Okanye akanye clatter. Akanye as a dialectological phenomenon. Unstressed vocalism after t’

To the origins of Rus'. People and language. Academician Trubachev Oleg Nikolaevich. From the history of the language of Ancient and New Rus'. 3. Center – periphery – area. Origin of Akanya in Russian.

The phenomenon of akanya was and remains central : central as in structural characteristics and importance in view of the coverage of both the national (national-literary) language and its central dialectal affiliation, and this is recognized by different authors [Gorshkova K.V. Historical dialectology Russian language. M., 1972, p. 125]. About the original territories of the Akaya dialect, including Kursk-Oryol and neighboring dialects, see also the clarification that Oryol dialects are characterized by "about the same unstressed vowels", as for literary speech [ Kotkov S.I. Dialects of the Oryol region (phonetics and morphology). dis. ... doc. Philol. n. T. I – II. M., 1951, p. 428].

Central-Southern Great Russian character noted for dissimilative akanya, however, already from Kotkov: “ The eastern border of the dissimilative Akanya in the Oryol region does not extend beyond the eastern limits of the dissimilatory Akanya of the Sudzhan type.” Approximately the same center is layered with dissimilatory yakane: Kursk – Orel – Smolensk [Zakharova K.F., Orlova V.G. Dialectal division of the Russian language. M., 1970, p. 94].

These dissimilatory transformations of unstressed vocalism, the honor of discovery of which belongs to Shakhmatov, such as dialect s[ъ]va, tr[ъ]va , Kursk., Lgovsk. zhylezo, zhyna, zhira ,zhylashi, tsyna, vda, zhira, shigat [Shakhmatov A.A. Course on the history of the Russian language. Part II. St. Petersburg, 1910, p. 700], to a limited extent, however, and not for long, penetrated into standard literary spelling, spelling, cf. the notorious "stage" fat, shigi [Kasatkin L.L. Modern Russian dialect and literary phonetics as a source for the history of the Russian language. M., 1999, p. 479, 480: like steps, heat], cf. there is already no such recommendations in the “Orthoepic Dictionary...” [Orthoepic Dictionary of the Russian Language. Pronunciation, stress, grammatical forms. About 65,000 words / Sub. ed. R.I. Avanesova. 6th ed., stereotypical. M., 1997].

In a word, a picture, including a spatial one, of phenomena (types) akanya-yakanya not simple, complex even for a linguist not a dialectologist. The multiplicity of these types was also noticed long ago [V. Dahl. Dictionary living Great Russian language. T. I. M., 1955 (from the second edition 1880 - 1882), p. LXXV.]. That, for example, “in the Smolensk dialect they swear to the point of cloying, and this swearing intensifies to the west and south, through Belaya to Black and Little Rus'...”. The venerable lexicographer spoke in such a way that they later began to qualify as Belarusian, the full character of Akanya [ Shakhmatov A.A. Course on the history of the Russian language. Part II. St. Petersburg, 1910, p. 379 – 380].

The middle dialects mentioned above are characterized by a diversity of Akanya-Yakanya types. in a fairly limited space. All these genetic newer, diverse types, mainly of dissimilative Akanya (Yakanya) - Sudzhansky, Oboyansky, Shchigrovsky - are all concentrated in the zone of Kursk-Oryol dialects, in other words - on Kursk land, where these innovations came from, thereby marking the centrality of the zone. Innovations were in a sense multiple, cf. here more hiccup is Oryol-Kursk, but also Central Russian and national literary [Kotkov S.I. Dialects of the Oryol region (phonetics and morphology). dis. ... doc. Philol. n. T. I – II. M., 1951, p. 467, 476; Russian dialectology / Under. ed. R.I. Avanesov and V.G. Orlova. M., 1964, p. 61].

