consonants, in Sorb, Slovak, Lit. R. and mostly in Gt. R., &, i develop into full vowels 0, e — R. sonu, gen. sua; d'eni, gen. in' a. In Polish and Cech both > e, but in P. i softens the preceding cons., in C. it usually does not — rP. sen, dziefi; C. sen, den; in Slovene and Ser. they are not distinguished, Slovene u, a or e, san, dan or <fe» = Ser. a, san, dan, gen. dana, Ser. keeping the middle vowel which is elsewhere dropped. Bulgarian varies dialectically.

II. (y.) y only remains in Gt. Russian, Polish and Sorb though still written in Cech; it has elsewhere become i, but in Polish it becomes * after k and g, in Sorb and R. after k, g, ch-^ O.S. kysnqti, " go sour," gybnqti, " perish," chytrU, " cunning "; P. kisnqt, gin ad, chyter; R. kisnuti, gibnuti, chit' eric.

III. (r, I.) The treatment of the liquids varies greatly.

(a) r is always a lingual trill, never alveolar. In S. Slav, it is only softened before j and } — O.S. zorja, " dawn." In N.W. and E. Slav, r became r' before i, i, e, e, e and./. Russian and Slovak have remained at this stage, C., Polish, Kas. have made r into r (rz) in which r and z are run into one. (See Table I.) But

C. srdce, trh, vlk, since; P. ierce, targ, wilk, slonce; R. s'erdce, torgu, volkii., solnce.

(e) Proto-Sl. rii, ri f lit, U had in S. Slav, and partly in C. the same fate as r, I; in Polish and R. the vowel comes after the liquid. O.S. 'bruvi, "brow," kristu, "cross," plM, " flesh," sliza, " tear "; Ser. brv, krst, put, suza; Slovene, brv, krst, polt, solza; C. brv, but plet'; P. brew, krzest, plec, {s)lza; R. brovi, kr'estu, ploti, sl'eza.

(/) Proto-Sl. -or-, -ol-, -er-, -el- before a consonant.

(i.) Type ort, olt (ert, elt are not certain) beginning a word. — The liquid mostly comes first, sometimes the same vowel persists in all languages, e.g. Proto-Sl. *ordlo (Lithu. drklas, aratrum) , O.S. , Bulg., Ser., Slovene, R. ralo, C. Polab. P., radio. But Proto-Sl.

• eldii (Lithu. eldija), O.S. alUdiji, ladiji, "boat," Ser., Slovene,

ladja, R. lodija, C. lodi, Polab, Itid'a and *orm (Pruss. arms), O.S. ravinu, " even," Ser. rdvan, Bulg. Slovene, rdven, R. rov'enu, C. rovny,F. rdwny show Russian agreeing with N.W. Slav against S. Slav. The difference probably depends on intonation.

(ii.) Type tort, tolt, tert, lelt with a consonant before as well:

Table I.

1

i

e

?

c

j

O.S. . . . Russian Polish . . .

zveri, " beast "

zveri

zwierz

vcriti, "believe "

ver'iti

wierzyt

remeni, " strap " r'em'eni

rzemien

tresa tresesi, " tremo " tr'asu tr'as'osi ttzqse trzesiesz

rlka, " river "

r'eka

rzeka

zorja, "dawn" â–

zor'a

zorza

P. e for orig. a does not soften — P. reka: O.S. rqka, " hand."

In Sorb such a change only happened after k, p, t, in which case High S. has f (written f), Low S. S, but in Low S., r after k, p, t becomes s even before hard vowels: Proto-Sl. tri, "three," High S.tsi, Low S.lsi; Proto-Sl. kraj, "edge," High S. kraj, Low S. ksaj.

(b) I occurs in three varieties, I, I, V , but each language has generally either middle / alone or else I and /'. Lit. R. and Bulg. have all three. I has been arrived at in C. and Slovene by the loss of the distinctions, perhaps under German influence; Ser. has I and V, final l>o; but I occurs in dialects of all lan- guages and was no doubt in O.S., Proto-Sl. and even Balto-Slav. It has a velar and a labial element and in most languages tends to appear as 0, u, t> or w, though this is only written in Ser. and Lit. R. O.S. dalu, " gave," R. dalU, Lit. R. dav, Wh. R. dav, _daw, P. dal (dialect dau), C. dal, Ser. dao. I' is very soft, like Fr. ville.

