Affricatization of the palatal *r' in toponymy of West Pomerania

Abstract

In the records of the old Slavic place and field names of West Pomerania, we can observe the affri- catization *r′ > ř, rz etc. in the areas adjacent to the Kashubian-Slavic dialects east of the Słupia River and, rarely, along the south-eastern border of Pomerania. Affricatization of *r′ did not take place in the territory of German Vorpommern, Mecklenburg or in the old Slavic dialects of Polabia. This proves the former differentiation of the Lechitic dialects into Western ones, without the accom- modation *r′ (and also partially without changes *t′, *d′ before the vowels of the front order) and the Eastern ones, characterized by affricatization *r′ > ř, rz, š/ž (and *t′ > ć, *d′ > ȝ́). The lack of accommodation was caused by the tendency to maintain a stronger pronunciation of sonorants. The result was a partial hardening of the consonant system, limitation of the pre-Lechic mutation (proto- Lechitic metaphony), the preservation without metathesis of the group *tărt (karva ‛cow’ type), the merging of continuants *l̥’ and *l̥ > oł (vołk ‛wolf’ type), the vocalization of old weak yers (in ini- tial syllables) in the Polabian dialect (blåxă ‛flea’ type). Numerous parallels with modern Bulgarian and Macedonian dialects have been found.