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Article published In:
Journal of Historical Linguistics
Vol. 13:2 (2023) ► pp.220–254

On the reconstruction of contrastive secondary palatalization in Common Slavic

ORCID logo | University of Zurich
ORCID logo | University of California, Berkeley
Contrastive secondary palatalization is a feature typically associated with Slavic. However, this contrast is present only in some contemporary Slavic languages, such as Ukrainian, Eastern Bulgarian, Russian, and Upper and Lower Sorbian. Thus, a question arises as to whether the secondary palatalization contrast represents a Common Slavic inheritance, and how it should be reconstructed. Providing such a reconstruction is important for the field of Slavic historical phonology, as well as for the general understanding of the development of consonant inventories with palatal consonants and the development of secondary palatalization contrasts in the world’s languages. By considering several historical scenarios, we show that /r/ : /rj/ is the only secondary palatalization contrast that can be reconstructed to a pre-stage common to all of Slavic. While pursuing the reconstruction, we use supporting evidence from the typology of sound change and the typology of consonantal inventories in the world’s languages, as well as relative chronology.
Keywords: palatalization, reconstruction, phonological contrast, consonant inventories, Slavic
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Defining palatalization
  • 3.Slavic consonant inventories: Palatal vs. palatalized
  • 4.Reconstructing secondary palatalization in Common Slavic
    • 4.1Common Slavic sources of soft consonants
    • 4.2Typological considerations: Sound change
    • 4.3Typological considerations: Consonant inventories
    • 4.4Relative chronology
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 14 July 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.21003.wan
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