Abstract
It is traditionally assumed that at a pre-stage of Proto-Slavic, nasals in absolute final position disappeared if preceded by a short vowel. This would account for Old Church Slavonic aorist 1 singular sed 'I sat down' (without a nasal) from pre-Proto-Slavic*-am Proto-Indo-European*-om, as opposed to aorist 3 plural sedo 'they sat down' (with a nasal vowel) from pre-Proto-Slavic*-ant Proto-Indo-European*-ont. However, the traditional solution faces chronological difficulties and it does not explain forms like Old Church Slavonic vreme 'time' from pre-Proto-Slavic*-in Proto-Indo-European*-n. In this paper an alternative hypothesis is proposed for the Slavic outcome of Proto-Indo-European nasals after short vowels in final syllables: while*-m disappeared in pre-Proto-Slavic (as in OCS sed PIE*-om),*-n was retained, yielding a Common Slavic nasal vowel (as in OCS sedo PIE*-ont).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Scando-Slavica |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Pages (from-to) | 84-98 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| ISSN | 0080-6765 |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 2010 |