Akanye or akanje ( be, аканне, russian: а́канье, ), literally "''a''-ing", is a
sound change in
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...
in which the
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...
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 Creek language), and which are per ...
.
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 (
Polissia
Polesia, Polesie, or Polesye, uk, Полісся (Polissia), pl, Polesie, russian: Полесье (Polesye) is a natural and historical region that starts from the farthest edge of Central Europe and encompasses Eastern Europe, including East ...
n)
Ukrainian dialects
In the Ukrainian language there are three major dialectal groups according to territory: ( uk, південно-західне наріччя, translit=pivdenno-zakhidne narichchia), ( uk, південно-східне наріччя, translit ...
*
Slovene dialects
In a purely dialectological sense, Slovene dialects ( sl, slovenska narečja , ) are the regionally diverse varieties that evolved from old Slovene, a South Slavic language of which the standardized modern version is Standard Slovene. This al ...
(e.g., Lower Carniolan dialects),
[Toporišič, Jože. 1992. ''Enciklopedija slovenskega jezika''. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, p. 2.]
* Some subgroups of the
Kajkavian dialect
Kajkavian (Kajkavian noun: ''kajkavščina''; Shtokavian adjective: ''kajkavski'' , noun: ''kajkavica'' or ''kajkavština'' ) is a South Slavic regiolect or language spoken primarily by Croats in much of Central Croatia, Gorski Kotar and nort ...
of
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...
*
Bulgarian dialects
Bulgarian dialects are the nonstandard dialect, regional varieties of the Bulgarian language, a South Slavic language. Bulgarian dialectology dates to the 1830s and the pioneering work of Neofit Rilski, ''Bolgarska gramatika' ...
(e.g., the Rhodope dialects, including the
Smolyan dialect
The Smolyan dialect or Central Rhodope dialect is a Bulgarian dialect of the Rhodopean group of the Rup dialects. Its range includes most of the Central Rhodopes, i.e. the region of Smolyan. Its immediate neighbours are the Rhodopean Hvoyna diale ...
).
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 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
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 f ...
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
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 f ...
– about ikanye.
Notes
Sources
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akanye
Phonology
Slavic phonologies