On the Divergence of Voiced Lateral Approximants in Indo-European languages

based on the results of a comparison of a number Serbo-Croatian/Slovenian lexemes with a palatal lateral [ ʎ ] and Western Slavic lexemes with a velarized lateral approximant [ ɫ ] with related lexemes in Slavic and other Indo-European (IE) languages. It is shown that the Balkan-Slavic [ ʎ ] irregularly corresponds to the phonemes [l'] and [j] of other Slavic languages and even some IE languages beyond the Slavic group. It is also shown that the West Slavic [ ɫ ] irregularly corresponds to the phonemes [l] and [w]/[v] of other Slavic and IE languages. Because of this irregularity, these phonetic correspondences are difficult to explain with local dialect features. Methodology and sources. A model based on the generalization of instrumental studies that showed that palatal sounds are characterized by instability of articulation is proposed. This leads to their divergent evolution, transformation into sounds with different stable zones [w]; palatal *[ ʎ ] > soft alveolar lateral [l'] and palatal approximant [j]. Besides, the original consonants have survived in a number of languages. Results and discussion. Examples of correspondences are given to suggest the presence of *[ ɫ ] and *[ ʎ ] in PIE and Common Slavic prototypes. The newly discovered etymological links, such as the links between Russian lexemes баня 'bath' and балий, бальник 'healer, sorcerer' are being discussed. Conclusion. With the help of the mechanism of divergent evolution of the palatal lateral approximant *[ ʎ ] and the velarized lateral approximant *[ ɫ ] the irregularity of phonetic correspondences of voiced lateral approximants in Slavic languages can be uniformly explained. Besides, the acceptance of *[ ʎ ] and *[ ɫ ] in PIE phonology also lets us to establish some previously undetected publication


Introduction.
In the Balkan-Slavic languages phonology, besides the "soft" alveolar lateral approximant [l'], there is a voiced palatal sound [ʎ], the articulation of which differs from that of [l']. The palatal lateral approximant [ʎ] is displayed in these languages as following: -by the letter љ (the ligature of л и ь) in Serbian and Macedonian; -by the digraph lj in Croatian. Similarly, in the West-Slavic languages phonology, besides the "hard" alveolar lateral approximant [l], there is a voiced velarized sound [ɫ], the articulation of which differs from that of [l]. This sound opposes to [ʎ] by the attribute of hardness, as well as [l] opposes [l']. The sound [ɫ] is displayed by the letter ł in words of Polish, Kashubian, Slovenian and Lusatian languages before consonants and non-front vowels. In Old Polish this sound was pronounced without contact of the tongue with the alveoli and with a slight lip rounding.
However, the explanation of articulation differences by regional dialect features is not entirely satisfactory, since the correspondence "South Slavic [ʎ] ~ Slavic [l']", as well as the correspondence "West Slavic [ɫ] ~ Slavic [l]", is not regular. This irregularity, obviously, does not depend on any combinatory or positional conditions, what could be observed comparing Serbian гљива 'mushroom' < Proto-Slavic *gliva and глиб 'mud' < Proto-Slavic *glibъ, as well as in the following examples: - We have the right to assume that if the sound [ʎ] was used on the Common Slavic phase of Slavic languages evolution, then, due to its instability, the range of its articulation variants during the phonetic evolution process was supposed to include the extreme variants In Russian, Old Slavic and Serbo-Croatian words with the meaning 'boyar' (see above) we can see both of these signs of palatal *[ʎ]'s presence in the ancestor word [4].
Common Slavic *[ʎ] split resulted mainly in [l'] in words of East-Slavic languages in the position between a word stem ending with a labial consonant and an ending. This sound is considered as the result of an epenthesis, for example, in Russian земля (see «земля» [1]), and not as a suffix or a part of it, but here it does not matter as the epenthesis / suffix may have appeared as *[ʎ] on the Common Slavic phase.
Uncertain double articulation of velarized lateral approximant *[ɫ], just as in the case of wide range of palatal lateral approximant pronunciation, also tended to the articulation place displacement to one of the two more stable positions. As previously, we have the right to assume that if the sound *[ɫ] was used on Common Slavic phase of Slavic languages evolution, the trend of its articulation to certainty was supposed to spawn new variants, namely, [l] (with purely alveolar articulation) and [w] (with bilabial articulation).
The signs of approximant *[ɫ] presence in words of the Common Slavic language phase (possibly, also in words of the earlier phases) can be formulated the following way: -the presence of letter ł in a West-Slavic (Slovenian, Polish and Lusatian) word, for example as in Slovenian vȏłk (see «волк» in [1] [1]), the last two words are native Russian, since willows are common in the area of Slavs settlements -the semantics is as follows: willows bloom before the snow melts; Permian dialectal тальмень 'taimen' (see «таймень» [1]) can also be explained via snow melting: taimens prefer cold water, so they tend to move to waters of thawed swamps; -*[taj-] > Russian таять 'to melt', Ukrainian, Old Russian таяти; таймень (Siberian taimen, Latin Hucho Taimen, see the semantics for тальмень above); -here is also, possibly, *[taʎɲa] > тайна 'mystery', in case if the semantics of stealth (see «тайна» [1]) evolved later and таить 'to conceal' was originally 'to make melt ~ to make disappear'; morphologically, таять / таить : тайна : тальник = баять / баить : байна: бальник'.
At first sight, the meaning of English tallow and German related lexemes is far from the meaning 'to melt', but the semantic relation of the meaning 'fat' and the meanings 'dew', 'moisture', 'to pour', 'to melt' can be confirmed by the semantic parallel in Russian: лить 'to let liquid move from a vessel, to produce a liquid stream, a flow' (see «лить» [1]) and related лой 'fat' (see «лой» [1]), and also by the combination of meanings of волога 'fatty liquid' -'moisture' (see «волога» [1]).
So the assumption of the Common Slavic *[ʎ] and the divergence of its articulation caused by the instability of its articulation place not only logically explains the irregular correspondence of Balkan-Slavic [ʎ] to phonemes [l'] and [j] of other Slavic languages but is also useful revealing etymological relations which have not been noticed up to now, such as баня, байня 'bathhouse' ~ бальник 'healer' ~ балить, баять 'to tell, to witch'.
External Reconstruction of Common Slavic prototypes which contain *[ʎ] is beyond the scope of this article. As an example, we could mention Proto-Slavic *gliva (the now suggested prototype for Serbian гљива 'mushroom', (<look up> гљива [7]) which is likely to take the form *[gʎiva]. Besides, although the consideration of particular verb forms ending with -лю, -лять (for example любить > люблю, влюблять) is relevant to the topic of this article, it should be done in a context wider than defined by the given topic. The