In
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...
, metatony refers to the change of nature of
accent Accent may refer to:
Speech and language
* Accent (sociolinguistics), way of pronunciation particular to a speaker or group of speakers
* Accent (phonetics), prominence given to a particular syllable in a word, or a word in a phrase
** Pitch ac ...
(its intonation, or tone), usually within the same
syllable. When the accent also changes its syllable, the process is called metataxis. Metataxis can also be analyzed as a combination of accent movement and metatony. The term is usually used when referring to accentual developments in the history of
Baltic
Baltic may refer to:
Peoples and languages
*Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian
*Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...
and
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto ...
which exhibited numerous such developments, representing the accentual equivalent of
sound change.
Slavic metatony
In
South Slavic languages
The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches (West and East ...
(
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...
and
Slovene)
Proto-Slavic old acute accent ⟨ő⟩ was shortened. Its direct reflex is the short falling accent ⟨ȍ⟩ in standard Serbo-Croatian, whereas standard Slovene has long rising accent ⟨ó⟩ with younger length.
* Common Slavic *bra̋trъ "brother" > Serbo-Croatian ''brȁt''/бра̏т, Slovene ''bràt''
In all Serbo-Croatian and Slovene dialects, in nominative singular of o- and i-stems the stem-final syllable of accent paradigm ''c'' words is lengthened. For monsyllabics this amounts to lengthening of short circumflex accent ⟨ȍ⟩ to long circumflex ⟨ȏ⟩:
* Common Slavic *bȍgъ "god" > Serbo-Croatian ''bȏg''/бо̑г, Slovene ''bóg''
Slavic metataxis
During the
Proto-Slavic
Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the Attested language, unattested, linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately ...
period the so-called neoacute accent was created by accent retraction owing to the reduction and ultimately loss of
weak yers. There were two forms - ⟨ò⟩ the ''short neoacute'', and ⟨õ⟩ the ''long neoacute''. Short and long neoacute are traditionally marked with two different symbols, even though we're dealing with the same
prosodeme on short and long vowels, respectively. Neoacute is traditionally reconstructed as a rising intonation on the basis of Slovene and Russian, and the description of dialectal Serbo-Croatian (
Chakavian
Chakavian or Čakavian (, , , sh-Latn, čakavski proper name: or own name: ''čokovski, čakavski, čekavski'') is a South Slavic regiolect or language spoken primarily by Croats along the Adriatic coast, in the historical regions of Dalma ...
) ⟨õ⟩ as a rising tone. Short neoacute has a distinct reflex in Slovak and some Russian dialects.
Baltic metatony
In Aukštaitian
Lithuanian
Lithuanian may refer to:
* Lithuanians
* Lithuanian language
* The country of Lithuania
* Grand Duchy of Lithuania
* Culture of Lithuania
* Lithuanian cuisine
* Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Je ...
dialects a metatony occurred as a reflex of
Balto-Slavic
The Balto-Slavic languages form a branch of the Indo-European family of languages, traditionally comprising the Baltic and Slavic languages. Baltic and Slavic languages share several linguistic traits not found in any other Indo-European branc ...
acute accent which is generally assumed to be a rising tone, and which was changed to a falling tone in Lithuanian. The new accent is also marked with an
acute accent mark, but its nature has changed from rising to falling. This change, usually called Lithuanian metatony, is absent in
Žemaitian dialects of Lithuanian where Balto-Slavic accented acute is reflected as a broken tone.
Notes
References
*
* {{citation , title=Metatony in Baltic , first=Rick , last=Derksen , author-link=Rick Derksen , year=1996 , location=Amsterdam-Atlanta , publisher=Rodopi
Stress (linguistics)
Prosody (linguistics)
Sound changes