The Initial Phoneme /j/ in Russian Language in the Forms of Personal Pronouns im, imi, ikh (‘them’)

This work is devoted to the study of one of the aspects of the functioning of the sound /j/ in the Russian literary language, namely, its behavior in a special position – before [i] in the pronoun forms im, imi, ikh (them). At the end of the 19th – the beginning of the 20th centuries, according to most researchers before the initial [i] there was a sound [j] if the pronoun acted as a separate phonetic word or non-syllable [i]. Compare: [jim] [jimi] [jih] or [i »im] [i»imi] [i»ih]. However, the scientific literature data of that time suggest that it is possible that the absence of [j] in this position was encountered more often than noted by researchers. Some scholars have expressed the opinion that the initial / j / in the casual speech of native speakers in this period preceded any front and front-middle vowels, in particular [i] and [e]. The article analyzes the scientific views of scientists on this problem in the XX century and draws parallels with the behavior of /j/ in dialects. The article reveals that during the entire XX century the number of positions in which the initial [j] was required gradually reduced (including those in the place of iotated vowels). The results of the conducted orthoepic experiment made it possible to state that the initial phoneme /j/, in the late XIX – early XX centuries. normatively acting as [j] ([and i»]) in the forms of the pronouns im, imi, ikh (them) is currently replaced by the zero sound.

Keywords

orthoepy, personal pronouns, variability, orthoepic norm, norm change, initial /j/

Received

12.12.2021

Publication date

12.12.2021

Number of characters

24754

Cite

GOST	Antonova O. The Initial Phoneme /j/ in Russian Language in the Forms of Personal Pronouns im, imi, ikh (‘them’) // Russkaya Rech’ – 2021. – Issue 5 C. 7-21 [Electronic resource]. URL: http://ras.jes.su/rusrech/s013161170017236-8-1-en (circulation date: 07.05.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S013161170017236-8
MLA	Antonova, Olga V. "The Initial Phoneme /j/ in Russian Language in the Forms of Personal Pronouns im, imi, ikh (‘them’)." Russkaya Rech’ 5 (2021):7-21. DOI: 10.31857/S013161170017236-8
APA	Antonova O. (2021). The Initial Phoneme /j/ in Russian Language in the Forms of Personal Pronouns im, imi, ikh (‘them’). Russkaya Rech’ (5), pp.7-21 DOI: 10.31857/S013161170017236-8

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