On 2006-04-12 15:47, george knysh wrote:
> On a related but distinct issue: what is your take on
> the "bell" word in Slavic? With some having initial
> "z" and others "dz"?
There is no possible way for Ukr. dzvin or Pol. dzwon to have developed
regularly out of anything Proto-Slavic. The only _normal_ sources of the
voiced affricate /dz/ are as folows: (1) the "Second Palatalisation" of
*g before *e^ from older *ai (but there's no *ai in the 'bell' word; (2)
the "Progressive Palatalisation" of *g after *i, *I or *IN (impossible
word-initially); (3) PSl. *dj plus a vowel, but there's no trace of a
vowel between the /dz/ and the /v/ either in the 'bell' word or in any
other member of this word-family. *zvonU, *zvIne^ti, *zvoniti, *zvoNkU,
*zveNkati are undoubtedly the original Slavic forms. The affricate seems
to have arisen in Ukrainian as an expressive variant, and the form with
<dzw-> spread into Polish, first as an eastern regionalism, about the
mid-16th century (Old Polish had <zwon>, <zwonic'> etc.). There are some
other words here and there that may be related to the Slavic ones, esp.
Albanian (Tosk) zë, (Geg) zâ 'voice' < *g^Hwono- (= *zvonU)
Piotr