(c) N.W. Slav, keeps -tl- -dl- whereas S. Slav, (except some cases of Slovene padl, plella, &c.) and R. drop the t and d—C. padl, " fell," radio, " aratrum," pletl, " plaited" ; O.S. and R. palu, ralo, plelu, but R. drops I of masc. sing, past, part. II. after other consonants. O.S. neslu, C. nesl, R. n'esu, " carried."

id) Proto-Sl. r, I or perhaps ur, ir, ul, il gave S- Slav., C. and Slovak r, I written in O.S. rii, ri, lu, li indifferently, though soft

the various treatments of this combination are among the chief criteria for classification, esp. the Russian speciality called full vocalism (polnoglasie) torol, tolot, teret, telet (or tolot, teloi) which is probably archaic, is one of the chief reasons for putting Russian in a separate division; Polish and Sorb come nearest to it, with trot, Hot, tret, tlet, but the N.W. division is not uniform as Kasube and the extinct Polab have the interesting forms tort, llit, trit, tlat, which are partly archaic, partly a transition to the most novel forms of the southern group to which Cech and Slovak^in this particular accede, trat, tlat, tret, tilt, but after I and z Cech has tlat for tlet. Deviations due to intonation have not been set forth. (See Table II.)

Table IL

Proto-Sl. Stem.

R.

P.

Polab, Kas.

C.

S. SI. e.g. O.S.

• gord- " hortus," " town "

gorodU

grod

gord

hrad

gradu

• molt- " hammer " . ;

molotU

mfot

mlat

mlat

mlatu

• berg- Ger. " berg," " shore "

b'er'egU

brzeg

brig

bfeh

bregH

• melk- " milk "...

moloko

mleko

mlak —

mleko

mliko

• helm- " hdm " . . .

sel'emu of Selomib

Hemrt

• gelb- " groove " . . .

zelobil | zldb

(Kas.) Hob

zlab

zlebU

IV. The Proto-Slavonic nasals a and e could be either long or short. This distribution is fairly kept in languages which have quantity and governs the results in Polish in which the nasal sound is preserved. The examples below show the main repre- sentatives. Traces of nasal pronunciation survive in Bulgarian, Slovene and Kasube. (See Table III.)

A table should appear at this position in the text. See Help:Table for formatting instructions.

Table

III.

Proto-Sl.

O.S.

Bulg. usu.

Ser.

Slovene.

c.

Sorb, High, Low.

R.

P.

Kasube.

611, on; in, en.

a; e.

ii, or d; e.

u; c.

d, 0; e, e.

u, ou; e, e.

u; a, je; e, I.

u;ja.

c,a;je,ja.

a; i, I.

• mSnka, " pain "

mqka

m&ka

muka

mdka, monka,

muka

muka

muka

meka

mqka

• monkd, " flour "

mqka

mUnka

muka

moka, muka

mouka

muka

mukd

mqka

mqka

• desgmti, "ten "

deseti

deseti

deset

deset

deset

dzesac, zases

d'e's'ati

dziesiet

dzesic

• penlt, " five "

peti

peti

pel

pit

p'el

pjec, pes'

p'ati

pia£>piec

pic or plinc

and hard may once have been distinguished. Of this group Slovene and Ser. later allowed the / to become ol, ou or u. Sorb, Polish and R. developed various vowels, partly according to the original quality, partly according to other influences, e.g. O.S. sridice, " heart," trugu, "market," d^&m, " wolf," slunice, "sol"; Ser. srdce, trg, vuk, sunce; Slovene srdce, trg, volk, solnce;

In Kasube q remains; e becomes nasalized i or i and this may lose the nasal or restore it as a full n or m; it has also nasalized all the other vowels and has the power of using nasals in loan- words, e.g. testamqt, as did O.S. e.g. koleda, kalendae, sqdU = sund. Polab has (i and e — ronka, O.S. rqka, "hand," mengsie — mesa,

" carnis," but swante = svelu, " holy."