All this, taken together, created the very diversity and ambiguity of the characteristics that, according to the canons of the discipline, a center of the linguistic-geographical area. Of these features, some in varying degrees rushed centrifugally to more peripheral areas, cf. hiccups in Moscow dialects and individual reflections of dissimilatory phenomena in the highest speech standard.
Of course, it remains traditionally difficult question about the origin of Akanya , and here, naturally, references to the “painlessness” and “ease” of the transition from okanya to akanya cannot be considered sufficient and convincing [ Avanesov R.I. Questions of the formation of the Russian language in its dialects // Bulletin of Moscow State University, 1947, No. 9, p. 146]. Why then, one wonders, did not the entire territory of the language begin to “accurate”? Apparently, the accompanying sociolinguistic aspect should not be ignored: it was an innovation that came from an influential south center.

It's time to remind you that o the Great Russian South was superior to the Great Russian North in human, economic and other potentials, which for some reason is usually forgotten, as is the axiom that history began in the South. Southern Innovation Acaña had authority, and following this notorious “Moscow style” accent was prestigious [V. Dal. Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language. T. I. M., 1955 (from the second edition 1880 - 1882)].

Whether the settlement of the North is rare, the poor communications there, or some more subtle reasons, something still led to the attenuation of the innovative wave of Akanya on the approaches specifically to the North. We will continue to use this reference point: the comparative distance of the trajectory of the waves sent out by the innovation center.
A widespread concept dates the Akane to the time after the fall of the reduced [ Avanesov R.I. Questions of the formation of the Russian language in its dialects // Bulletin of Moscow State University, 1947, No. 9, p. 138 – 139], and you probably need to listen to it. But it is quite possible that the matter is much more complicated and the indicated fall is not the only, but one of the reasons that completed the final activation of the acaña mechanism. Perhaps a broader acceptance of a range of Akanya predispositions is the only way out of the impasse in which the Akanya issue has become a result of the bitter debate.

In other words, even if this is not the case before us, when "both are right" then it is still possible to regard the situation as a certain signal about the presence of a rational grain in mutually exclusive concepts: “Akanye is actually a Russian innovation”, “Akanye is a proto-Slavic phenomenon.” We must not forget that the language of the Old Russian branch of the Slavs underwent a significant restructuring, which again unfolded according to the laws linguistic geography (spatial linguistics) .

It is possible that the original short vocalism that the Old Russian Slavs had was reinterpreted by the majority of them as unstressed vocalism [ Rubachev O.N. Ethnogenesis and culture the most ancient Slavs. Linguistic research. M., 1991, p. 69 – 71].

There was a loss of the category of distinguishing the number of vowels, which Proto-Ukrainian, as a typical periphery, was affected to a much lesser extent, cf. the substitutive stretching/prolongation that took place in Ukrainian, an areally close analogue to the phenomenon of Polish historical phonetics - wzdluzenie zastepcze, both here and here - in newly closed syllables. This phenomenon is indirect indicates the ancient presence of quantitative differences in vowels in Proto-Ukrainian dialects.

Actually Great Russian doesn't know this . See Sklyarenko, where substitutive prolongation is considered on the material of Slavic languages ​​that have preserved quantitative intonation differences in vowels (Serbo-Croatian), but does not talk about Ukrainian data.

May have some relation to the problem of akanya factual identity of slavs. o and a, even the primacy of the latter [ Sklyarenko V.T. Praslovian accentology. Kiev, 1998, p. 66 – 67]. The fact that weakening of unstressed vowels in Southern Great Russian and Belarusian reflected very late in writing, speaks not only and not so much about the conservatism of writing, but about the relationship of mutual compensation into which the indicated weakening of articulation and the preservative tendency of writing entered.

This might need special mention. Here we are talking, in essence, about typological differences of the Russian language, distinguishing it from most other Slavic languages. Not tense articulationunstressed vocalism is a striking feature of the Russian language and its innovation, which separated it even from the closely related Belarusian language.

