is marked)

*C^ (*s^, *ts^, *z^, *dz^) = palatoalveolars

*E = open front vowel (from PIE *ai, *oi, *e:)

*V~ = nasal vowel

Vowel length and intonation ignored

Old and Modern Polish (italicised):

rz = Old Polish fricative trill (*r’) > postalveolar fricative

l/ = dark lateral (< non-palatalised *l) > Mod. [w]

w = [v] (voiced labiodental fricative)

sz, cz, z., dz. = palatoalveolars > Mod. postalveolars

c = [ts]

C’ = palatalised consonant; before vowels, [C’..] is spelt Ci..;

palatalisation is automatic (and therefore not marked) before i

s’, c’, z’, dz’ = palatalised dentals > Mod. alveopalatals

a~ = Old Polish nasal [a] > Mod. e,, a, = [eN, oN]

*c^i, etc., *tsi, *dzi, *ri > Polish czy, ... cy, dzy, rzy (dispalatalised)

*kU, *gU > ke, ge > kie, gie [k’e, g’e]

*ky, *gy > ki, gi

"SYLLABIC RHOTICS"

Mainstream development of tautosyllabic (that is, preconsonantal) yer-plus-rhotic combinations:

*Ur > *&r > ar

*Ir > *’&r’ > ’irz ~ ’erz, palatalising the preceding consonant (spelt i(e)rz)

Dispalatalisation:

*’&r’ > *&r > ar before any coronal consonant followed by a non-front vowel. The change took place before the loss of yers.

EXAMPLES:

Original *Ur

*kUrkU ‘neck’ > *k&rk& > kark

*gUrdlo ‘throat’ > *g&rdlo > gardl/o

*tUrgU ‘market’ > *t&rg& > targ

*gUrbU ‘hump’ > *g&rb& > garb

*gUrstI ‘handful’ > *g&rst’& > gars’c’

Original *Ir, palatalisation lost:

*tIrnU ‘thorn-bush’ > *t&rn& > tarn

*zIrno ‘grain’ > *z&rno > zarno (Mod. ziarno)

*sIrna ‘roedeer’ > *s&rna > sarna

*c^IrtU ‘fiend’ > *c^&rt& > czart

*tvIrdU ‘hard’ > *tv&rd& > tward(y)

Original *Ir, palatalisation retained:

*sIrpU ‘sickle’ > *s’&r’p& > si(e)rzp (Mod. sierp)

*vIrxU ‘top’ > *v’&r’x& > wi(e)rzch (Mod. wierzch)

*tIrnI ‘thorn’ > *t’&rn’& > ci(e)rzn’ (Mod. ciern’)

*zIrnE ‘grain [Loc.]’ > *z’&rnE > zi(e)rznie (> ziernie, Mod. ziarnie)

*sIrs^enI ‘hornet’ > *s’&rs^en’& > si(e)rzszen’ (Mod. szerszen’)

Typical alternations caused by dispalatalisation:

*pUrst- ‘finger’

*pUrst-en-I ‘ring’ > *p’&rst’en’& > pi(e)rzs’cien’ (Mod. piers’cien’)

*na-pUrst-Uk-U ‘thimble’ > *nap&rst&k& > naparstek

*mIr- ‘die’

*sU-mIr-tI ‘death’ > *s&m’&rt’& > s’mi(e)rzc’ (Mod. s’mierc’)

*mIr-tv-U ‘dead’ > *m’&rtv& > martw(y)

Typical examples of later analogical levellings:

zarno (Nom.) : zir(z)nie (Loc.) > ziarno : ziernie > Mod. ziarno : ziarnie

sarna (Nom.) : sir(z)nie (Loc.) > Mod. sarna : sarnie

MINOR COMPLICATIONS

(1) rz [r^] > r consistently before coronals and less consistently (in Old Polish variably) before labials; rz is retained before velars.

(2) Increasing tendency to replace ir(z) with ier(z) already in Old Polish.

(a) cirn’ ‘thorn’, wircic’ ‘drill’, c’wirdza ‘fortress’, dzirz.yc’ ‘hold’ (here, r and z. stand for separate phonemes!), czyrnic’ ‘paint black’
(Mod. ciern’, wiercic’, twierdza, dzierz.yc’, czernic’)

(b) wirzba ‘willow’, pirzwy ~ pirwy ‘first’, czyrzw’ ~ czyrw’ ‘worm’, cirzpiec’ ~ cirpiec’ ‘suffer’, sirp ‘sickle’

(Mod. wierzba, pierwszy, czerw, cierpiec’, sierp)

(c) zmirzk ‘twilight’, wirzch ‘top’

(Mod. zmierzch, wierzch)