Central Russian dialects: a comparative description of the center and the periphery

Abstract

The paper presents a comparative study of two modern Central Russian dialects, the eastern (with okanie) and the Western (with akanie). Their features are considered not only against the background of the opposition of the western and eastern Russian dialect continuum, but also from the point of view of the opposition of central and peripheral dialects. The eastern idiom, located in the Volga-Oka interfluve, belongs to the core of the center zone and has a number of features that coincide with the literary language, which is based on the dialects of the specified territory. The western idiom is characterized by signs of peripheral dialects, as well as northwestern and western dialect zones. From a historical point of view, the eastern dialect tends to the Rostov-Suzdal dialect, and the western dialect tends to the Novgorod–Pskov dialect. The material shows that the dialect features that contrast the central (eastern) and peripheral (western) dialects are well preserved at all language levels.