The paradox is that both of these languages ​​are united by the Akanya community, however, in Belarusian with its "totally crazy" such an independent feature as tense articulation of unstressed vocalism . Result: differences according to the principle: tense articulation of the language - phonetic spelling; Let us remember the Serbo-Croatian and Vukovo covenants “write what he says” - write as you speak, accordingly, not tense articulation of the language – conservative (historical) spelling. Russian articulation, falling out of Slavic articulation as a whole, resembles the English principle, the analogy extends to on the conservatism of the letter in both cases!. In connection with the above, it seems somewhat incomprehensible that the opinion about the optionality of tension in Slavic languages[New in linguistics. Vol. 2. M., 1962, p. 204].

The transition to a less tense articulatory base as a “general trend” of the Russian language, including in terms of replacing okanya with akanya, it is also characterized by Kasatkin [ Kasatkin L.L. Modern Russian dialect and literary phonetics as a source for the history of the Russian language. M., 1999, p. 131, 132.].

So, relying to a large extent on predecessors, we came to the conclusion about the need to have an innovation center, even focused on some likelihood of such an innovation center in the midwestern part of the southern Great Russian space. It makes sense to retain this point of reference in the future for judgments about the (other) parts and phenomena of the Great Russian area.

Of these, the brightest and most easily distinguished is Northern Great Russian part. At the same time, having become interested in the criteria for identifying the Northern Great Russian dialect, we cannot help but express doubts about this. Firstly, it turns out the integrity of the Northern Great Russian dialect in its western and northeastern parts is in question , and this is recognized by the main researchers [Formation of the Northern Russian dialect and Central Russian dialects based on materials of linguistic geography. Rep. ed. V.G. Orlova. M., 1970, p. 210].

Secondly, they also admit that the allocation of the “future territory of the northern dialect” is planned “on the basis of the distribution of the Akanya.” E this means nothing more or less than that the main selection criterion is negative: that where the Akanya did not reach, the territory where the Akanya does not exist, since no one will argue with the fact that the Akanya came from the south.

It's interesting to note that characteristics of the southern dialect contrasts markedly with this, being more concretely positive in nature: not distinguishing unstressed vowels, fricative r (?), lack of contraction (dropping j) [Russian dialectology / Under. ed. R.I. Avanesov and V.G. Orlova. M., 1964, p. 239].

But also South Great Russian features not original. Not only in Central Russian dialects, but also in Southern Great Russian, the “Northern Great Russian” basis shines through, if we speak in terms of current dialectology. The above makes the opposition irrelevant “Northern Great Russian” – “South Great Russian” , since in ancient times (retrospectively) Northern Great Russian turns out to be identical with all original Great Russian, and Akanye/Yakanye are secondary innovations of the language center.

Nowadays one cannot accept without some surprise assessments such as the fact that (according to Shakhmatov) E.F. Buddha has a “remarkable conclusion” that the northern part Ryazan region originally referred to the Northern Great Russian dialect and about the Northern Great Russian character of Kasimov dialects in the past. [ Sidorov V.N. From the history of sounds of the Russian language. M.. 1966, p. 98]. In essence, it is clear that this is a banal statement the course of southern innovations, overlapping primitive features like the same Ocaña .

Many schoolchildren, and even adults, sometimes doubt whether “a” or “o” is written in the first syllable of the words “cow”, “dog” or “milk”. But residents of some Russian regions have no such doubts: after all, here unstressed vowels are written the way they are heard... This is due to the peculiarities of the local dialect - the so-called “Okanye”.

“Acting” and “cursing”...
Residents of the Moscow, Tula, Lipetsk, Ryazan, Kaluga, Smolensk, Kursk, Bryansk, Belgorod, Voronezh, Tambov, and Oryol regions are accustomed to pronouncing the unstressed vowels “o” as “a”: “vada”, “karova”, “sabaka”, “ malako", "barada", "harasho". And this seems to be the norm to everyone, because even on central television and radio, announcers and presenters “shout”... But in Ivanovo, Novgorod, Vologda, Kirov, Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod, Arkhangelsk and other northern regions, these words are pronounced with an “o”. A resident of the Vladimir or Yaroslavl region will say: “malako”, “harasho”, but “cow”...

What's older?
Why are the same words pronounced in different ways in different parts of our vast homeland? It is known that by the end of the 14th century, “Akanye” was adopted in the Moscow kingdom, which probably came from the south. “A” instead of “o” is found even in ancient Russian written monuments. But in Novgorod, located 480 kilometers northeast of Moscow, during the same period of time the same vowels in unstressed syllables were pronounced as “o”. Principality of Novgorod was completely independent and did not intend to adopt the “southern” dialect of its Muscovite neighbors. Up to this day, this border between the “aciding” and “deadly” regions has been preserved - it lies 120–150 kilometers south of Novgorod.

It turns out that “okanye” is much older than “akanya”, because the latter has spread in Russian speech only in the last few centuries. By the way, in the Russian Church Slavonic language, which was used as a literary language until the 18th century, the unstressed “o” and “a” also differed in pronunciation. Until the middle of the 19th century in Moscow, during the reading of poetry or the delivery of solemn speeches, the “okanye” was preserved. M.V. himself Lomonosov wrote in his “Russian Grammar”, published in 1755: “This pronunciation is more common in ordinary conversations, but in reading books and in the presentation of oral speeches it tends towards the exact pronunciation of letters.” And only from the second half of the 19th century “akanye” became the only norm of literary pronunciation. So the “okaya” speech is much closer to the Old Russian language than the modern literary “akaya”...

How to calculate the "maskvich"?
There is also such a linguistic phenomenon as “incomplete okanye”. For example, in the Vladimir and Tver regions, in the second pre-stressed syllable, it is not “o” that is pronounced, but “b” - a sound close to the weak “y”.

The further south, the more people"Akayat". “Akanye” is characteristic of the southern Russian dialect, complete okanye - for the northern Russian dialect. Incomplete okanye - for some Central Russian dialects.

To us, residents of Central Russia, the speech of the northerners and Volga residents seems incorrect. But one can still argue whose speech should be considered more correct. After all, Muscovites are invariably recognized by their characteristic: “I’m from Maskva!”

Akanye is the non-distinction of non-high vowels in an unstressed syllable. In a narrow sense, akan can be called the pronunciation of a vowel close to [a] in place, in the first unstressed syllable. In a broad sense, akanye is any kind of qualitative reduction of Russian unstressed vowels.

There are various hypotheses about the origin of Akanya. Some works indicate very ancient, including Proto-Slavic, origins of this phenomenon; in particular, it was suggested that Akanye already existed in the tribal dialect of the Vyatichi. However, any theory about early development akanya allows us to explain only akanya in a narrow sense, i.e. non-discrimination of phonemes - in other words, non-discrimination of non-upper vowels in the position after a hard consonant. If we consider akanye in a broad sense, we should associate it with the reduction of unstressed vowels, which arose no earlier than the fall of the reduced vowels.

The belief that the Akane developed no earlier than the fall of the Ers is explained by two reasons. Firstly, the qualitative reduction of unstressed syllables cannot be combined with the preservation of weak reduced phonemes in speech - they would have to drop out first (cf. the sequence of changes: dear[do"rog] -" [do"rock] -> [do "r'ak]). Secondly, the reduction of unstressed syllables occurs under the conditions of the development of force stress, and the replacement of tonic differences in syllables with force, expiratory ones occurred in parallel with the loss of ers in the 12th-13th centuries.

Indeed, examples of Akanya are found in monuments from the 14th century. - although it should be assumed that this phenomenon began to develop somewhat earlier, since it is reflected very inconsistently in written monuments. The oldest examples of Akanya are contained in manuscripts of Moscow origin and point to the mid-14th century. (cf. in the empty land, to lk l you gllgoleshn, prldlshtsim and so on.).

When determining the time and place of the appearance of Akanya, it is necessary, however, to take into account not only the testimony of monuments, but also the data of modern Russian dialects, in which a wide variety of muds and varieties of Akanya are presented. Isoglosses associated with Akani divide the territory of East Slavic dialects into two significant parts. Akanye is absent in the Little Russian dialect and in the Northern Great Russian dialect. At the same time, akanye is widespread in Belarusian and South Russian dialects. In Central Russian dialects, akanye, apparently, appeared under the influence of southern Russian pronunciation.

Research in the field of dialectology has shown that when dialect phonetic systems based on Okanye and Akanye collide, the more productive system, i.e. The Akanya system turns out to be capable of expansion. This means that Okanye was previously distributed over a wider territory, and Akanye may have had a limited area of ​​initial origin, from where it spread to the region of South Russian, Belarusian and Central Russian dialects.

A systematic comparison of various types of akanya shows that the most archaic variety should be considered the so-called dissimilative akanya, in which the pronunciation in the first pre-stressed syllable depends on the quality of the stressed vowel. With the archaic type of dissimilative akanya, it is not the five-phoneme opposition of stressed vowels that exists in modern literary language, but a seven-phoneme opposition that existed in the Old Russian language and included phonemes (“fe”) and (“o closed”).

In archaic dissimilative akan, the vowels of stressed and pre-stressed syllables are contrasted in accordance with the sign of rise. If under stress are phonemes, (or those that have arisen in their place), (with option [s]), i.e. vowels of mid-upper and upper rises, then in the pre-stressed syllable the lower vowel [a] is pronounced. Wed: fruit, per year, (on) the water(ko^yub), such(female, d.b.) like this): [plady], [vgadu], [vad’e], [such]. If a vowel of middle or lower rise is under stress: , then in the pre-stressed syllable a vowel of a higher rise is pronounced compared to [a], i.e. [ъ]. Wed: soma, flight, fruit(pdodm): [s’ma], [p’l’ot], [pl’dom].

A comparison of the isoglosses of modern dissimilative and other types of Akanya shows that the initial area of ​​distribution of this innovation was the southeastern Old Russian dialects, dialects widespread in the territory south of the Oka. From here Akanye spread to the west, into the region of the Belarusian dialect, and to the north, into the region of Central Russian dialects.

Apart from akanya in the narrow sense, i.e. reduction of unstressed vowels in the position after a hard consonant; in dialects, neutralization of vowel phonemes also developed after soft consonants, although perhaps this process took place more slowly. In accordance with the type of pronunciation in Russian dialects, several types of such neutralization are distinguished: yakane (dissimilative and non-dissimilative), yokane, hiccup (cf. village: [s’alo], [s’elo], [s’ilo]). Yakanie has spread quite widely in Russian dialects, but in the literary language the pronunciation norm could only be yakanie or hiccup.

The main prerequisite for the development of akanya should be considered the movement of the phonetic system towards a consonantal type and, accordingly, a reduction in the number of vowel phonemes. In modern Russian, five vowel phonemes are distinguished under stress: , and in the unstressed position, phonemes of non-upper rise are neutralized in one positional variant, which can be defined by the term “weak phoneme”. That is, in the unstressed position, a kind of convergence of phonemes is observed (the term “convergence” is used here conditionally, since in the stressed position the opposition is preserved). Thus, in the unstressed position + + + = . In a literary language, the weak phoneme is realized in different variants depending on the preceding consonant and the place of stress: [а ъ], [и 3], [ъ], ([ь]).

Consequently, in the unstressed position, the opposition of only three vowel phonemes is actually preserved: , . However, the tendency of the literary language is further convergence associated with neutralization of the phoneme in the unstressed position: forest - fox: [l’i e sa] - [l’isa] -” [l’i e sa] - [l’i e sa]. In this case, the opposition can be reduced in perspective to the opposition -. So far, of course, such a reduction has not yet occurred, cf. in position after hard: brownie - smoke: [smoke howls] - [smoke howls].

The immediate cause of the development of akanya was the development of dynamic (force) verbal stress, which led to the reduction of unstressed vowels and to a sharp contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables. If in the Old Russian language the same vowels were stressed and unstressed, then in the XIV-XVII centuries. a contrast between stressed and unstressed vocalism develops. In early Old Russian, stress was musical, and syllables differed in pitch. With dynamic stress, syllables began to differ in the force of exhalation and the tension of articulation. Unstressed syllables began to be pronounced shorter and with less effort, with weakening of articulation, which led to a reduction (r/) and a qualitative change (e, o, A) unstressed vowels.

The exact time and place of the appearance of akanya in the narrow sense remains a controversial issue, since it is not clear what the specific mechanism of its initial occurrence is. Discussions on this matter continue to this day, and a variety of explanations have been offered. There is a hypothesis about the connection of akanya with changes in the quantitative characteristics of vowels depending on stress, about the connection between the reduction of non-upper vowels and the length or shortness of vowels of different rises. Observations show that the upper vowels are shorter than the middle and lower vowels. These are new longitude and brevity, not associated with the Proto-Slavic quantitative feature. Detailed analysis These characteristics allow us to question the assertion about the antiquity of dissimilative akanya. Shortening all but the shortest (highest) unstressed vowels led to the same results in all positions. It follows that non-dissimilative akanya is more ancient.

There is a point of view that Akanye arose in South Russian dialects under the influence of a substrate language (one of the Finno-Ugric dialects). The hypothesis about the substrate mechanism of Akanya is based on the territorial proximity of the South Russian dialects to the dialects of the Mordovian subgroup of languages. Facts close to the Akanya phenomenon have been identified by scientists in the vocalism of the Moksha language. At the same time, it is known that part of the territory of Ryazan and adjacent regions was occupied in ancient times by the Finnish-speaking ethnic group “Meshchera”, which was assimilated by the Slavs. Perhaps the substrate influence of the Meshchera dialect served as an impetus for the implementation of the systemic patterns discussed above. However, the hypothesis about the substrate origin of Akanya is not sufficiently reasoned and does not find support in the modern scientific community.

The more rapid reduction in unstressed vocalism compared to stressed vocalism is explained by the special fate of phonemes. A special sound “about closed” - [b] - appeared in Eastern Slavs in place of the vowel [o] as a result of the development of Proto-Slavic intonation oppositions: the vowel [o], a short sound in origin, began to be pronounced in a number of forms with rising intonation, with the so-called new acute accent. At the same time, [o] lengthened and became more closed, tense, and after the loss of intonation differences, in the 13th-15th centuries, it became a special phoneme - 1. The loss of the phoneme occurred along with the loss of yat and was associated with the fact that the differential sign of tension ceased to be differential.

What is important in history is that this phoneme was contrasted only in stressed words. Consequently, in the XIII century. In the Russian language, for the first time, a contrast between stressed and unstressed vocalism arose, and such a contrast became productive for the entire system. It affected the fate of “b”: this phoneme disappeared primarily in unstressed syllables, thus in the 14th-15th centuries in Central Russian dialects a situation arose when phonemes in the stressed position stood out, but in the unstressed position they no longer did. Thus, The neutralization of unstressed vowels of non-high rise occurred in the form of several parallel processes: the development of akanya, the loss of yatya and “o closed”.

In the position after a soft consonant, akanye (yakanye) and the loss of the unstressed yatya represent a single phonetic process. Neutralization was the first stage of neutralization of non-upper vowels in an unstressed position after a soft consonant. Since the 16th century. under the influence of the same tendency, there was a coincidence [e] ([е] + [с]) - [а], on the basis of which the different kinds dialect pronunciation - the so-called “yakanya”.

