Southern Russian Dialects - Phonology

Phonology

• Unstressed /o/ undergoes different degrees of vowel reduction mainly to (strong akanye), less often to, .
• Unstressed /o/, /e/, /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable are not reduced to (like in the Moscow dialect), being instead pronounced in such positions (e.g. несли is pronounced, not ) – this is called yakanye/яканье.
• Fricative /ɣ/ instead of the Standard and Northern /ɡ/. Soft /ɣʲ/ is usually .
• Semivowel /w~u̯/ in the place of the Standard and Northern /v/ and final /l/.
• /x~xv~xw/ where the Standard and Northern have /f/.
• Protetic /w~u̯/ before /u/ and stressed /o/: во́кна, ву́лица, Standard Russian окна, улица "windows, street".
• Protetic /j/ before /i/ and /e/: етот, ентот, Standard Russian этот "this".
• In Pskov (southern) and Ryazan sub-groups only one voiceless affricate exists. Merging of Standard Russian /t͡ʃ/ and /t͡s/ into one consonant whether /t͡s/ or /t͡ɕ/.