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Re: Yers (was Re: Apologies)

From:Isaac Penzev <isaacp@...>
Date:Saturday, November 29, 2003, 20:35
John Cowan scripsit:

> Isaac Penzev scripsit: > > > > It's estimated that 3% of all pre-reform Russian text consisted > > > of redundant final hard signs, and in Bulgarian the figure is > > > more like 12%. > > > > But! Yers are pronounced in Bulgarian as [7]. I'm especially fond of > > the word ["7g75] 'corner'. > > That's true, but doesn't apply to final hard signs, which have been > silent for a long time. Before 1945, *every* Bulgarian word ending in a > consonant had a final hard sign, whether it represented an original short > vowel or not.
Pre-reformed Bulgarian spelling used final soft signs too.
> In post-1945 orthography, all final silent hard signs were > dropped, and the few non-silent ones that remain (mostly Turkish loans) > are written with accent grave over them.
Grave is written on all accented vowels (and yer is a vowel) in vocabularies and textbooks. Yer is written for all /7/ whether they originate from real yers or from Old Slavic /O~/: _7g7l_ (from _o~gUlU_), _r7ka_ (from _ro~ka).
> The word for "(they) are" > is a special case: it's written "sa" even though it is pronounced [s7].
Yep. In many forms of verbs (as well as in the definite article) it is spelt _a_ (or _ja_ if after a soft consonant): _gradá_ [gra"d7] 'the city' (Obl.), _denját_ [de"n_j7t] 'the day', _chetá_ [tSe"t7] 'I read', _v7rvjá_ [v7r"v_j7] 'I go'. Apollo Hogan scripsit:
> There is also still used two other signs, > which I've forgotten the names of, so I'll draw little pictures:
Right. Big yus was written for /7/ originating from OS /O~/ (see above), and yat - for both [e] and [ja] known today as "promenlivo ja": _zhelézen_ 'iron (adj.m.)' : _zheljázna_ 'iron (adj.f.)' -- Yitzik