Back to Matrix [r] → [rʲ] Edit this Data

[rʲ]→[r]Certainty: 4/5Commonality: 3/5

Palatalized voiced alveolar trill to Alveolar trill

The loss of palatalization on the alveolar trill — depalatalization of /rʲ/ to plain /r/ — is documented in Baltic and Slavic. In Standard Latvian, the phoneme /rʲ/ (written ŗ) gradually merged with /r/, with the letter ŗ officially removed from the alphabet in 1946. Across broad Slavic territory, Common Slavic *rʲ underwent dispalatalization between the 10th and 13th centuries, surviving only in specific phonological environments or dialects in some modern languages.

Phonetic Effects

Depalatalization, Merger, Loss of Secondary Articulation

Language Examples

Standard Latvian Baltic

ŗīts→rīts— Morning; the palatalized trill /rʲ/, written ŗ, merged with plain /r/ in Standard Latvian. The letter ŗ was officially removed from the alphabet by the Latvian SSR legislature on 5 June 1946.

ŗaut→raut— To tear, pull; another instance of the ŗ→r merger following the 1946 orthographic reform.

Ukrainian Slavic

*rʲ (Common Slavic)→r— Common Slavic *rʲ dispalatalized across broad Slavic territory in the 10th–13th centuries. Modern Standard Ukrainian lacks phonemic /rʲ/ entirely, in contrast to Russian where the contrast is preserved before vowels.

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Slavic Shifts

[a] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction [dʲ] → [dʒ] — Affrication [d] → [dʑ] — Palatalization [e] → [i] — Vowel Raising [e] → [o] — Backing

Sources & References

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