issues on Bulgarian verbal morphology

[Sitzmann]

Dear Iskra,

things are quite simple for topic 1, 2 and 4 (I'll have to think about the
3rd one).

* = front jer, # = back jer, ê = jat ...., ^V = long vowel, ^C = ha^cek, PIE
= Proto Indo European, PS = Proto Slavic [Comments on Paul B. Gallagher's
answers]

1. The -m ending can only be found in the a-conjugation, where it probably
is an analogy to the athematic verbs like jesm* < esmi (with primary PIE
ending) or jam* < êdmi.
In 3rd pl. -at/-jat you find the old ending -oNt-, as in Bulgarian oN > #
(e.g. #g#l < oNg#l# < PS angulu "angle"), where <#> analogicaly was replaced
by <a>, the rule seems to be "no jer in the end of a word" (e.g. also in
zhenoNtoN > zhen#t# > zhenata); for e- and i-conjugation you have also 1st
sg. nesoN > nesa etc. [Here Paul B. Gallagher is right]

2. In Bulgarian there are no forms like pletem, letim in 1st sg. because
they would be homonymous with the 1st pl. (not like in Serbian, where the
ending of 1st pl. is -mo, there -m for 1st sg. was generalized in all
conjugations). Here you have the same rule OCS oN > # in Bulgarian,
therefore nesoN > nes# > nesa and nesoNt# > nes#t > nesat (by the way, in
Bulgarian these endings are really pronounced like -#t). Your problem with
the thematic vowel is no problem because in 1st sg. and 3rd pl. it's -o,
otherwise -e (Ablaut!). [No, the thematic vowels were not absent Mr.
Gallagher.]

4. In fact, there is no 1st palatalization in your examples, it is jotation
(or rather the product of jotation, as tj> t' and kt before front vowel >
t'):
re^sti < ret'i < rekti < PS rektêj (with the Bulgarian reflex of t' > ^st),
like for example in PIE makti > Bulgarian mosht, Slovenian mo^c and so on.
More interesting seems to be, how the 2nd sg. is to explain: rekoN,
re^ce^si, because we have PS rekôm, *re^cesi > *re^cexi > re^ce^si (with 1st
palatalization in the last step).  [There's no penetration of i through
t!!!]


I hope, this will help you,
as far as I know there's no textbook I could recommend you (except for K.
Mirchev, St. Mladenov and other "classics", but I'm sure you know them),
because they all use the old notations of PS - but if you need some
bibliographical information, I could send you some hints (e.g. Georg Holzer
"Das gemeinslavische Dialektkontinuum und sein Zerfall").

Alexander



Mag.phil. Alexander Sitzmann
Margaretengürtel 8
A - 1050 Wien

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