9. Appendix: Balto-Slavic prosody

9.1. Introduction

Balto-Slavic prosody is a complex area where approaches have changed more radically than in other parts of the historical study of Balto-Slavic. Today most scholars take the starting point in the results of Stang (1965), e.g. Illič-Svityč (1979); Dybo (e.g. 1981); Olander (e.g. 2009); Jasanoff (2017).

9.2. Terminology and notation

9.2.1. Terminology: accent

I refer to accent as the prosodic emphasis of a syllable in the word. Stress is the realisation of the accent in stress-accent languages (see below). The accent is realised very differently in different languages, and under different conditions in the same language.

For Indo-European linguistics it is useful to distinguish between languages with stress accent and languages with pitch accent. In languages with stress accent the accented syllable is emphasised through of pitch, relative vowel length, intensity and reduction of unstressed syllables. Stress accent is found in contemporary languages like English, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Polish; in historically attested languages like Old English, Old High German and Latin; and in reconstructed languages like Proto-Germanic and Proto-Italic.

In languages with pitch accent the accented syllable is emphasised almost exclusively through pitch. Pitch accent is found in contemporary languages like Japanese; in attested languages like Vedic and Ancient Greek; and in reconstructed languages like PIE, Proto-Balto-Slavic and Proto-Slavic.

The placement of the accent can be more or less independent of the word’s phonological structure. It is useful to distinguish between languages with free accent, limited free accent and bound accent. In languages with free accent the placement of the accent in the word cannot be predicted from the word’s phonological structure, e.g. English, German, Italian, Spanish, Lithuanian and Russian. In languages with limited free accent the placement of the accent in the word can be predicted to a certain extent from the word’s phonological structure, e.g. Greek. In languages with fixed accent the placement of the accent in the word can be predicted from the word’s phonological structure, e.g. Czech, Latvian, Finnish, Proto-Italic and Proto-Germanic (accent on the first syllable); Polish (accent on the penultimate syllable); Latin (accent on the penultimate syllable if it is heavy; otherwise on the antepenultimate syllable); Classical Sanskrit (accent on the penultimate syllable if it is long; otherwise on the antepenultimate syllable if it is heavy; otherwise the pre-antepenultimate syllable).

9.2.2. Terminology: tones

Tone refers to phonologically relevant pitch contrasts. The domain for tones can be the syllable or the word.

Some languages have syllable tones: Ancient Greek nom.sg φώς m ‘man’ (rising tone) vs. nom–acc φῶς n ‘light’ (falling tone).

Others have word tones: Swedish anden tomten stegen with accent 1: ‘the duck’ (bird), ‘the ground’ (area of earth), ‘the steps’; with accent 2 ‘the spirit’, ‘the elf’, ‘the ladder’.

9.2.3. Notation of Proto-Balto-Slavic, Proto-Slavic and Common Slavic prosodic features

As might be expected, there is no uniform notation of the prosodic features of Proto-Balto-Slavic, Proto-Slavic and Common Slavic. This is partly due to different analyses of the reconstructed languages and partly due to different conventions followed by individual researchers.

Proto-Balto-Slavic acute syllables contained either a long vowel or a diphthong. They are mostly interpreted as glottalised, as opposed to non-acute (“circumflex”) syllables. The notation used here for Proto-Balto-Slavic is the following:

Table 48 shows the notational conventions for Proto-Slavic prosody used here, and those used by Holzer (2009; followed by Klotz 2023); and the traditional conventions for Common Slavic prosody, also used here, alongside those used by Derksen (2008; 2015) (referred to as “Proto-Slavic” by Derksen). See the discussion and overview in Majer (2020).

