“Irregular” -ě- after hushing sibilants in verbal suffixes in Middle Russian writing

Abstract

The paper attempts to identify the causes of the phonetically irregular -ě- after hushing sibilants in verbal suffixes in Middle Russian writing. The author suggests treating this linguistic fact as a systemic one, not connected with the spelling tradition of the southern Slavs, since most of these verbs occur in vernacular sources. With the use of the material from the Dictionary of the Russian language of the XI‒XVII centuries, 13 verbs with the suffix -ě- after hushing sibilants could be found. Prefixed verbs have resultative meaning, unprefixed ones denote telic processes. The analogical distribution of the suffix -ě- is probably caused by two factors. Firstly, the suffix -a-1, the allomorph of the suffix -ѣ- with the meaning of process, and the suffix -a-2, the imperfectivization marker, were homonymous; secondly, it was necessary to form decausative verbs in the period when reflexiveness has not yet become the main way of decausation.