Ослаблїня позіції вокалу [и] в русиньскім языку на Словакії (Одраз у правописї і высловности.)
Weakening of the Vocalic Sound [и] Position in the Rusyn Language in Slovakia (Reflection in Orthography and Pronunciation.)

Summary/Abstract: In Rusyn dialects in Slovakia, a long-term phenomenon of weakening the vocalic sound [и] in favour of [i] has been noticed. This poses the question whether the vocalic sound [и] should, in Rusyn, be considered a self-contained phoneme, as it is merely a variant of the phoneme [i]. This is due to the fact that the vowel [и] is absent in Old Russian. The vowel [i] in Rusyn dialects is, however, not only a substitution of the original Old Russian (Eastern Slavonic) [ɪ]; rather, in individual words its origin varies, or, one could say, originates in all Old Russian (Eastern Slavonic) vowels and semi-vowels. As will be shown using examples, in almost all the words specified for this research, a substitution of the vocalic sound [i] is observed in certain positions. These are, to a great extent, examples of words in which, in Ukrainian (as the closest neighbouring Eastern Slavonic language where the vocalic sound [и] is part of the phonological system), the vocalic sound [и] is present in the orthography (as well as pronunciation). The paper strives to answer the question whether, in Rusyn, the vocalic sounds [и] and [i] will merge.

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