Swadesh list of Slavic languages

Once it split off from Proto-Indo-European, the proto-Slavic period probably encompassed a period of stability lasting 2000 years. Following this period of stability, a small period of time—only several centuries—of rapid change occurred before the breakup of Slavic linguistic unity. Slavic migrations in the early sixth century are the most likely catalyst of subsequent dialectal differentiation. [harvcoltxt|Van Wijk|1956|pp=21-27] [harvcoltxt|Lehr-Spławiński|1957|pp=255-256] Proto-Slavic, as well as its development into today's Slavic languages has been reconstructed using the comparative method.The comparative method has been used to reconstruct Proto-Slavic (and its mother tongue, Proto-Indo-European).

The Swadesh word list, developed by the linguist Morris Swadesh, is used as a tool to study the evolution of languages via comparison. It contains a set of 207 basic words which can be found in every language and are rarely borrowed. The list here is given in both the orthography of each language as well as in . In actual comparative techniques, orthography is never used unless there is no phonetic data.

Table

Dialectal differentiation

After the three palatalizations of Proto-Slavic, dialectal variation became more apparent. Some dialects (such as Proto-East Slavic), applied the second regressive palatalization across an intervening *v. [harvcoltxt|Channon|1971|p=9]
*Russian: *gwojzda → *gwězda → zvězda → IPA| [zʲvʲɪˈzda] ('star')
*Polish: *gwojzda → *gwězda → gwiazda → IPA| [ˈɡvʲazda] ('star')Also, the realization of the palatalizations' sibilants varied a little amongst dialects. harvcoltxt|Belić|1921 argues that the phonetic character of the palatalizations was uniform throughout Common Slavic and that West Slavic languages developed *š later on by analogy. [harvcoltxt|Belić|1921|p=31] In all dialects (except for Lechitic), IPA| [dz] was deaffricated to IPA| [z] : [harvcoltxt|Channon|1971|p=9]

The final cutoff point for the Proto-Slavic period was the change of *ě to *a after palatal consonants and *j, which then created *ča/*ka contrasts. [harvcoltxt|Channon|1971|p=12] . This, and the shortening and elision of weak yers (*ь/ĭ and *ъ/ŭ) (see Havlík's law) that created newly formed closed syllables [harvcoltxt|Bethin|1997|p=13] ended the period of syllabic synharmony characteristic of Common Slavic.

For many Common Slavic dialects—including most of West Slavic, all but the northernmost portions of East Slavic, and some western parts of South Slavic— *g lenited from a voiced velar plosive to a voiced velar fricative (IPA| [g] → IPA| [ɣ] ). Because this change was not universal and because it did not occur for a number of East Slavic dialects (such as Belarussian and South Russian) until after the application of Havlík's law, Harvcoltxt|Shevelov|1977 calls into question early projections of this change and postulates three independent instigations of lenition, dating the earliest to before 900 AD and the latest to the early thirteenth century. [Harvcoltxt|Shevelov|1977|p=137, 145]

References

Bibliography

*citation
last = Belić
first = Aleksandar
title = Најмлађа (Трећа) Промена Задњенепчаних Сугласника k, g и h у Прасловенском Језику
journal = Јужнословенски Филолог
volume =II
pages =18-39
year =1921
*citation
last = Bethin
first = Christina Yurkiw
title =Slavic Prosody: Language Change and Phonological Theory
publisher = Cambridge University Press
date =1998
ISBN = 0521591481
*citation
last = Channon
first = Robert
title =On the Place of the Progressive Palatalization of Velars in the Relative Chronology of Slavic
publisher = Mouton
date =1972
location =The Hague
*citation
last = Lehr-Spławiński
first = Tadeusz
title =Z dziejów języka prasłowiańskiego (Urywek z większej całości)
Journal = Езиковедски изследвания в чесм на академик Смефан Младенов
place = Sofia
date =1957
* citation
last=Shevelov
first=George Y.
year=1977
chapter=On the Chronology of "h" and the New "g" in Ukrainian
title= [http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~huri/pdf/hus_volumes/vI_n2june1977.pdf in "Harvard Ukrainian Studies]
volume=vol 1
issue=2
pages=137–52
place=Cambridge
publisher=Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute