akanye

Akanye or akanje ( be, аканне, russian: а́канье, ), literally "''a''-ing", is a sound change in Slavic languages in which the phonemes or are realized as more or less close to . It is a case of vowel reduction.

The most familiar example is probably vowel reduction in Russian, Russian akanye (pronounced but not represented orthographically in the standard language). Akanye also occurs in:
* Standard Belarusian language, Belarusian (represented orthographically)
* Northern (Polesia, Polissian) Ukrainian dialects
* Slovene dialects (e.g., Lower Carniolan dialects),Toporišič, Jože. 1992. ''Enciklopedija slovenskega jezika''. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, p. 2.
* Some subgroups of the Kajkavian dialect of Serbo-Croatian
* Bulgarian dialects (e.g., the Rhodope dialects, including the Smolyan dialect).

Description

In Belarusian ''аканне'' (akanne), both non-softened and softened and and other phonemes phonetically merge into in unstressed positions; see Belarusian phonology.

In Russian ''а́канье'' (akan'ye), (except for Northern Russian dialects, Northern dialects), and phonetically merge in unstressed positions. If not preceded by a Palatalization (phonetics), palatalized (soft) consonant, these phonemes give (sometimes also transcribed as ) in the syllable immediately before the stress and in absolute word-initial position. In other unstressed locations, non-softened and are further reduced towards a short, poorly enunciated . The dialects without reduction of unstressed o are called ''okanye'' (russian: о́канье), literally "''o''-ing".
After soft consonants, unstressed and are pronounced like in most varieties of Russian (see vowel reduction in Russian for details); this reduction is not considered a manifestation of akanye. Unlike Belarusian akanne, Russian akanye does not affect softened vowels.

Slovene ''akanje'' may be partial (affecting only syllables before or after the stressed vowel) or complete (affecting all vowels in a word). Examples from various Slovene dialects: ''domú'' → ''damú'' 'at home' (pretonic ''o''), ''dnò'' → ''dnà'' 'bottom' (tonic ''o''),Ramovš, Fran. 1936. ''Kratka zgodovina slovenskega jezika. I.'' Ljubljana: Akademska založba, pp. 233–235. ''léto'' → ''líəta'' (posttonic ''o''), ''ne vém'' → ''na vém'' 'I don't know' (pretonic ''e''), ''hléb'' → ''hlàb'' 'loaf' (tonic ''e''), ''jêčmen'' → ''jèčman'' 'barley' (posttonic ''e'').

See also

* Vowel reduction in Russian – about ikanye.

Notes

Sources

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Akanye
Phonology
Slavic phonologies