FROM THE BOTTOMS TO THE TOPS: COMMON SLAVIC AND INDIVIDUAL FEATURES OF THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE(2)

Abstract

This article continues the examination of the complex issue of harmony in the combination of Proto-Slavic and Ukrainian language features in the modern phonemic-phonetic system of our language, which was reflected in the article in the previous issue of the same journal – Scientific Notes. Series: Philological Sciences Issue 1 (208). In this investigation, we raise the problem of the modern subsystem of consonant phonemes formation, which has as its support the common Slavic consonant base and became the basis for the creation of peculiar phonetic foundations and other related languages; we consider the reasons for the loss of the old and the appearance of the new consonant phonemes; we are trying to find external factors that somehow made changes to the consonant subsystem. Traditionally, students attending historical grammar classes at higher education institutions qualify the Proto- Slavic language of the most ancient times as vocal-consonant, one in which the number of vowels prevailed over the number of consonants. At the same time, they trace how the number of vowels decreased due to the processes of time-quantity equalization and monophthongization of diphthongs when at the turn of the millennium (BC and AD), the number of consonants increased after three back-lingual palatalizations and changes of Г, К, Х, Д, Т, З, С in compounds with j. At the time of the Proto-Slavic language continuum disintegration, tribal languages were already consonant-vocalic. Further development of phonetic systems of related Slavic languages followed its path, although their common history in some ways was preserved, partly changing, moving away from the close one. As the practice of the history of language teaching shows, students relatively easily remember what phonetic processes took place in the consonant system, and navigate more or less freely in their chronology, but professional communicative competence, which is manifested in the ability to discuss questions about the phonetic features of their language against the background others, to discuss and convince with indisputable facts is not developed for everyone. Therefore, conscious knowledge of historical phonetics should become one of the communicative achievements, one of the components of worldview beliefs about the originality of the native language, and the responsibility for its preservation. We plan to continue the examination of the distinctive features of the Ukrainian language on the example of units of other levels of the language system.