ITKIN’S LAW

The paper clarifies a set of conditions for Itkin’s law (ѣ [ě] and я [ѧ,ę] to ё [ë, jo] transition, i.e., [ě, jo] and я [ѧ, ę, jö] formation) and provides

some foundations for the phonetic nature of such conditions. Those include (1) a stem being of the accent paradigm (a.p.) b [so called right-accentuality of this a.p. correlates with the rightward accomodational orientation, i.e., a stem is characterized by an increased propensity to anticipatory change of vowel timbre across the dividing consonantal barrier and under the influence of the next vowel]; (2) positioning of such ѣ or я in front of the consonant cluster [this position results in — after the rule of “rising (ascending) sonority” (or “sonority wave”, “open syllable”) stops acting, the reduced vowels begin to fall and a syllable is restructured anew — in a syllabic border right- ward drift, up to formation of a syllable closed by the first consonant in the cluster; (3) limitation on the structure of the abovementioned consonant cluster which is manifested in a ban on two voiceless (± sonorant) consonants conjunction; this conjunction, due to thereby precipitated relatively longer voice interrupt, prevents a full-scaled accomodation of ѣ or я to a back vowel of the following syllable. Some closer phenomena in cognate languages (Ukrainian, Slovene) are adduced. All available relevant material is listed, a single example being analyzed in some greater detail to demonstrate the impossibility of contesting the presence of ѣ as a root vowel within its stem.