In modern Northern Russian dialects, akanie pronunciation is retained, and this feature was preserved for a long time in the speech of Moscow residents, where akanye initially characterized the speech of the lower social classes, and became widespread only in the 17th century. “Hiccups” characteristic of literary language, i.e. the pronunciation after soft consonants of an unstressed vowel close to [and] arose no earlier than the 18th century. Also in early XIX V. The orthoepic norm of the Russian literary language was akanye in the narrow sense ([а = а ъ] after the hard word) and екане, i.e. pronunciation [e] after a soft consonant.

Control questions

• 1. How is the term “Akanye” understood in the narrow and broad sense?
• 2. What is the confirmation of the hypothesis that acania did not develop before the fall of the reduced ones?
• 3. What is the time of the earliest recording of Akanya in written monuments? Give examples.
• 4. What is the pronunciation of pre-stressed vowels in the archaic dissimilative akan?
• 5. In which modern East Slavic dialects and languages ​​is akanye common?
• 6. What is the presumed area of ​​initial appearance of Acaña?
• 7. Describe the following types of pronunciation: yakane, yakane, hiccup.
• 8. How is unstressed vowel phonemes neutralized in the Russian language?
• 9. What is the immediate cause of the laconic pronunciation in modern Russian?
• 10. What is the immediate mechanism for the development of akanya? What are the alternative hypotheses about the antiquity of this or that type of Akanya?
• 11. How could the development of Akanya be influenced by the language-substrate?
• 12. How is the history of the phoneme related to the development of akanya?
• 13. How does the loss of the phoneme tk in an unstressed position correlate with the development of yak?
• 14. How did the orthoepic norm associated with akan change in the Russian literary language?

• There are, however, hypotheses about the secondary nature of dissimilative akanya.
• For more details see paragraph 2.1.
• For the loss of this differential feature, see paragraph 6.3.

Why are the same words pronounced in different ways in different parts of our vast homeland? It is known that by the end of the 14th century, “Akanye” was adopted in the Moscow kingdom, which probably came from the south. “A” instead of “o” is found even in ancient Russian written monuments. But in Novgorod, located 480 kilometers northeast of Moscow, during the same period of time the same vowels in unstressed syllables were pronounced as “o”. The Novgorod principality was completely independent and did not intend to adopt the “southern” dialect of its Muscovite neighbors. Up to this day, this border between the “aciding” and “deadly” regions has been preserved - it lies 120–150 kilometers south of Novgorod.

It turns out that “okanye” is much older than “akanya”, because the latter has spread in Russian speech only in the last few centuries. By the way, in the Russian Church Slavonic language, which was used as a literary language until the 18th century, the unstressed “o” and “a” also differed in pronunciation. Until the middle of the 19th century in Moscow, during the reading of poetry or the delivery of solemn speeches, the “okanye” was preserved. M.V. himself Lomonosov wrote in his “Russian Grammar”, published in 1755: “This pronunciation is more common in ordinary conversations, but in reading books and in the presentation of oral speeches it tends towards the exact pronunciation of letters.” And only from the second half of the 19th century “akanye” became the only norm of literary pronunciation. So the “okaya” speech is much closer to the Old Russian language than the modern literary “akaya”...

How many mistakes can a 1st grade student make in the word beard? It seems that the answer is simple - two: “barada”. Indeed, such mistakes can be made by a student in a Ryazan school or a student in a Voronezh, Tambov, Oryol, Kursk, or Smolensk school. But a student from a Vologda or Kirov, Kostroma or Arkhangelsk school will never make such mistakes, he will always spell this word correctly: beard. And not at all because in these schools the teachers are better or the students are more capable.

Errors in writing reflect our pronunciation. In the Russian literary language, in place of the pre-stress o, the sound [a] is pronounced: they say v[a]da, d[a]ma, st[a]ly, b[a]leny. They say the same thing in the Ryazan, Voronezh, Tambov regions and in a number of other places. This pronunciation is called akanye. Akanye is the non-distinction of unstressed o and a, their coincidence in one sound. If a Moscow school teacher asks a student to write the word s[a]ma on the board, then the student can write sama and soma; both of these words are pronounced the same way: I caught with [a]ma from [a]ma. The words tank and barrel sound the same in literary language. The sentence Place the tank under the tank can be written in four ways: Place the tank under the tank. Place the tank under the barrel. Place the barrel under the tank. Place the barrel under the barrel.

