Martynova A. The Middle-Dnieper dialect. Phonology and phonetics

The work has been done to make a most complete description of phonetic and phonological systems of the Middle-Dnieper dialect; also the boundaries and inner structure of the dialect were defined. The phonological and phonetic investigation of the middle-Dnieper patois had made the systematic and linguo-geographical study of this dialect most effective. in the process of the phonological analysis of the msddle-Dnieper patois the system of peculiar oppositions was singled out, together with the inventory of the phonemes, with their representations in the sound structure of a word; also it was stated, that the meaning of both vowels and consonants depends jn separate positions, which are different for the cases of vowel-consonant realizations and for definite groups of patois. On the ground of the linguo-geographical investigation of the phonetic and phonological systems of the middle-Dnieper patois their inner division is originally established: the dialect zones are actually singled out - those central,northern, southern, western and eastern, within which separate groups of patois are functioning. The investigation of the phonetic and phonological systems of the Ukrainian dialectal continuum has evidently demonstrated the paradigmatic and syntagmatic peculiarities of its structure, the systematic character in the arealogic behaviour of its characteristic features, that had reflected in the division of the dialects under investigation.