Volinja and Pechnar

Last update: 19 February 2008

Introduction

History

The description below concentrates on the two most prestigious varieties: the Volinja spoken in and around the city of Kirce (Kirtse), and the Pechnar of Voroca (Vorotsa). These two varieties are not mutually intelligible; in between them is a wide region of intermediate dialects which starts close to Žíno (Zhino) and extends southwards as far as Jedzyň.

Phonology

The combined consonant-systems are shown below. The palatalised labials, palatal obstruents, and /dz dZ/ occur in Pechnar only; /r_j w/ are found in Volinja only.

Both languages retain the distinction between hard and soft consonants, which dictates the quality of certain following vowels in inflection and derivation; additionally, in both languages some consonants are neutral, i.e. they behave as hard or soft depending on the context. In Volinja, /ts tS S Z l r_j J j/ are soft, /s z/ and the labials are neutral, and the rest are hard. In Pechnar, the palatals and palatalised labials are soft, /r/ is neutral, and the rest are hard; it is also useful in Pechnar to recognise the formerly soft consonants /ts dz S Z tS dZ/.

/r_j/ in Volinja was formerly pronounced as a strident trill [r_r], as in Czech. This pronunciation is still retained in elevated speech and in some southern dialects, but it has usually become [Z].

Stress

Assimilation

Consonant clusters also assimilate regressively for softness - in practice, hard consonants are softened before soft consonants - which is indicated redundantly in the transcription.

Transcription

• Long vowels, which occur in Volinja only, have the acute accent.
• /ts/ and /x/ are transcribed <c> and <h>.
• /tS dZ S Z/ have hacheks <č dž š ž>.
• In Volinja, /w/ is <ł>, and /r_j J/ also have hacheks <ř ň>.
• In Pechnar, the palatals /tC dj\ C j\ J/ are transcribed <ci dzi si zi ni> before vowels and with acute accents <ć dź ś ź ń> otherwise.

In Pechnar, where the distinction between hard and soft consonants is more systematic than in Volinja, prevocalic soft consonants are indicated by a following <i>. If there is a vowel after the <i>, this vowel and not the <i> is pronounced, otherwise the vowel is /i/; /i/ after hard consonants is transcribed <y>. For example, <ne nie ny ni> represent /ne Je ni Ji/ respectively; or, put another way, the otherwise unused spelling <nie> is equivalent to <ńe>. This convention is also extended to <r> with purely historical significance.

Unless otherwise specified, citations are given in both languages with the Volinja first, followed by a slash and the Pechnar; for example péšč / pišč "tooth". If no slash is given and a citation applies to both languages, the word may be assumed to be spelled the same way in both. Rachovian words are given below in UPPERCASE when illustrating historical developments.

Phonological developments from Rachovian

Vowels

In both languages /y y:/ has fronted to [i i:] and merged with /i/: MÎNO "grey" and MŶD "fat" > mino and mid / myd, both with /i/ despite the Pechnar spelling.

The front jer /ì/ has become /e/ in both languages: SÌR "root" > ser / sier, later sior in Pechnar. The back jer /ù/ has become /o/ in Volinja and /e/ in Pechnar: PLÙV "liver" > płov / plev. /e a/ have developed next to older syllabic liquids, whether preceding (before a vowel) or following (before a consonant): KŬRE "eight" > kare / karie, DZHĬLÈS "age" > žałés / džajis (later džajs in Pechnar), GRŬŠE "dirty" > graše.

The nasal vowels denasalised early in Volinja, as was typical of most later Rachovian, and changed in quality; the reflexes of short /a~ e~/ are /u ja/, and of their long counterparts correspondingly /u: ja:/. In Pechnar the long nasal vowels merged in /a~/ and the short ones in /e~/, the original differences remaining in the quality of the preceding consonant. The nasalisation has remained until very recently, but is now lost in all except the most conservative dialects. Thus SÄKO "smoke" > suko / seko, SËVO "word" > savo / sievo, LÏT "horn" > lát jat, KÜT "something" > kút / kat.

The incidence of long vowels in Volinja is further increased by the contraction of sequences of two vowels separated by /j/. This happens most commonly with the participles; for example, skłatu jito "singing" has become /skwa.tu:.to/, with /uji/ > /u:/, and is accordingly transcribed skłatúto.

In Pechnar, /e e:/ became /o a:/ before the hard dentals /t d s z n l r/ and the formerly soft consonants /ts dz tS dZ S Z/, and vowel length has subsquently been lost; for example RETO "mouse" > rioto (but plural RETJA > riecia), DÉSY "I fall" > dziasyr, and SÁNO "dark" > sano. Both of these changes took place before the nasal vowels denasalised, so an /e/ before a hard dental always derives from /e~/.

Consonants

Of the soft consonants, the sibilants /S Z/ and the palatals /j J/ remain unchanged. The others have developed as follows.

• The affricates /ts dz tS dZ/ have become /s z S Z/ before liquids and nasals; the name Pechnar itself thus has /Sn/ from older /Cn/, and CHREVO "blunt, dull" has become šrevo / śrievo (with the colloqual meaning "stupid").
• /c j\/ have merged with /ts dz/, and /dz dZ/ in Volinja have subsequently lost their stop elements and merged with /z Z/; thus DJÛRE "large" > zure / dzurie.
• /r_j/ has merged with /r/ in Pechnar: RJÛSTY "I went" > riustyr has the same initial consonant as RÝSY "I wash" > rysyr; the spelling is historical only.
• Only one lateral survives in each language. In Volinja, original /l/ developed a characteristic velar pronunciation [l], and has now become a glide [w] in all but the most conservative speech, for which reason it is referred to here as /w/; older /L/ has lost its palatality and is now [l], referred to here as /l/. In Pechnar, by contrast, original /l/ remains [l], while /L/ has lost its laterality and merged with /j/. Compare LJÛKÄ "seven" > luku / juke with LÄGH "144" > ług / leg.

Secondary palatalisation

In Pechnar, it is much more extensive. /t d s z/ before the palatalising /e i/ have become a new series of palatal consonants /tC dj\ C j\/, while /l n/ have similarly softened to merge with /j J/; for example /se/ became /Ce/ in SEBO "knee" > siebo, whereas /sa~/ became /se/ in SÄPY "I hunt" > sepyr. Pechnar thus has three serieses of coronal obstruents: dentals /t d s z/, plus /ts dz/; palato-alveolars /tS dZ S Z/; and palatals /tC dj\ C j\/. Thus SEBO "knee" > siebo with initial /C/, SHÜLE "mother" > šaje "mother" with /S/, and SOBO "grass" > sobo with /s/.

Secondary palatalisation is responsible for three further consequences in Pechnar: the hardening of the formerly soft consonants /ts dz tS dZ S Z/, before which /e/ has since become /o/ as mentioned above; the development of the palatalised labials before vowels (they do not occur before consonants or word-finally); and the palatalisation of further /n l r/, merging with /J L r_j/. The resulting /r_j/, of course, has subsequently merged with /r/. The alternations of palatalised and non-palatalised phonemes before /i/ are thus derived from the older alternation between /i/ and /y/; for example PÎDE "hand" > pidzie with /p_ji/ and sepyr with /pi/.

Consonantal alternations

Palatalisation is triggered by a following front vowel or older /j/. According to the ensuing patterns of palatalisation, it is necessary to group the palatalising phonemes into four sets; these, with their effects, are shown in the table below.

Subsequent sound-changes have obscured the differences between the environments, but not their effects. Where not explicitly identified in the text, the palatalisation environment is indicated below by a number in braces, thus "the nominative plural ending for hard stems of the first declension is {3}-a". In Pechnar, environment {4} may be regarded as the same as number {2}.

Vocalic alternations

Quantitative alternations take two forms: between short /e o/ and zero, a consequence of the development of the jers; or between older short and long vowels. The length alternation survives in Volinja as one between /a e o u/ and their long counterparts, and in Pechnar as /e o/ versus /a i u/. Some of these alternations may be seen in the second nominal declension; for example the nominative singular and plural of "egg" are vosk vskove, and those of "mouth" are tél / cij and telive / ciejve (older ciejive in Pechnar). Note that the alternation with zero can give rise to some formidable consonant clusters.

