THE PREHISTORY OF THE SLAVIC CLUSTERS ST IN THE DIACHRONIC CONTEXT

Abstract

The paper aims at presenting four different sources of the Slavic clusters st and analysing them in diachronic contexts, according to their origins (< IE *st, *št, *Ḱt, *Tt). The IE cluster *st has been fully preserved, the late IE cluster *št is de-palatalized as is the satəm-cluster *Ḱt (which has merged with *št in almost all the satəm-languages). The cluster *Tt developed regularly into st in Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian languages (and Greek), into 0s in Albanian and u̯t in Armenian – the Armenian development leads to preference for the cluster’s spirantization (as stated earlier by Bartholomae for Indo-Iranian) over the traditional “Brugmannian” affricativization.