This is a sound change related to a vowel which has existed in the old language, but has not remained in the modern one- ѣ.
In the modern literary language it is replaced either with я or е. This occurs in the northern east speeches, while in the western dialects appears only e and in some south-east speeches- only я.
The rule in the modern literary language is: to appear я in the place of the old vowel ѣ there must be two conditions (at the same time:)
- The old vowel must be stressed
- The old vowel must be in front of hard syllable or in an ultimate one.- Syllable is hard when there is a back or mid vowel- а, ъ, о, у. It is soft when the vowel is front- е, и.
Examples: л ‘ято-л’етни зв‘яр-зверов‘е
Exceptions:
- One pronounce and write e instead of я in words which have come from the western speeches or from Russian: човек, век, съсед, дело, употреба и др.
- One pronounce and write e instead of я when after the old vowel occurred sound ж, ч, ш : снежна, пречка, грешка.
- One pronounce and write я instead of e in the verb forms of Aorist and Imperfect in 1st ans 2nd p. plural: търпяхме, търпяхте.
Selected and translated from
Граматика за всички, Борис Кръстев, София 1995
хм, връщаш ме години назад…
какъв бе случаят със „свят – светска/о“ ?
It was visually quite fun to see so many yats parading in sentences such as:
Азъ сѣдѣлъ съмъ.
Не дѣй писа!
and words such as врѣме, дѣте, двѣтѣ, рѫцѣ etc., all taken from W. R. Morfill’s Simplified Grammar of the Bulgarian Language (1897), which I happened to get a .PDF copy of not long ago.
The very little I knew about this topic, however, I’d learnt from http://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/studier/studenttjenester/Nettressurser/bulg/mat/gram/104phrul.html#mutatJA.
Obrigado pela leitura. 🙂
Val, I suppose it is because the adjectives of this root en on -ь: свѣтъ- свѣтьлъ and therefore, probably, свѣтьски . Which leads me to the thought that old Bulgarian vowel system and positions should also be regarded. So, front vowels are also: ь, ѧ, ѣ.
Psi, shouldn’t it be Не дѣи писати?
Yes, I suppose that is the case. I guess it also applies to „цвят – цветна/о“, „бяс – бясна/о“. 🙂
Sorry, read „блясък – блесна“ instead of „бяс – бясна/о“
Aham, the suffix is -ьнъ. In masculine the final er-vowel is in week position and is dropped, thus, the little er , which is in strong position, gets vocalized in „e“. In the other genders and numbers the little er in in week position and thus the language drops it. That’s why: бяс-бесен-бясна-бясно-бесни {because of the „и“}.
😉 Колко яко.
The full section reads as follows:
The negative imperative can also be expressed by the use of the auxiliary дѣй, which here corresponds exactly to the English auxiliary ‘do;’ as,—
Не дѣй писа (sing.)
Не дѣй писа (plur.)
‘Do not write’
instead of the forms пиши and пишете: писа is here the verbal root.
* Не дѣйте писа (plur.)
Aah,,yes… in some regions it can be heard with an accent on the last syllable: it’s actually a descendant of the infinitive, but with dropped final -ti 😉