The Proto-Slavic Genitive-Locative Dual: A Reappraisal of (South-)West Slavic and Indo-European Evidence

Abstract

The preservation of length in the West Slavic and South-West Slavic genitive-locative dual in *-ū is unexpected and to date unexplained. BCS rùkū ‘handsGEN.PL’ is likely to continue a trisyllabic preform. At the same time, Indo-Iranian and Greek offer strong evidence for PIE o-stem and ā-stem archetypes that should have yielded late Proto-Slavic and OCS *-oju (thus, OCS *ro˛koju), rather than *-u. The actually attested OCS form is ro˛ku. The present study seeks to provide a unified account of these two problems. The development of some of the PIE dual endings in other daughter traditions, including Greek and its dialects, is also addressed.