Proto-Balto-Slavic Language - Balto-Slavic Accentual System - Reflexes in Balto-Slavic Languages

Reflexes in Balto-Slavic Languages

In (at least) the East Baltic languages, the acute register developed into the so-called "broken tone", a long vowel with a glottal stop in the middle of it, typically denoted by a circumflex accent, e.g. â . (Note that technically this is not a tone but a register distinction, much like the ngã tone in Northern Vietnamese.) This broken tone is preserved in syllables in certain dialects of Latvian and Lithuanian. Elsewhere, the difference between acute and circumflex is often continued as a tonal distinction.

The most direct continuation of the acute is in Latvian, particularly in the three-tone central dialects. In thee dialects, the Baltic broken tone of the acute register is directly continued as a broken tone (lauztā) in originally unstressed syllables, marked with a circumflex accent, e.g. luôgs "window". In originally stressed syllables, the acute register is continued as a rising or lengthened intonation (stieptā), marked with a tilde, e.g.luõks "spring onion". The circumflex register is generally continued as a falling intonation (krītošā), marked with a grave accent, e.g. luôgs "arch, bow". Note that can occur on all syllables, e.g. locative plural gal̂vâs "on the heads" (cf. Lithuanian galvosè with stress on a short final vowel that was deleted in Latvian), including monosyllables, e.g. dêt "to lay eggs" < *dêtì.

In Lithuanian, the distinction between acute and circumflex is only preserved on stressed syllables. In standard Lithuanian, based on the Aukštaitian dialect, the acute becomes a falling tone (so-called "Lithuanian metatony"), and is marked with an acute accent, while the circumflex becomes a rising tone, marked with a tilde. In diphthongs, the acute accent is placed on the first letter of the diphthong while the tilde marking rising tone (i.e. original circumflex) is placed on the second letter. In diphthongs which have a sonorant as a second part, the same convention is used, but the acute accent is replaced with a grave accent (e.g. Lith. pìlnas 'full' < PIE *plh₁nos). Word-finally the acute was regularly shortened: gerà 'good' (indefinite adjective) : geróji 'the good' (definite adjective). That rule is called Leskien's law, after the German neogrammarian August Leskien. Shortening operated according to Leskien's law after the Lithuanian metatony. In monosyllabic words the acute became circumflexed. Metatonical retraction of the accent from the final syllable to the penultimate syllable also created a circumflex automatically.

In Žemaitian dialects of Lithuanian, the usual reflex of Balto-Slavic acute in a stressed syllable a broken tone, as in Latvian, e.g. Žemaitian (Kretinga) ộmž́iọs "age, centry" = standard ámžius.

In Old Prussian the acute was reflected probably as a rising tone and circumflex as a falling tone. The marks on long vowels and diphthongs in Abel Will's translation of Martin Luther's Enchiridion point to that conclusion, which is the only accented Old Prussian text preserved. Diphthongs that correspond to a reconstructable Balto-Slavic acute are generally long in the second part of the diphthong, while those corresponding to a Balto–Slavic circumflex are generally long in the first part.

In the Slavic languages, the acute produced a rising tone and the circumflex a falling tone, as in Latvian and Old Prussian. In all Slavic languages the acute has been shortened, and a new rising accent (the neoacute), generally long, developed from retraction of the stress from an ultrashort yer vowel (later usually lost). The short rising accent from the old acute (and in some circumstances, the neoacute) was later lengthened again in a number of Slavic languages (e.g. Russian, Czech, Slovenian). The circumflex was shortened in some dialects as well (e.g. Polish, Russian, Czech, Slovak). Direct continuation of the acute vs. circumflex difference as a tonal distinction occurs only in archaic Serbo–Croatian dialects (e.g. Chakavian) and to some extent in Slovenian (although the relationship between Slovenian and Proto-Slavic tones and accent position is complex). In addition, the Proto-Slavic tonal distinction on liquid diphthongs is reflected fairly directly in Russian as a multi-syllable accent shape (pleophony), e.g. *ôr (falling) > óro, *ór (rising) > oró. In some other languages (most notably, Czech and standard neoshtokavian Serbo-Croatian), the acute vs. circumflex distinction is continued as a length distinction (although in all these languages, both long and short vowels have other sources as well). The same length-from-tone distinction once existed in Russian but has since been lost.

Here is a table of basic accentual correspondences of the first syllable of a word: