During the Common Slavic period, a tendency known as the law of open syllables created the series of changes that completely eliminated closed syllables. This was evident in OCS, which had no closed syllables at all. Some of these changes include the monophthongization of diphthongs, loss of word-final consonants (e.g. 3rd person singular aorist OCS reče < *reket, OCS N sg of o-stems -ъ < *-us etc.), simplification of some medial consonant clusters (e.g. OCS tonǫti < *topnǫti etc.) and the formation of the nasal vowels *ǫ and *ę from *am/*an and *em/*en respectively.
Another change involved liquid consonants (R) *l or *r in closed-syllable *eRC and *aRC clusters, which were eliminated. The application of the law of open syllables for such clusters differed amongst the already differentiated Slavic dialects, but characteristically manifested in a number of dialects as the metathesis of liquid consonants, and is therefore called the liquid metathesis.
Read more about this topic: Slavic Liquid Metathesis And Pleophony
Famous quotes containing the words law of, law, open and/or syllables:
“The basis of good manners is self-reliance. Necessity is the law of all who are not self-possessed.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“According to the law of nature it is only fair that no one should become richer through damages and injuries suffered by another.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“Let us presently go sit in council,
How covert matters may be best disclosed
And open perils surest answered.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“This is the poem of the air,
Slowly in silent syllables recorded;
This is the secret of despair,
Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,
Now whispered and revealed
To wood and field.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)