Table 48: Notation of Proto-Slavic and Common Slavic prosody.
type PS (used here) PS (Holzer) CS (used here) CS (Derksen)
(long) acute *‍ˈV̄(R) V̱̄·, V̱R· *‍x̋ *‍x̀
long “circumflex” *‍ˌV̄, *‍ˌV̄̆R [unmarked] *‍x̑ *‍x̑
short “circumflex” *‍ˌV [unmarked] *‍x̏ *‍x̏, *‍x̑
long neoacute *‍V̄…ˈ, *‍V̄̆R…ˈ V̱̄…ˈ, V̱R…ˈ *‍x́ *‍x́
short neoacute *‍V…ˈ, *‍V…ˈ V̱̄…ˈ *‍x̀ *‍x̀

The types of syllables refer to the following:

The contemporary Baltic languages have a more or less standardised way of showing the prosodic features.

Lithuanian:

Latvian:

9.3. Proto-Balto-Slavic prosody

9.3.1. Proto-Balto-Slavic: prosodic system

Proto-Balto-Slavic had a free pitch accent, a difference between glottalised and non-glottalised syllables (cf. 9.2.3) and distinctive quantity.

The accent probably was realised as a high tone on accented syllables, approximately as in Vedic (9.2.1).

In principle the PIE accent was preserved directly in Balto-Slavic, but some accent shifts make the correspondences difficult to see through. In pre-Proto-Balto-Slavic Hirt’s Law took place: the accent is retracted from an accented syllable to a preceding syllable if it contained *‍VH (3.2.5). In addition to this is the Balto-Slavic paradigmatic accentual mobility: some forms of a paradigm are unaccented, while others are accented on the ending (3.2.7).

Apart from the accent, Proto-Balto-Slavic distinguished between two kinds of syllables, traditionally referred to as “acute” and “circumflex” syllables. According to a widespread suggestion, the distinction may hinge on a difference between glottalised and non-glottalised vowels. An acute syllable (*‍V̰) has the following main sources.

1. An Indo-European (short) vowel followed by a laryngeal (*‍V(R)H), in accordance with the loss of laryngeals (3.2.4).

2. An Indo-European (short) vowel followed by a voiced-unaspirated stop (*‍V(R)D), in accordance with Winter’s Law (3.2.8).

By contrast, a non-glottalised vowel can go back to an Indo-European short vowel and probably also an Indo-European apophonic long vowel. The latter point is disputed, however, some authors arguing that PIE long vowels become non-acute in Proto-Balto-Slavic (e.g. Kortlandt 2009; 2012; 2018), and others arguing that they become acute (e.g. Rasmussen 1999: 480–483; Jasanoff 2017: 74–103; Villanueva Svensson 2011; 2023: 144–187).

9.3.2. Proto-Balto-Slavic: paradigmatic accent

After the rise of accentual mobility in vowel stems (3.2.7) Proto-Balto-Slavic nouns and verbs belonged to one of two accent paradigms.

  1. immobile (a.p. I): all forms are accented on the same, non-desinential syllable – lexemes not accented on the ending in PIE and lexemes with Hirt’s Law
  2. mobile (a.p. II): forms accented on the first syllable of the ending alternating with unaccented forms – lexemes accented on the ending in PIE
Table 49: Correspondences between PIE accentuation and Balto-Slavic accent paradigms.
PIE PBS PBS root Lithuanian Slavic
non-desinential a.p. I (immobile) acute a.p. 1 a.p. a
non-acute a.p. 2 (Saussure’s Law) a.p. b (Dybo’s Law 3.3.1)
desinential a.p. II (mobile) acute a.p. 3 a.p. c
non-acute a.p. 4 (Saussure’s Law)

The correspondences between Proto-Balto-Slavic, Baltic and Slavic accent paradigms can be seen in Table 50. The forms are accusative singular of ah₂-stems.

Table 50: PBS, Baltic and Slavic prosodic correspondences.
PBS a.p. PBS “tone” PBS Lith. Latv. PS
I acute *‍ˈlḛ̄i̯pān líepą a.p. 1 liẽpu *‍ˈlēi̯pān a.p. a
non-acute *‍ˈu̯ai̯tān viẽtą a.p. 2 vìetu *‍u̯alˈkān a.p. b
II acute *‍ˌgā̰lu̯ān gálvą a.p. 3 gal̂vu *‍ˌgālu̯ān a.p. c
non-acute *‍ˌźei̯mān žiẽmą a.p. 4 zìemu *‍ˌzei̯mān a.p. c

9.4. Proto-Slavic and Common Slavic prosody

9.4.1. Proto-Slavic and Common Slavic: prosodic system

Proto-Slavic has a free pitch accent and distinctive quantity. The accent is probably realised as a high tone on the accented syllable, approximately as in Vedic Sanskrit. In principle the Proto-Balto-Slavic accent is preserved directly in Proto-Slavic.

