On the vocalism of the genitive, dative and locative masculine and neuter singular adjectival-pronominal endings in some southwestern Kajkavian local dialects

In some Kajkavian local dialects of the Karlovac Pokuplje region, the reflexes of the yat vowel are found in the genitive, dative and locative masculine and neuter singular adjectival-pronominal endings, which is unexpected considering these endings descend from Proto-Slavic pronominal endings: what would be expected are the reflexes of Proto-Slavic *o and/or *e. The same phenomenon is found in other Western South Slavic varieties as well: in the majority of Slovene local dialects and in some neighbouring Croatian local dialects of Istria, Kvarner and Gorski Kotar regions. The two areas where these "yat-endings" are found are not contiguous today. In this article we offer a synchronic and a diachronic description of the yat-endings in six examined local dialects of the Karlovac Pokuplje region: Brezani, Lazina, Recica, Sisljavic, Trg and Tuskani, as well as in the local dialect of Pozun, described by Stjepko Tezak. We write about the distribution of the yat- and other kinds of adjectival-pronominal endings in each of the local dialects. It is very similar in all of them: the yat-endings are found in the vast majority of adjectives and pronouns, while the palatal endings are found, with some exceptions in some of the examined local dialects, in the genitive and dative singular of the pronoun on, in the archaic genitive cesa of the pronoun kaj and in the contracted forms of the possessive pronouns. The non-palatal endings are nowhere to be found. We also write about the origin of the yat-endings. The so-called contraction hypothesis, according to which the yat-endings originate in the Proto-Slavic compound adjectival endings G sg. *-ajego, D sg. *-ujemu i L sg. *-ejemb, the yat-vowel being the result of vowel contraction in these endings, is the standard explanation of the origin of the yat-endings in the Slovene local dialects and it seems very plausible for them. For the examined local dialects of the Karlovac Pokuplje region, however, what seems more likely is the so-called analogy hypothesis, according to which the yat-endings originate in the Proto-Slavic pronominal endings G sg. *-ogo/*-ego, D sg. *-omu/*-emu i L sg. *-omb/*-emb into which the yat-vowel spread from those endings in which it was originally found - the non-palatal I sg. m./n. *-emb, G/L pl. *-exb, D pl. *-emb and I pl. *-emi - replacing the vowels *o and *e in the process. The yat-endings found in these two groups of local dialects are probably not a shared innovation of the two, but are rather independent parallel innovations.