Grammar

Nouns

First declension

Three further developments in Pechnar should be noted:

• The partitive singular in /-vo/ comes from the second declension.
• The alternation between /o/ and /e/ in the declension of rioto is characteristic of many nouns whose stems end in a hard dental. This alternation is realised as /a/ versus /e/ when the original /e/ was long; for example ziaso "river", plural ziesia.
• Nouns whose stems end in formerly soft consonants still take the soft endings, which are spelt differently. They are shown below with mloše "name", which in Volinja declines exactly like pide.

Nouns of this declension which denote people often have nominative plurals in {4} -esa / -iosa, generalised from the third declension; for example zano "girl", plural zanesa / zaniosa. Commonly in Pechnar, but less so in Volinja, the -es- / -ios- is similarly inserted before the other endings in the plural; for example, with the genitive, zanesan / zaniosań.

Second declension

The /i/ in the Pechnar declension of cij is shown in brackets because it is often dropped in speech after /j/.

The quantitative vocalic alternations in the nominative singular of monosyllables take place in most monosyllabic nouns with older short vowels in their stems. There is a tendency in Volinja, especially in the north, to regularise nouns in which the vowel is normally lost by retaining the vowel so that, for example, the accusative singulars of these two nouns are kosti and voski.

The alternation manifests slightly differently in longer nouns, which have an extra syllable in the nominative singular and a changed root vowel otherwise: fłokor / flokor "tar", genitive fłókru / flukru.

Third declension

Adjectives

The quantitative vocalic alternation occurs in the neuter nominative singular where appropriate; for example boko "yellow", neuter bók / buk.

The various degrees of comparison are formed as follows. The comparitives continue the Rachovian formations; the superlatives are specifically western innovations.

Adverbs in Volinja are formed by adding {4} -é to the adjective stem: sago "sweet" -> sažé "sweetly". In Pechnar the ending is {2} -eja: sažeja "sweetly", riedzieja "palely".

Demonstratives

Pronouns

The row labelled "Pron" in the table contains the posessive pronouns, which decline like the third person pronouns. Note that in Pechnar, the common nominative plural of the second person singular possessive pronoun ("yours") is dzieściato, with /st/ becoming /CtC/ by secondary palatalisation.

The non-personal pronouns mostly also decline like the third-person pronouns; the principal exception is the neuter nominative singular, which is one syllable shorter as in Rachovian, and typically undergoes the quantitative vocalic alternation. For example:

• kuto / keto "someone, anyone", kút / kat "something, anything"
• mosto "everyone", móst / must "everything"
• łeto / joto "nobody", łét / jit "nothing"

The demonstrative pronouns, "this one" and "that one", decline similarly; they are sámto sésto in Volinja and jimto ješto in Pechnar.

The relative pronoun remains jito, neuter jit. It is reduced in speech to jto, jt after a vowel.

Adverbs of place and motion

Interrogative pronouns and adjectives

"When" and "why" are žiša / džyše and žiš[e]no / džyš[o]no, derived from the locative and partitive of the obsolete abstract forms of the interrogative pronoun. The bracketed vowels are often dropped in speech.

Prepositions

Some spatial prepositions have developed from cases of older nouns, and govern the genitive case; for example sítu retu / sytu riotu "beside the mouse", where the preposition continues the older locative of the now obsolete noun meaning "side". This structure with a directive case of the preposition and the genitive of the governed noun, as opposed to the simple preposition and the directive case of the noun, is commoner in Volinja than in Pechnar.

A few prepositions have been shortened by analogy with the short prepositions like t "in"; for example ne "under" has become n. As in Rachovian, such prepositions add -e before consonant clusters. except before two consonants or nasals.

Verbs

All verb forms, as usual, consist of the verb stem, which typically ends in a thematic vowel, followed by the marker of tense and aspect; to these are added the endings for person or participle. The six conjugations of Rachovian have become four in Volinja and three in Pechnar; the differences between them lie mainly in the thematic vowels. Unless otherwise specified, the forms given below are all first person singulars.

