Re: Russians and their palates

David H wrote:

> I was wondering if any language
> makes a distinction between plain & palatalized consonants followed by
> [i]...
Most Left-bank Ukrainian dialects do it. Consonants are palatalized
before [i] only if it originates from old yat'. Otherwise, that is if
[i] < [o], [i\j], they are not palatalized. This even makes minimal
pairs!
сік [sik] 'juice' :: сік (*сїк) [s;ik] 'he was beating with a rod',
тік [tik] 'threshing-floor' :: тік (*тїк) [t;ik] 'he was flowing' ::
(тик) [tIk] 'teak tree'. As you see, in this case it is even contrasted
to [I]!
Cf. also сині (*синї) ["sIn;i] 'dark blue (N.pl.)', but чорні
["ts`)O4ni] 'black (N.pl.)'

Till 1930s it was a literary standard too - see the forms with
asterisks. Then the Bolsheviks prescripted a different orthoepic norm in
accordance to Russian: to palatalize consonants in all positions before
[i]. But the phenomenon is quite alive. My wife is from Poltava region,
Ukrainian is her L1, and she does make this distinction while speaking
slowly.

> Russian doesn't, because unpalatalized consonants cannot come before
> [i] (Unless they have the hard sign before them, which I think is
quite
> rare)
It is not rare. It is simply impossible. The only occasion we use the
hard sign is if a prefix ending in consonant, is added to a word
starting with vowel. But it does not work with words beginning with [i].
In this case no hard sign is added, and [i] > [i\].
явить _javit'_ 'to make appear' > объявить _ob#javit'_ 'to announce',
but
играть _igrat'_ 'to play' > обыграть _obygrat'_ 'to win in a game'.

-- Yitzik