Akanye
Encyclopedia
Akanye or akanje is a phonological
phenomenon in Slavic
languages in which speakers pronounce the sound a instead of o. The most familiar example is probably Russian akanye
. Akanye is also found in standard Belarusian
(represented orthographically) as well as in northern (Polissian) Ukrainian dialects
, Slovene dialects (e.g., Lower Carniolan dialects), and Bulgarian dialects
(e.g., the Rhodope dialects, including the Smolyan dialect
).
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
phenomenon in Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
languages in which speakers pronounce the sound a instead of o. The most familiar example is probably Russian akanye
Vowel reduction in Russian
Vowel reduction in Russian differs in the standard language and in dialects. Several ways of reduction are distinguished.There are five vowel phonemes in Standard Russian. Vowels tend to merge together when they are unstressed. The vowels and have the same unstressed allophones for a number of...
. Akanye is also found in standard Belarusian
Belarusian language
The Belarusian language , sometimes referred to as White Russian or White Ruthenian, is the language of the Belarusian people...
(represented orthographically) as well as in northern (Polissian) Ukrainian dialects
Ukrainian dialects
A dialect is a territorial, professional or social variant of a standard literary language.In the Ukrainian language there are 3 major dialectical groups according to territory: the south-western group, the south-eastern group and the northern group of dialects....
, Slovene dialects (e.g., Lower Carniolan dialects), and Bulgarian dialects
Bulgarian dialects
Bulgarian dialects are the regional spoken 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
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...
).