For those who akaet, rules have been invented for checking unstressed vowels: if you hear an unstressed a, check with a stressed p in the same morpheme (i.e. in the same prefix or in the same root, suffix, ending). R. if in place of the unstressed a under the stress o, write both here and there o: st[a]ly - st[o]l - tables - table. If in place of an unstressed a there is an accent a, write both here and there a: tr[a]va - tr[a]vka - grass - grass.

A sound in which the unstressed ones coincide when akaning<о>And<а>, maybe [a], as in the examples we looked at. But not necessarily [a]. In unstressed syllables, except for the first pre-stressed one, during akanye a sound can be pronounced that is intermediate between [a] and [s]. In phonetic transcription (the exact transmission of sounds) it is designated [ъ]: v[ъ]dyanoy - tr[ъ]vyanoy, vyem[ъ]lyu - vym[ъ]nu, kol[ъ] к[ъ]л - howl[ ъ]к[ъ]л. But we write either about: water, I will beg, bell, or a: herbal, I will lure, I will latch.

Okanye is the distinction between unstressed<о>And<а>. When drinking they say v[o]da, l[o]ma, st[o]ly, big. And at the same time tr[a]va, d[a]la, k[a]dushka They will say: I s[a]ma caught\a] s[o]ma That’s why the scounders don’t make mistakes in writing these words . For them, writing these words is as easy as for the alkalists - the words house and ladies, current and so, table and became. Please note that the words “grass”, “dala”, “tub” will be pronounced in the same way by the cultivators and the cultivators.

There are two types of ocaña - complete and incomplete. Fully immersed<о>And<а>differ in all unstressed syllables. They say p[o]l[o]zhu, g[o]r[o]dskoy, z[o]t[o] and n[a]d[a]t, z[a]v[a]rit, exhibition]. In case of incomplete immersion<о>And<а>differ only in the first pre-stressed syllable, and in other unstressed syllables they do not differ, coinciding in the sound [ъ]: p[ъ]л[о]zhu, g[ъ]р[о]дский, з[ъ]л[ъ] t[b] - n[b]d[a]vat, z[b]v[a]rit, put [b]vk[b].

Full okanye is characteristic of the Northern Russian dialect, akanye - for the Southern Russian dialect. Incomplete okanye is like an intermediate system between full okanye and akanye: it also includes the distinction of unstressed<о>And<а>, and their non-distinction. This is also reflected territorially: incomplete Okanye is characteristic of part of the Central Russian dialects located between the northern and southern dialects.

It’s good when modern schoolchildren write correctly: this indicates high level their education and culture. But a highly literate ancient Russian scribe brings little joy to scientists. On the contrary, they rejoice when they discover a monument of writing with errors against the spelling rules of that time. Errors allow you to understand the scribe's pronunciation.

The most ancient Russian written monuments reflect okanye - a strict, unmistakable distinction<о>And<а>not only with stress, but also without stress. It is obvious that all Russian people in those days (X, XI, XII centuries) were angry. The first reliable examples of Akanya are found in the 14th century. Thus, in Moscow manuscripts of this time we find: in the deserted lands, Siman, I will touch, etc.

Along with these examples, in the same manuscripts there are also cases of writing an unstressed o instead of the original a: Koluga, pryazano, obyazon, etc. What is this evidence of okanya? But when okanye [o] is pronounced only in place of the original o, in the same words and when okanye it should be pronounced [a]. No, these examples also testify to the scribe’s acanthia.

The fact is that the unstressed [a] in akanya corresponds to two letters: a and o. And the scribe can make a mistake: instead of the letter o write a or, conversely, instead of the letter a write o. After all, in pronunciation, unstressed a and o do not differ.