Content area
Full Text
Abstract
The author's aim is to contribute to establishing an absolute chronology of the phonetic processes produced in Common Slavic, by specifying the terminus post quem of the third progressive palatalization of the velar consonants. He brings forward the hydronym ..., attested in the tenth decade of the sixth century, designating a river in Wallachia, identified with Ialomita. The name, which has not been explained until now, implies a multiple phonetic deformation of the CSl. *Ilavinika 'clayey river' following the evolution *Ilavinica (in the eighth century) > *Ilovinica (in the ninth century) > *Ilovnica (after the tenth century) > Ro. *Ilovnita > Ialovnita > Ialomnita > Ialomita. The ancient denomination allows correction of the generally accepted etymology of the Romanian hydronym, from a Slavic base jalov- 'sterile, unproductive'.
(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)
The development in time of the phonetic processes in Common Slavic has been established in large part on the basis of the relative chronology. For instance, most Slavicists accept A. Belic' 's theory according to which the progressive palatalization of the velar consonants, also called the third palatalization, in which k, g, x preceded by the front vowels i, i, e > softc', dz', s'/ sis subsequent to the regressive palatalization, also called the second palatalization, in which the same consonants, followed by i, e > hard c, dz, s1. As for the absolute chronology of the process, the attestations of certain toponyms from Pannonia such as Lieznicha (< *Lesinika) or Sabinicha (< *Zabinika) are of great importance; they prove the fact that, in the seventh or eighth centuries, velar k had become an affricate2. This would be the terminus ad quem of the third palatalization, which did not affect the entire series of velars from the very beginning and did not manifest itself regularly in all Slavic languages. The study of the toponymy of Slavic origin from Greece, created between the sixth and eighth centuries (when Greece was considered a "slavica terra"), reveals two phases: one of them, prior to the change, represented by only a few instances: ... and some others3; the other phase, with affricates, illustrated by numerous instances, among which some indicate the precedence of the phenomenon vis-à-vis the metathesis of the liquids (from the ninth...