Genitive plural endings in the Tersko dialect of Slovene

Abstract

Nouns belonging to the non-mobile root-stressed accentual paradigm of a-declension with roots containing no final consonant clusters or containing consonant clusters of the type ṣ + obstruent usually exhibit the genitive plural ending -Ø, while nouns of the same paradigm with roots containing a final consonant cluster usually exhibit the ending -aj; doublet realizations are also possible. Nouns of the mobile or end-stressed accentual paradigms usually exhibit the genitive plural ending -í ː.

The predominant genitive plural ending of nouns of the masculine o-declension is -e/-ẹ́ ː, the first with nouns belonging to the non-mobile root-stressed accentual paradigm and the second with those belonging to the end-stressed accentual paradigm (rarely also those nouns which historically, i.e. prior to dialectal accentual changes, belonged to the mobile accentual paradigm). The ending -í ː appears in nouns reflecting the Psl. accentual paradigms c and b with a (post-)Psl. long root vowel, and in most nouns synchronically belonging to the end-stressed accentual paradigm.

Due to the decline of this grammatical category, nouns belonging to the neuter o-declension exhibit a mixed state, most evident in nouns with the suffix -iṣc̣e (e.g. gen. pl. koṣìː ṣc̣-Ø : kopìː ṣc̣-e : rabìː ṣc̣-aj). Nouns with roots containing no final consonant clusters or containing a consonant cluster of the type ṣ + obstruent usually exhibit the ending -Ø, however not without exceptions.

Nouns of the i-declension with rare few exceptions exhibit the ending -í ː, also in nouns belonging to the (otherwise) non-mobile root-stressed accentual paradigm. Only in the accentual paradigm exhibiting circumflex root-stress in all forms, comprised of Friulian feminine loan-words with word-final consonants, do we find the unstressed ending -i̥.

The ending -úː, originally the ending of genitive dual, was found in four nouns, denoting paired realia: gen. pl. (fem.) noú ː, rokú ː, (masc.) roú ː, and (neut.) oc̣ú ː, and with the noun (fem.) óː ra (rod. mn. orú ː); the motivation for the generalization of the pluralized (originally dual) form in the latter example is not clear.

The ending -aj appears especially with nouns of the a-declension, and only as a secondary ending with nouns of other declensions; it appears predominantly with roots containing final consonant clusters. The ending was formed by dialectal vocalization of an epenthetic schwa in word-final consonant clusters of the type consonant + j, which arose as a result of the dropping of Psl. weak yers (e. g. gen. pl. Psl. *bűrjь, *grâbĺь > Csln. *bûrəj, *grâbəĺ > Ter. bùːraj, ràːbaj). It then spread to roots of nouns with root-final consonant cluster without a final j and after that onto other types of roots.