Šefčík (2020) Development of IE ‘plosive + t/s’ into Slavic

The development of Indo-European obstruent clusters of types plosive + t/s into Slavic, by Ondřej Šefčík, Zeitschrift für Slawistik 2020; 65(2): 222–248, https://doi.org/10.1515/slaw-2020-0012

Summary: This paper aims to demonstrate that the development of Pre-Slavic clusters plosive + t/s in later Common Slavic followed the trajectory of spirantization and subsequent lenition and not the trajectory of gemination, contrary to the prevailing view.

1. Introduction

The development of the Indo-European plosives into Common Slavic is well described if we focus exclusively on plosives in prevocalic positions (either in anlaut or inlaut positions), but for the development of (Pre-)Slavic clusters consisting of two obstruents, there is still some uncertainty and ambiguity. There are, as we will see below, three possible trajectories: a strategy of simplification, a strategy of gemination and a strategy of spirantization. It seems that the most accepted strategy is that of gemination, but we will try to demonstrate that the strategy of spirantization is more probable and with numerous typological parallels in developments of many Indo-European languages.

We will focus on the development of (Pre-)Slavic consonantal clusters consisting of a plosive followed by either t or s with the aim both to review the existing hypothetical trajectories of the development of the given clusters and to propose an alternative trajectory for the development of these clusters.

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