In my analysis, an accented syllable is acute if it contains a long vowel or a long diphthong, and non-acute if it contains a short vowel or a short diphthong. In unaccented syllables acuteness is not relevant.

9.4.2. Proto-Slavic and Common Slavic: paradigmatic accent

Dybo’s Law (3.3.1) causes the Proto-Balto-Slavic a.p. I to split in two, resulting in three accent paradigms in Proto-Slavic and Common Slavic.

Accent paradigm a: columnar accentuation on a non-desinential syllable. Lexemes with Proto-Balto-Slavic a.p. I (immobile accent) and a acute root syllable. Corresponds to Lith. a.p. 1.

Accent paradigm b : columnar accentuation on the first syllable of the ending. Lexemes with Proto-Balto-Slavic a.p. I (immobile accent) and a non-acute root-syllable (which triggers Dybo’s Law; 3.3.1). Corresponds to Lithuanian a.p. 2.

Accent paradigm c: alternation between unaccented word-forms and word-forms with accent on the ending. Lexemes with Proto-Balto-Slavic a.p. II (mobile accent). Corresponds to Lithuanian a.p. 3 (acute roots) and 4 (non-acute roots).

PIE root-accented masculine nouns are expected to have a.p. b in Slavic, but they seem to have been analogically transferred into a.p. c.

Proto-Indo-Euroepan root-accented neuters look like they often become masculine and take a.p. b in Slavic:

9.5. Prosodic systems of the Slavic languages

9.5.1. South Slavic: Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Serbian

(Serbo-Croatian)

The standard BCMS languages, which all build on Štokavian dialects, have a stress accent, syllable tones and distinctive quantity, with certain prosodic limitations.

We have the following reflexes in the first syllable:

Common Slavic acute yields a short falling tone (x̏)

Common Slavic long neoacute yields a long falling tone (x̑; falling together with “circumflex”) in Štokavian, but long rising tone (x́, x̃) in conservative dialects

Common Slavic short neoacute yields short falling tone (x̏).

Common Slavic long “circumflex” yields long falling tone (x̑).

Common Slavic short “circumflex” yields long falling tone (x̑) in closed syllables, short falling tone (x̏) in open syllables.

In Čakavian dialects of Croatian the Proto-Slavic accent location is preserved as a starting point.

In the Štokavian dialects (which underlie the standard languages) a retraction of the accent from a non-initial syllable to a preceding syllable occurred; the newly accented vowel has rising tone, written x́ if it is long, x̀ if it is short.

9.5.2. South Slavic: Slovene

Slovene has a free stress accent, tones and distinctive quantity.

The relationship between accent, tones and quantity is relatively complicated, and the different Slovenian dialects have very different systems. Some important developments in Slovene are the following:

Common Slavic acute syllables yield short vowels (x̀) in final position (after the loss of CS *‍ĭ, *‍ŭ), long rising tone (x́) elsewhere.

Common Slavic long neoacute syllables yield long rising tone (x́).

Common Slavic short neoacute syllables yield short vowel (x̀).

Common Slavic long “circumflex” yields long falling tone (x̑) in monosyllabic words, accent movement to the right in polysyllabic words.

Common Slavic short “circumflex” yields long falling tone (x̑) in monosyllabic words. In polysyllabic words the accent moves one syllables towards the end of the word.

9.5.3. South Slavic: Bulgarian and Macedonian

Bulgarian has a free stress accent. Macedonian has a fixed stress accent on the word’s third last syllable. Neither Bulgarian nor Macedonian have distinctive quantity. Bulgarian prosody is a bit of a murky area from a diachronic point of view, among other reasons, because of the development of the case system. Macedonian is the Slavic language that has the simplest prosodic system; and it is the language that says the least about the Proto-Slavic situation.

