Ukrainian Phonology - Historical Phonological Changes

Historical Phonological Changes

In the Ukrainian language, the following sound changes have occurred between the Common Slavic period and current Ukrainian:

1. In a newly closed syllable, that is, a syllable that ends in a consonant, Common Slavic *o and *e mutated into *i if the next vowel was one of the yers (*ĭ/ь or *ŭ/ъ).
2. Pleophony: The Common Slavic combinations, CoLC and CeLC, where L is either *r or *l become in Ukrainian
   1. CorC gives CoroC (Common Slavic *borda gives Ukrainian boroda)
   2. ColC gives ColoC (Common Slavic *bolto gives Ukrainian boloto)
   3. CerC gives CereC (Common Slavic *berza gives Ukrainian bereza)
   4. CelC gives ColoC (Common Slavic *melko gives Ukrainian moloko)
3. The Common Slavic nasal vowel *ę is reflected as /jɑ/; a preceding labial consonant generally was not palatalized after this, and after a postalveolar it became /ɑ/ Examples: Common Slavic *pętĭ became Ukrainian /pjɑt/ (п’ять); Common Slavic *telę became Ukrainian tɛlʲɑ//; and Common Slavic *kurčę became Ukrainian /kurt͡ʃɑ/.
4. Common Slavic *ě (Cyrillic ѣ), generally became Ukrainian /i/ except:
   1. word-initially, where it became /ji/: Common Slavic *ěsti became Ukrainian /jistɪ/
   2. after the post-alveolar sibilants where it became /ɑ/: Common Slavic *ležěti became Ukrainian /lɛʒɑtɪ/
5. Common Slavic *i and *y are both reflected in Ukrainian as /ɪ/
6. The Common Slavic combination -CǐjV, where V is any vowel, became -CʲCʲV, except:
   1. if C is labial or /r/ where it became -CjV
   2. if V is the Common Slavic *e, then the vowel in Ukrainian mutated to /ɑ/, e.g., Common Slavic *žitĭje became Ukrainian /ʒɪtʲːɑ/
   3. if V is Common Slavic *ĭ, then the combination became /ɛj/, e.g., genitive plural in Common Slavic *myšĭjĭ became Ukrainian /mɪʃɛj/
   4. if one or more consonants precede C then there is no doubling of the consonants in Ukrainian
7. Sometime around the early thirteenth century, the voiced velar stop lenited to (except in the cluster *zg). Within a century, /ɡ/ was reintroduced from Western European loanwords and, around the sixteenth century, debuccalized to .
8. Common Slavic combinations *dl and *tl were simplified to /l/, for example, Common Slavic *mydlo became Ukrainian /mɪlɔ/
9. Common Slavic *ǔl (vocalic *l̥) and *ǐl (vocalic ĺ̥) became /ɔw/. For example, Common Slavic *vĺ̥kǔ became /wɔwk/ in Ukrainian.