Personal endings

• 1 sing: present -r, past -sa.
• 2 sing: present -c / -ć, past -sta. The present endings derive from the western Rachovian variant -tj; the -a of the past is by analogy with the first person.
• 3 sing: present -n, past -ša / -sie.
• 1 plur: present -že / -dže, past -zde / -źdie. The past endings derive from the inclusive rather than the exclusive.
• 2 plur: present -ste / -ście, past -suto / -seto.
• 3 plur: present -na, past -sna.
• Indefinite: no ending in the present; past -sk. This ending has no corresponding pronoun; it is used only when expressing the passive voice.

There is no ending corresponding to the reflexive pronoun, which is never used as the subject of a verb.

Alternative past plural endings -suže / -sedže for the first person and -suna / -sena for the third, by analogy with the second person, are common in speech, but are not found in formal writing.

First conjugation

The row headed "sw" is the switch reference, which survives only as the verbal subject.

The future and conditional are formed from the same stem as the present, to which is added -ov- (-ev- after soft stems). The future adds the personal endings of the present, with the same thematic vowel: skoł-ov-i-r / skol-ov-y-r "I will sing". The conditional suffixes {4} -e- in Volinja and {4} -ie- -io- in Pechnar, to which is added the personal endings of the past: skoł-ov-e-sa / skol-ov-io-sa.

All other forms, including the participles, are usually formed from a different stem; "I sang", for example, is skłasa / sklasa. The first person singulars of all the verbal forms of "sing", and its four participles, are shown below.

The participles shown above are compounds with the relative pronoun, which are principally used in relative clauses; they are syntactically nouns, but semantically adjectives. True verbal nouns are formed from each participle by replacing the final -to with -tés / -tis, thus skłatútés / sklatejtes "the act of singing".

The relationship between the two stems in this conjugation is not always predictable. Here are a few examples of the allomorphy.

• "To carry": present sałyr / salyr, past słasa / slasa. This is a typical allomorphy for stems ending in liquids.
• "To play": present skovir / skovyr, past skasa. The past was formerly skaha.
• "To hunt": present supir / sepyr, past supesa / sepiosa. The older past susa / sesa has been remodelled under the influence of the present.
• "To drink": present ratir / ratyr, past racesa / racesa. This is a similar remodelling of older /ratsa/, itself changed from the Rachovian /rasa/.

Other conjugations

The third Volinja conjugation continues the second and third Rachovian conjugations; the thematic vowel is /e/ all through the conjugation. The fourth Volinja conjugation continues the fourth of Rachovian; the thematic vowel is /a/ in the present, future, and conditional, and /o/ in the past and all participles.

The third Pechnar conjugation combines the second, third, and fourth conjugations of Rachovian. The thematic vowel is /a/ or /o/, with the same distribution as in the fourth Volinja conjugation.

There is no stem allomorphy in any of these conjugations, and in the future and conditional, the vowels before the personal ending are those of the first conjugation punctual present and past respectively. The first person singulars and participles are summarised below; the verbs are "wash", "bite", and "eat".

Both of the sample verbs in Pechnar shown above have stems ending in hard consonants. If the final consonant is soft, the following changes take place:

• In the second conjugation, the thematic vowel is transcribed -ia- in the future and conditional and -i- otherwise, for example skorir "I burn", future skoriavyr.
• In the third conjugation, the thematic vowel becomes /e/ before all consonants other than hard dentals, i.e. before the endings of the 2 sing present, 3 sing past, 1 plural present and past, 2 plural present, and the passive participles. Thus zimior "I bite", but zimieć "you bite", and present passive participle zimieča.

"To be"

Note that the punctual past of this verb idiosyncratically takes the endings of the present. The preconsonantal /j/ of the punctual present in Volinja is often lost in speech if the preceding word begins with a consonant réz jsa /re:z sa/ "is pale" (neuter singular).

