Akanye or akanje (, , ), literally "''a''-ing", is a
sound change
In historical linguistics, a sound change is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chan ...
in
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto- ...
in which the
phoneme
A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...
s or are realized as more or less close to . It is a case of
vowel reduction
In phonetics, vowel reduction is any of various changes in the acoustic ''quality'' of vowels as a result of changes in stress, sonority, duration, loudness, articulation, or position in the word (e.g. for the Muscogee language), and which ar ...
.
The most familiar example is probably
Russian akanye (pronounced but not represented orthographically in the standard language). Akanye also occurs in:
* Standard
Belarusian (represented orthographically)
* Northern (
Polissian and
Slobozhan)
Ukrainian dialects
In the Ukrainian language there are three major dialectal groups according to territory: the Southwestern Ukrainian dialects, southwestern group (), the Southeastern Ukrainian dialects, southeastern group () and the Northern Ukrainian dialects, ...
*
Slovene dialects
In a purely dialectological sense, Slovene dialects ( , ) are the regionally diverse varieties that evolved from old Slovene, a South Slavic language of which the standardized modern version is Standard Slovene. This also includes several di ...
(e.g., Lower Carniolan dialects),
[Toporišič, Jože. 1992. ''Enciklopedija slovenskega jezika''. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, p. 2.]
* Some subgroups of the
Kajkavian dialect
Kajkavian is a South Slavic supradialect or language spoken primarily by Croats in much of Central Croatia and Gorski Kotar.
It is part of the South Slavic dialect continuum, being transitional to the supradialects of Čakavian, Štokavian ...
of
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...
*
Bulgarian dialects (e.g., the
Rhodope dialects, including the
Smolyan dialect).
*
Polish dialects
Polish dialects are regional vernacular variety (linguistics), varieties of the Polish language, and often show developments starting from an Lechitic languages, earlier stage of the language, often Old Polish or Middle Polish, namely the developm ...
(Podlasie, Kresy)
Description
In Belarusian ''аканне'' (akanne), both non-softened and softened and and other phonemes phonetically merge into in unstressed positions; see
Belarusian phonology
The phonological system of the modern Belarusian language consists of at least 44 phonemes: 5 vowels and 39 consonants. Consonants may also be geminated. There is no absolute agreement on the number of phonemes; rarer or contextually variant soun ...
.
In Russian ''а́канье'' (akan'ye) (except for
Northern dialects), and phonetically merge in unstressed positions. If not preceded by a
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 phonemic dialectal feature of clear distinction of the unstressed o (i.e., no reduction) is called ' (), literally "''o''-ing".
After soft consonants, unstressed and are pronounced like in most varieties of Russian (see
vowel reduction in Russian
In the pronunciation of the Russian language, several ways of vowel reduction (and its absence) are distinguished between the standard language and dialects. Russian orthography most often does not reflect vowel reduction, which can confuse for ...
for details); this reduction is not considered a manifestation of akanye. Unlike Belarusian akanne, Russian akanye does not affect softened vowels.
In 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
In the pronunciation of the Russian language, several ways of vowel reduction (and its absence) are distinguished between the standard language and dialects. Russian orthography most often does not reflect vowel reduction, which can confuse for ...
– about ''ikanye''.
Notes
Sources
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akanye
Phonology
Slavic phonological features