Re: OT: Russian and Ukrainian (was: Re: semi-OT: bilingual communication)

 Mangiat wrote:

> Has your wife's dialect a phonemic opposition between /i/ and /M/ (whereas
> these are generally considered allophones in Russian, occurring the former
> after palatalized consonants, the latter after plain consonants)? What's
> their status in Std. Ukrainian?
1. There is no /M/ either in Russian or in Ukrainain.
In Russian _y_ reflects the sound [i\] (barred i in IPA, number one in
XSAMPA), and indeed makes no phonemic opposition to plain [i].
In Ukrainian _y_ reflects the sound [I] in stressed syllables and [e_-]
(smth midway between [e] and [@\]) in unstressed syllables , which is in
opposition both to /i/ and /e/ [E]. Ukrainian /i/ seldom corresponds to
Russian /i/. In most cases it is the result of changes of /o/ or /e^/.
Ukrainian /y/ is the result of merging /i/ and /y/.
Look:
Ru. _sínjaja_ "blue" (N.f.sn.) :: Uk. _sýnja_
Ru. _syn_ "son" :: Uk. _syn_
but Ru. _bélyj_ (ORu. _bêlyj_) "white" (N.m.sn.) :: Uk. _bílyj_
Ru. _konj_ "horse" :: Uk. _kinj_ (N.sn.), but _konjá_ (G.sn.)

> The masculine gen.pl. ending is -iv, IIRC...
-iv [iw] in most cases where Ru. has -ov.

> 1) did Ukrainian realize the palatalization of /M/ after velars as Russian
> did? and I
> heard "Kiev" pronounced something like [kMw], or [kMjew]...
No. Velars do not require palatalization of /y/. So you'll have G.sn. _ruký_
from N.sn. _ruká_ "hand". The palatalization turns /k/ > /cj/, /h/ > /zj/
and /ch/ > /sj/. So, D.sn. from _ruká_ will be _rucí_ (cf. to ORu. _rukê_).
And the capital is called _Kýjiv_ ["kI.jiw], obl. stem _Kýjev-_

> 2) is there any Akanie phenomenon? [svO'bOda] and your exemple (molodyj =
> [mOlO'dIj]) make me think there is not, but I thought that was a
> characteristic feature of Souther East Slavic (there's no Akanie in
Northern
> Russian dialects, AFAIK).
No. Akan'je is peculiar to *Middle* Russian dialects and Belarussian
(Byelorussian).
In Uk. phoneme /o/ is realised as [O] both in stressed and unstressed
position except of unstressed syllables preceding syllables with high vowels
/i/ and /u/ where it is realised as [o].
E.g.: póle ["pOle_-] "field",  vodá [wO"da] "water", but horích [ho"rix]
"nut", zozúlja [zo"zul_ja] "cuckoo".

With love,
Yitzik