On 2009-02-23 22:39, Rick McCallister wrote:
> To be a pest:
> Where does Slavic /s^c^/ (et al.) come from?
> Does it have several origins, depending on placement? e.g. does Polish
> initial szcz- come from German /s^t/ as in Stettin ~ Szczecin?
The name has been etymologised in many ways, but certainly Slavic
(Pomeranian), borrowed into German. The earliest orthographic rendering
(1133) was <Stetin>. The suffix <-in> in placenames is usually
possessive, so it's a safe guess that a personal name underlies the
toponym. Since <-in> derives placenames from personal names in <-a>, the
most likely basis is something like *S^c^eta, which could* be the Slavic
appellative meaning 'brush, broom' used as a nickname (e.g. of a
remarkably bushy-haired individual).
As for the phonological story behind those rustling clusters -- vous
l'avez voulu, mon ami, vous l'avez voulu...
There are several possible sources of /s^c^/. It may reflect *stj, *skj,
or *sk before any front vowel. Similarly, *zdj, *zgj and palatalised *zg
all yield /z^3^/ (3^ = the voiced counterpart of c^). In Czech and
Slovak, the second element was dissimilated, yielding /s^t', z^d'/.
In other positions (that is, when not preceded by *s, *z) *tj and *dj
developed into long affricates, *c'c', *3'3'; the former merged with the
Slavic reflex of *kt before a high front vowel (Slavic *i or *I).
Dialectal reflexes of *c'c' and *3'3' are as follows:
In OCS and most of Bulgarian, s^t, z^d (but West Bulgarian, c^, 3^);
in Serbian/Croatian and Macedonian, c', 3' (but C^akavian t', j);
in Slovene, c^, j;
in West Slavic, c, 3 (the latter > z in Czech);
in East Slavic, c^, z^;
I hope I haven't forgotten anything really important.
Piotr