Ja-stem feminine nouns with an alternative ending nom. sg. -ě/0 and their relation to the declension type píseň (a diachronic overview)
Abstract
Ja-stem feminine nouns with an alternative ending nom. sg. -ě/0 (Old Czech púščě/púšč, hrázě/hráz) are one of the groups of nouns on the basis of which a new declension type píseň has been formed. However, all individual nouns of the type have not evolved in the same way: some have followed the new declension, some have preserved the doublet forms and the original declension type until now.
Reasons for transition to the new declension type are phonetic-phonological and accentological, the number of syllables, the syllabic structure and the theory of templates applying in nouns with [i:] or á in the stem are also important. Three-syllable nouns with penultimate syllable open, nouns with penultimate syllable closed and two-syllable nouns with r, e, é, ě, o, ó, ú in the stem, rarely also á, transit to the new declension type.
Two-syllable nouns with [i:] in stem and those with á in stem, which have C+á+C+ě structure, have preserved the original declension type.