Russian kotóryj, Czech který, Slovene katę´ri: Vowel Variation in the Reflexes of Proto-Slavic *koterъ(jь) ‘which (of the two)’

Abstract

The reconstruction of the Proto-Slavic parent lexeme for the set represented by Russian kotóryj, Czech který, Slovene katę´ri etc. (all ‘which’) is an old but under-investigated conundrum of Slavic historical morphology. The differences among the cognates cannot be explained through sound laws, and no satisfactory morphological explanation has been proposed thus far. This paper argues that, while the divergent shapes of the suffix (*-ter-, *-tor-, *-tr-) are rooted in isoglosses that must be explained against the background of Indo-European, the abnormal correspondences in the interrogative stem (*ko-, *ka-, *kъ-) are caused by a morphological innovation that occurred in the late Common Slavic period: namely, certain processes affecting the internally inflecting pronouns of the type *kъ-žьdo, *ka-žьdo ‘every’ enabled an innovative interpretation of the *ko-in Proto-Slavic *ko-terъ as inflectable. The change in question – a diachronic internalization of inflection – is a typologically interesting phenomenon requiring further study. Several preliminary parallels can be adduced.

Keywords:

• Common Slavic
• Proto-Slavic
• Proto-Indo-European
• historical morphology
• externalization of inflection
• internalization of inflection
• pronouns
• affix migration
• double marking