Monophthongization of diphthongs is a

Proto-Slavic Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately from the 2nd millennium B.C. through the 6th ...

sound change in which

diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...

s turn into

vowel A vowel is a Syllable, syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in Vowel ...

s. It is one of the key events in the chronology of the Proto-Slavic language. The

monophthongization Monophthongization is a sound change by which a diphthong becomes a monophthong, a type of vowel shift. It is also known as ungliding, as diphthongs are also known as gliding vowels. In languages that have undergone monophthongization, digraphs ...

of diphthongs restructured the Proto-Slavic language with a strong influence on its

morphophonology Morphophonology (also morphophonemics or morphonology) is the branch of linguistics that studies the interaction between morphological and phonological or phonetic processes. Its chief focus is the sound changes that take place in morphemes (mi ...

The change

Proto-Balto-Slavic Proto-Balto-Slavic (PBS or PBSl) is a reconstructed hypothetical proto-language descending from Proto-Indo-European (PIE). From Proto-Balto-Slavic, the later Balto-Slavic languages are thought to have developed, composed of sub-branches Balt ...

, the ancestor of Proto-Slavic, possessed three vocalic diphthongs: ''*ai'', ''*au'' and ''*ei''. In Proto-Slavic, these were monophthongized as follows, with the subscript indicating whether the vowels trigger the first palatalization or the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...

. * *ai > *ě₂, *i₂ - Early Slavic *snaigu > *sněgъ > Serbo-Croatian snijeg * *au > *u - Early Slavic *saušu > *suxъ > Serbo-Croatian suh * *ei > *i₁ - Early Slavic *kreivu > *krivъ > Serbo-Croatian kriv The fourth Proto-Indo-European vocalic diphthong, ''*eu'', had already become ''*jau'' in Proto-Balto-Slavic. It then developed into ''*ju'' in Proto-Slavic, following the same development as for ''*au''. The unrounding of older long ''*ū'' to Slavic ''*y'' had already taken place by the time of the monophthongization; the new ''*u'' filled the gap left by it. The first palatalization had also taken place, as the new vowels denoted as ''*ě₂'' and ''*i₂'' did not trigger it. While most cases of older ''*ai'' developed into ''*ě₂'', some inflectional endings appear to have developed ''*i₂'' instead. It is unclear what factors are involved in triggering one reflex versus the other. * The o-stem nominative plural (Old Church Slavonic ''člověkъ'', ''člověci''), reflecting the original Proto-Indo-European pronominal ending ''*-oy'', also seen in Lithuanian ''-ai''. * The thematic imperative infix (Old Church Slavonic ''rešti'', ''rekǫ'', ''reci''), reflecting the original Proto-Indo-European infix ''*-oyh₁-''.

Dating

Yuri Vladimirovich Shevelev dates the monophthongization of diphthongs to the 5th – 7th century AD.Jurij Vladimirovič Ševeljev, A Prehistory of Slavic, Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1964. Zdzisław Stieber dates the monophthongization of diphthongs to the 5th or 6th century AD.Zdzisław Stieber, Zarys gramatyki porównawczej języków słowiańskich, Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 2005.

Toponymy data

By the time the Slavic migration to the Balkans began, the monophthongization of diphthongs had not yet taken place, as evidenced by the borrowing of the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

name '' Poetovio'' as the Slavic ''

Ptuj Ptuj (; german: Pettau, ; la, Poetovium/Poetovio) is a town in northeastern Slovenia that is the seat of the Municipality of Ptuj. Ptuj, the oldest recorded city in Slovenia, has been inhabited since the late Stone Age and developed from a Roman ...

''. Subsequent toponyms show the borrowing of the Latin uas v which indicates the completion of the process of monophthongization of diphthongs by the time these names were borrowed, for example: * Latin Lauretum > Serbo-Croatian Lovret * Latin Lauriana > Serbo-Croatian

Lovran Lovran ( it, Laurana, german: Lauran) is a village and a municipality in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Croatia. It is situated in eastern Istria, on the western coast of the Kvarner Bay with a population of 4,101 in the municipality and 3,336 in t ...

* Latin Tauriana > Serbo-Croatian Tovrljane * Latin (Lapides) lausiae > Serbo-Croatian Lavsa / Lavca

Bibliography

* Yuri Vladimirovich Shevelev, A Prehistory of Slavic, Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1964. * Zdzisław Stieber, Zarys gramatyki porównawczej języków słowiańskich, Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 2005.

References

Proto-Slavic language {{historical-linguistics-stub