9.5.4. East Slavic

The East Slavic languages (Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian) have a free stress accent. They do not have distinctive quantity. The original Proto-Slavic position of the accent is in principle preserved, originally unaccented word-forms receiving initial accent.

In fixed expressions the Proto-Slavic unaccented word-forms are preserved as such, as a result of Šaxmatov’s Law (3.2.7).

In structures with Liquid Metathesis (3.4.5), syllables with acute and neoacute are accented on the second vowel (oró, oló, eré), while unaccented word-forms are accented on the first vowel (óro, ólo, ére).

9.5.5. West Slavic

In nearly all West Slavic languages the Proto-Slavic free accent is replaced by a fixed accent. A non-fixed accent is still found in Kashubian, especially the now extinct Slovincian dialect spoken in the area of Gdańsk up to the the beginning of the twentieth century, and in Polabian, spoken around Lüneburg in northern Germany until the beginning of the eighteenth century.

The West Slavic languages have (traces of) distinctive quantity.

Czech and Slovak have fixed initial accent and distinctive quantity.

Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian have fixed initial accent and no distinctive quantity.

Polish has fixed accent on the penultimate syllable. Traces of an older quantitative distinction is seen in the difference between o ę (originally short syllables) and ó ą (originally long syllables).

Kashubian dialects have varying degrees of free accent. Earlier quantitative distinctions have been transformed to distinctive vowel qualities.

In West Slavic the Proto-Slavic prosodic situation has left traces in the quantity. The details are complicated and debated, but the following things are what there is some agreement on.

Czech and Upper Sorbian: Common Slavic acute and neoacute syllables and pretonic long syllables yielded long vowels.

Other syllables yield a short vowel.

PS acc.sg *‍ˌgālu̯ā (CS *‍gȏlvǫ) f ‘head’ (a.p. c) > Cz. hlavu

In Slovak, Lower Sorbian, Polish, Kashubian, Common Slavic long neoacute syllables and pretonic long syllables yield long vowels.

Other syllables receive a short vowel.

9.6. Prosodic systems of the Baltic languages

9.6.1. Lithuanian

Lithuanian has a free stress-accent, tones and distinctive quantity. Lithuanian preserves in principle the Proto-Balto-Slavic accent location. Unaccented word-forms in the mobile paradigms receive initial accent.

Moreover, the accent is moved to the right from a non-acute syllable to a following acute syllable by Saussure’s Law (cf. 3.3.1).

Lithuanian has two tones: syllables with acute (falling) tone go back to Proto-Balto-Slavic glottalised syllables, whereas syllables with circumflex (rising) tone go back to Proto-Balto-Slavic non-glottalised syllables.

An important tonally conditioned law is Leskien’s Law: the vowel in an acute final syllable is shortened.

Saussure’s Law causes the two Proto-Balto-Slavic accent paradigms divide themselves into two, so one gets four accent paradigms

9.6.2. Latvian

Certain Latvian dialects have three tones on long vowels: falling tone (x̀; Fallton), sustained tone (x̃; Dehnton) and broken-tone (x̂; Stoßton, Brechton). In most of the dialects a merger of two of the tones, so that these dialects only have two distinctive tones. The distinction between the three tones is only preserved in initial syllables – in non-initial syllables the falling and extended tone have merged.

The falling tone occurs in Proto-Balto-Slavic non-acute syllables independently of the original accent location, i.e. in words with a.p. 2 and 4 in Lithuanian.

The extended tone occurs in Proto-Balto-Slavic accented acute syllables, i.e. in words with a.p. 1 in Lithuanian.

The broken tone occurs in Proto-Balto-Slavic unaccented acute syllables, i.e. in words with a.p. 3 in Lithuanian.

The Latvian broken tone in words with a.p. 3 in Lithuanian can be most easily explained if one assumes that Latvian goes back to a linguistic stage with unaccented word-forms in the mobile paradigms, which Slavic also seems to have been.