issues on Bulgarian verbal morphology

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Iskra Iskrova wrote:

> Dear SEELANGers,
>
> These are questions on Bulgarian verbal morphology. I am looking at
> some phonological processes within the verbal system.
>
> 1. I would like to know the origin of the present endings 1st p.
> sg. -a(m) and 3rd p. pl. -at. These morphemes were -oN(t) in OCS.
> How did the nasal vowel become [a]? Or where does this -a ending
> come from?

If memory serves (I'm sure someone will correct me if my memory is
failing), all the nasals merged as /a/ in South Slavic... Thus *pekoN(t)
and *govoryoN(t) would come out as protoSS *peka(t) and *govorya(t). You
have only to explain the -m in the 1st sg., which I would guess (wildly)
is by analogy to /sum/ 'am' or /yem/, /dam/ 'eat,' 'give.'

> 2. The thematic vowel for 1st (pletem) and 2nd (letim) conjugation
> surfaces in all the other persons, except in front of this -a(t)
> ending. If it were there in the underlying representation when the
> ending was added, then it would have triggered some processes such
> as palatalization for verbs which stem ends by a velar: I would
> expect outputs such as *pecha 'I bake' (instead of peka). Why the
> thematic vowel does not affect in any way 1st p sg and 3rd p pl in
> the conjugation?

See above -- the theme vowel was absent in those forms in Common Slavic,
was it not? So reflexes indicating its presence could come only from
later leveling.

> 3. Another puzzling situation is the fact that velars in secondary
> imperfectives palatalize in front of ending -am, thus shifting into
> 3rd conjugation: teka / izteka / izticham 'to leak'. In order to
> understand this unexpected palatalization process, I am wondering
> again if there is not some historical explanation about the origin
> of this ending. As far as I know, Bulgarian 3rd conjugation has
> developed from the endings of the athematic verbs in OCS: jesmj,
> njesmj, jamj and damj. Is there some evidence for a floating
> [-back] feature that triggers the palatalization without surfacing?
> Before positing a floating feature in modern Bulgarian, I would
> like to check the possible evidence for such feature in the
> historical development of the language.

Sorry, no good ideas here.

> 4. In OCS, looking at verbs with final velar consonant, I realize
> that the infinitive form had undergone 1st palatalization: moshti/
> mogoN, reshti/rekoN. This is not a typical context for 1st
> palatalization that normally occurs before a front vowel, not before
> a consonant. Do you know if there is an underlying /[-back vowel]/
> in the infinitive that does not surface?

The treatments I was exposed to in school attributed the palatalization
to the final /-i/ of the infinitive, assuming that it somehow penetrated
through the /t/ to reach the velar.

> Any suggestions about the origin of these endings or the surprising
> palatalization processes that they trigger are welcome. Could you
> suggest references where I can find information about the development
> of Bulgarian verbal endings from OCS? General references on OCS did
> not turn out being helpful, since they look at the system within OCS
> only. I would love to find some reference that displays the historic
> change from the OCS verbal system to modern Bulgarian giving the
> historical origin of modern endings.

Look up Shevelyov's book on Common Slavic (sorry, I forget the title);
it has a wealth of information on the historical phonology and
interactions with morphology, and a thorough bibliography. I think the
author's name might be spelled "Shevelev" in Western printings.

--
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                http://members.home.net/lists/seelangs/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------