The Prehistory and Areal Distribution of Slavic *gъlčěti ‘Speak’

The paper examines in some detail the diatopic distribution and semantic development of *gъlčěti in South Slavic, i.e., the Slavic dialect areas settled by migration, and raises the question of the nature of the relationship among those dialects that have developed *gъlčěti as the primary neutral verb meaning ‘speak’ both in its South Slavic and broader Slavic contexts. Special attention is given to Bulgarian and Eastern Slovene dialects, which share this development.