REDUCTION OF UNSTRESSED VOWELS TO ZERO IN DISSIMILATIVE VOCALISM DIALECTS

The article is devoted to the analysis of the diaeresis of unstressed vowels in the dialects of the southwestern zone of the southern Russian dialect. In particular, it is shown that the greater involvement of unstressed vowels in positional alternations, characteristic of these dialects, determines the weak prevalence of vowel reduction to zero in dialect systems with dissimilative vocalism. At the same time, the most favorable for the reduction of unstressed vowels in dialects with dissimilative vocalism organization is the 1st prestressed syllable before the allophones /a/ (in archaic types also before the allophones /e/ and /o/) in combination with sonorant consonants; in three-syllable words in this position, a complete reduction of the 1st pre-stressed vowel is sometimes encountered: u go[lv]ákh, po[rs’]ёnok, na skovo[rd]ákh, etc. The article notes that the recording of similar examples with diaeresis of the vowel in the 1st pre-stressed syllable before the allophones /a/, /o/ and /e/ in southern Russian dialects may indicate the presence in them (at least in the past) of a dissimilative vocalic system, including an archaic type. At the same time, the lexicography of such pronunciation variants in dialect dictionaries as special lexemes with a graphic reflection of the diaeresis of the 1st pre-stressed vowel is not always justified.