Encyclopedia of Slavic Languages and Linguistics Online

The prosodic system of Proto-Slavic (Accent Systems, Suprasegmental Phonetics and Phonology). is reconstructed characterized with stress pattern (or accentual mobility), distinctive tones and vowel quantities. The reconstruction is based on the accentuation systems of the attested Slavic languages: the western varieties of South Slavic languages, i.e., Serbo-Croatian (cf. BCSM) and Slovene, have distinctive tone systems and accentual mobility in nominal/verbal paradigms. East Slavic languages also exhibit accentual mobility. These features have systematic parallels in the Baltic languages as well, and the accentuation systems of both branches have been investigated synchronically and diachronically. This research area is called Balto-Slavic accentology, and there are many theories and schools in the area. This entry provides the research history of Balto-Slavic accentology and the backgrounds of the accentological schools with a focus on Slavic.