Polish vowel letters

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The Polish vowel umlaut (Polish Przegłos polski ) or Lechische vowel umlaut (Polish Przegłos lechicki ) is a historical sound process that took place in the Lechian dialects of common Slavonic or the Polish language in the 9th and 10th to the 13th centuries. The umlaut Przegłos lechicki and Przegłos polski are often mentioned together as one phenomenon under one of the terms.

The earlier process involved the Polish-Polabian-Pomeranian group (the Lechian dialects ) and is known as Przegłos lechicki . The later process only affects Polish , hence called Przegłos polski .

Both processes involve an umlaut from vowels in the front row to vowels in the back row under the influence of subsequent hard consonants, i.e. in a progressive direction:

The vowels in the front row e , ę , ě became o , ą , a before hard front tongue consonants ( t , d , n , s , z ) and the hard liquid consonants ( r , ł ) . Furthermore, the soft sonantas (the syllable-forming liquids) r ' and l' were depalatalized in this position to r , and hard l ( ł ).

Overview

  • ę + (t, d, n, s, z, r or ł) → ą + (t, d, n, s, z, r or ł)

z. B. in the Gnesen Bull : Zuantos (= Śv'ątoś ) from the root * svętъ

  • r '+ (t, d, n, s, z, r or ł) → r + (t, d, n, s, z, r or ł) then → ar + (...)

z. B. * sr'na → * srna → sarna

  • l '+ (t, d, n, s, z, r or ł) → l (i.e. ł) + (t, d, n, s, z, r or ł) then → eł + (...)

z. B. vl'na → * vlna → vełna

  • e + (t, d, n, s, z, r or ł) → o + (t, d, n, s, z, r or ł)

z. B. * berǫ → biorę

  • ě + (t, d, n, s, z, r or ł) → a + (t, d, n, s, z, r or ł)

z. B. * věra → wiara

The last two umlauts (from * e and * ě ) are only characteristic of Polish.

No umlaut

In some cases the umlaut has not been carried out, which is why there is often a vowel alternation in Polish : original Slavic ě by umlaut to a
original Slavic ě without umlaut to e
in today's Polish the alternation a : e
original Slavic * věra , věrě → Polish wiara : wierze

Also no umlaut: koběta not to kob'ata (today Polish: kobieta )

Disappearance of the umlaut

The umlaut first took place (sources in Old Polish), was later adjusted again: e.g. B. * cěna → old Polish cana → today cena

Double forms with and without umlaut

z. B. bieda versus biada

swell

  • Stanisław Dubisz (Ed.): Gramatyka historyczna języka polskiego . 2nd Edition. Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Warsaw 2001, ISBN 83-235-0137-8 .
  • Stanisław Urbańczyk (Ed.): Encyklopedia języka polskiego . 2nd Edition. Ossolineum, Breslau / Krakau / Warsaw 1994, ISBN 83-04-04251-7 .