Variant-Based Analogy: Innovative consonant alternations in Slovak and Ukrainian comparatives

Two discontinuous areas of Slavic – viz. Slovak and Ukrainian dialects – display etymologically unexpected and synchronically isolated alternations in the root-final consonant preceding the comparative marker -š-: Slk dial. vys-ok- ‘tall’ → vyk-š- ‘taller’; Ukr dial. blyz’-k- ‘close’ → blyk-š- ‘closer’. We investigate such alternations in both languages, taking into account previously unconsidered dialectal and historical data, and propose a novel analysis. We explain the phenomenon as due to analogical change, specifically a type we call Variant-Based Analogy (VBA), which consists in the replication of overabundance. In the situation a : α : α′ :: b : β, where α and α′ are isofunctional free variants paradigmatically related to a, an innovative form β′ may arise, copying the formal relationship between α and α′ (irrespective of the structure of a and b). Thus we explain Slk dial. vyk-š-í as an innovative variant of inherited vy-š-í, copying overabundance in cases such as dra-š-í ∼ drak-š-í ‘dearer’ (where both variants are motivated by their corresponding positive drah-ý ‘dear’). The mechanism differs from classical four-part analogy in that there is no structural parallelism between the relations a : α/ α′ and b : β/ β′: rather, β′ emerges as a free variant of an existing form and the preexistence of overabundance in the model is required. Due to the blindness to the “bases” a and b, the explanatory potential of VBA resembles Product-Oriented Innovation (POI) postulated in earlier literature, but it is more principled and constrained.