Univerbation and prosodic change: On the origin of the Slavic definite adjective accentuation

This paper argues that the unexpected accentuation of the Slavic definite adjectives inflecting according to accent paradigms b and c can be convincingly explained by considering the relative chronology of the rise of the definite adjective and certain changes in the prosody of Slavic. It is supposed that the construction eventually becoming the definite adjective arose at a time when paradigmatic mobility had not yet developed in oxytone o- and ā-stem adjectives and when word-final vowels had not yet been shortened. Endings which were internalized due to the attachment of the enclitic definiteness marker, therefore, preserved their original prosodic features. Later accent retractions such as Dybo’s law and Ivšić’s law as well as paradigmatic leveling then resulted in the attested accentuation. As an exemplary case, the Slavic definite adjective accentuation is interesting for studying the prosodic development of word forms resulting from univerbation of two originally independent elements