Russian Dialects Essay

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Russian Dialects Introduction: The Russian language has a large amount of dialects. Most Russian speakers we encounter expose us to the standard Russian, also known as the ‘Moscow Dialect’. Many linguists group the dialects of the Russian language into 2 primary regional groupings: northern and southern, with Moscow lying in between the 2. Others however, divide the language into three grouping: northern, central and southern, Moscow being the central region. Southern Russian Dialect Southern Russian is spoken around Tula, Ryazan, Oryol, Tambov and greater parts of Voronezh and Kursk Oblast. Common differences from standard Russian are due to the phonological phenomena known as yakanye, akanye and cokonye. In yakanye unstressed /o/, /e/, /a/ are pronounced as /ae/. Unlike standard Russian where если is pronounced (esli) they pronounce it as (easli). In akanye unstressed /o/ and /a/ undergo vowel reduction. In cokanye there is a failure to distinguish between ‘ц’ and ‘ч’ Northern Russian Dialect The northern Russian dialects are those spoken in Arkhangelsk, Kirov Oblast, Murmansk Oblast, Nizhniy Novgorod and a couple more. In Northern Russian okanye is the most common phonological phenomenon. In okanye the unstressed /o/ is pronounced clearly. Therefore a northern Russian speaker would pronounce ‘голова’ as (golova). In Novgorod cokonye is also displayed, this is thought to be due to Finnish influence). Central Russian Dialect The central dialects are one of the main groups of the Russian Dialects. Central Russian is a transitional stage between the north and the south. Therefore both features of the north and south can be found in

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