The transition "e" to "o" in the old Russian language

In the ancient Russian language in the last centuries of its existence, the vowel of the front row e was labeled into a vowel of the back row about before solid consonants . This became possible only after the tendency towards intrasylar synharmonism , which has been preserved since pre-Slavic times, has weakened.

The transition probably took place in two stages ^[2] : at the first, only the vowel after the primordially soft consonants - sonorous ( p ′ , l ′ , n ′ , ј ′ ), hissing ( f ′ , w ′ , j ′ , h ′ ) And c ′ - and on the second (after secondary mitigation of consonants) the previous consonant did not matter.

Traces of transition exist in all East Slavic languages, but they differ from language to language.

Ukrainian language

In Ukrainian, the reflexes of the first stage of transition are most fully preserved: Old-Russian. ѥmu, bee (bzhela), four > ukr. yom, bjola, chotiri . After the second-time softened consonants, o (< e , b ) occurs irregularly:

The transition of e to o in Ukrainian proceeded simultaneously with the transition from e , o > і in closed syllables and was completed before the sizzling hardened.

Russian language

In the Russian language, during the second stage of the transition, the shock position e : dr.-rus. med, fly, live > rus. honey, flight, live . The result, after the first stage, of an unstressed position turned back to e : black (but black ), bee (but r. N. Mn. H. Bees ). The transition could occur at the absolute end of the word: Old Russian. my, live > rus. my life Unique for the Russian language is the transition e > about before sizzling ( clasp , give ).

According to the relative chronology, the transition of e to o in Russian was completed after or during the hardening of the sizzling, but before the hardening of c ' .

In the North Russian dialects, the transition occurred in an unstressed position .

Old Novgorod dialect

According to birch bark documents , the transition in the Novgorod dialect zone begins no later than the XII century. and lasts at least until the XV century.

In the dialects with early mixing, b and e, there is also observed an early transition: b : o : grivon , grivon (< grivna ); lyudom (< lyudm ). An early transition happens after hardened p (in which the Proto-Slavic * ŕ , * r merged): berosto , tseros 'cheres'. As in the dialect of North-Eastern Russia, there are examples of transition in the final positions, but there are no examples for transition in front of hissing ones, moreover, even in the late phase, the transition also occurred in unstressed positions. ^[3]

Belorussian language

As in the Russian language, the results in the Belarusian language are only preserved for the shock vowel, unstressed , but it turned out after the first stage of the transition, naturally changed in a : dr-rus. four > * chotiri > Belor. chats . Belarussian is also characterized by a transition to the position of the end of the word.

The transition in the Belarusian language was completed before the hardening of sizzling, ц ′ and p ′ , as evidenced by such forms as Belor. trokh (< old -Russian. three ) with o after hardened p , Maladzian (< old -Russian. young ) and adzazh ( old -Russian. clothing / clothing ) with e in front of solidified c and f .

Since in the early Slavic languages, o could not occur after soft consonants, the original version of the Cyrillic alphabet did not contain the symbol “ioated o” (unlike the iroted a , y , e , ѧ , ѫ ). For this reason, Eastern Slavs had to resort to surrogate spellings, most often using e (by virtue of written tradition) and o (without additional designation of softness).

After the 17th century, the letter combination іо ( оо ) was used in Russia, and in 1783 the sign E was introduced, which still exists in the Russian and Belarusian alphabets. In Ukrainian , the letter combination is used instead, or yo .

• In Polish , Slavinian , Kashubian, and extinct Polaba , the change of e > o before the hard front-lingual consonants ( d , t , z , s , n , r , ł ) in the 9th — 10th centuries occurred as part of a more general phonetic process called Lechit replay . As a result, in the Polish language such alternations as wieźć 'carry' - wiozł 'carried' appeared ^[4] .

Sound about after soft or hardened consonants could be found in other positions:

• in borrowing (primarily Germanism , gallicism , Anglicism ): Fr. acteur > rus. an actor ; tour. döner > him. Döner > rus. doner ; him Jot > rus. yot ; English shorts > rus shorts
• As a result of the analogy:
  • in Russian - with other forms of verbs (second person, plural. take as third person, singularly takes ) or nouns ( locative (in) flight as nominative flight ).
    • or some borrowing with others: him. Wachter > rus. watchman (and not * watchman ) as an actor (< fr. acteur ).
  • in Ukrainian - with cognates in Russian: Ukrainian. pidyom (along with the etymologically correct form pіd'їm ) as rus. rise Not enshrined in the literary norm.
• o < ѣ in some cases as a result of the later mixing of e with ѣ in some dialects of the Russian language : dr.-rus. stars > rus. the stars .
• in the Belarusian language - after the appearance of the prosthetic sound [j] at the beginning of the word: dr.-rus. on > Belor. yon

• Rusinov N. D. Old Russian language. - 1977.