Phonetic features of Kostroma dialects in the first half of the 17th century and their further fate

The article considers phonetic features of Kostroma dialects of the 17th century and compares
them to the present situation in the Kostroma – Soligalich – Kologriv triangle. As the
primary source for this research, the Kostroma registry book for the years 1619-1634 was
used. Its data were compared with those present in the Dialectological Atlas of the Russian
Language. Northern Russian Kostroma dialects have undergone several modifications: reflexes
of the phoneme /ê/ in anteposition to palatalized consonants have changed; in the
Chukhloma region, there is nowadays an area where genetically southern Russian dialects
representing akanje are present; there is a much stronger tendency towards neutralization of
all unstressed non-high vowels in postposition to palatalized consonants in the sound [e] (regardless
of the quality of the following consonant); progressive assimilative palatalization of
velar consonants has become common, while relic palatal realizations of hushing phonemes
/š/ and /ž/ have become almost extinct, and relic palatal realizations of phoneme /c/ have
completely disappeared.