The Reflexes of jat' in Rusyn

This paper discusses the reflexes of the Proto-Slavonic jat' vowel in the Rusyn language of Backa & Syrmia. If a few instances of an a-reflex are disregarded, it can be stated that in Rusyn jat' becomes either i or e, each accounting for an approximately equal number of cases. A comparative-historical analysis shows that the distribution of the reflexes depends on the quantity of Old Slovak e, which results from a merger of Proto-Slavonic *e & *e. Some exceptions can be explained either as Serbian or Ukrainian borrowings, or by the tendency in Rusyn to generalise the lengthened syllable of the nominative singular. Adapted from the source document