The negative is formed by prefixing ła- / le-, which causes the vowel after the initial consonant to disappear in the future and conditional, and in the punctual present in Pechnar:

• łajsi / lejsy "I am not"
• łajste / lejście "you (plural) are not"
• łačatir / lečetyr "I was not"
• łasvir / losvyr "I will not be"

The difference between the punctual and habitual aspects, in both present and past tenses, may be compared to that between the Liotan dó and eich. Thus, in Volinja, "the girl is pale" is translated zano řede čtan, with the habitual aspect, if she is naturally pale, but zano řede jsa, with the punctual, if she happens to be pale at the time of speaking but not otherwise.

Other irregular verbs

• If the stems are different, the verb belongs to the first conjugation and thus has the future and conditional in -ov-.
• Otherwise, in Volinja, if the present has /e/, they take -ev- (third conjugation).
• Otherwise, they take -av- in Volinja and -iov- or -iev- in Pechnar.

Many verbs retain irregularities from Rachovian, and some have since developed irregularities of their own. Some of the commonest irregular verbs are:

• "To go": present jazir / jedzyr, past řustir / riustyr with the endings of the present.
• "To come": present senir / sianyr, past sesa / siasa, future snovir / snovyr.
• "To have": present tadir / tadyr, past tisa / cisa.
• "To want": present vinar / vynar, past jasa.

Suppletion in some tenses is fairly common; for example the perfective of rezgar / riozgar "I lose" is janir / janyr, past júsa / jasa, from an older verb "to lack", itself replaced by łétadir / jitadyr, a compound of "nothing" and "I have".

Numbers

Numbers from 13 to 23 append the unit to pidava / pidave, for example pidaveluku / pidavejuke "19", pidavejuno "23" (usually /pidavju:no/ in Volinja). Intermediate numbers between the higher twelves are formed similarly, but change the final -vde to -vda / -vdzie: sazavdasela / sazavdziesieje "25", sazavdadare / sazavdziodarie "27".

"First" and "second" are nezo / niodzo and meče. The other ordinals suffix -eso / -ioso to the cardinal, dropping a final vowel and palatalising where possible; thus seleso / siejoso "third", lučeso / jučoso "seventh", pizeso / pidzioso "twelveth", sazavzeso / sazavdioso "24th", karevdařažeso / karevdzioriedzioso "100th".

The neuter gender of the ordinals suffixes -ém/-im; the /i/ of the Rachovian is dropped after /j/. The neuters of "third" and "seventh" are thus selém / siejim and lučém / jučim.

Derivation

Nominal derivations

The commonest suffix for abstract nouns, which makes third declension neuters, is {4} -esum / -esem:

• sáno / sano "dark" -> sánesum / saniesem "darkness"
• boko "yellow" -> bočesum / bočesem "yellow colour, jaundice"

Qualities are formed from nouns with {4} -emés / -emis, dropping the -e- when added to second and third declension nouns:

• dores / dorios "man" -> doresmés / doresmis "manliness"
• reto / rioto "mouse" -> řetemés / rietiemis "mousiness"

Collections are formed with -cad / -cied:

• tago "fish" -> tagcad / tagcied "school of fish", with medial /kts/
• łoše / loše "star" -> łošcad / lościed "constellation", with /StC/ > /CtC/ in Pechnar

Nominae agentis are formed with two suffixes. {1} -jito -jto typically forms names of occupations and professions from verbs, while {4} -esto / -iosto is more usually added to nouns:

• zugar / dzugar "I speak" -> zužito / dzudžyto "speaker, orator"
• skołir / skolyr "I sing" -> skolito / skojto "singer, bard"
• tago "fish" -> tažesto / tadžosto "fisherman"
• koło / kolo "dog" -> kolesto / kojosto "dog-handler"

A similar suffix is {4} -ešto / -eścio, which is added to verbs, and indicates a person currently engaged in the activity described by the verb; thus skołešto / skolieścio "one who is singing".

Third declension nominae agentis may also be derived from adjectives, thus vesto / viosto "young" -> vestos / viostos "boy".

A common neuter noun suffix is {4} -est / -eść, which is commonly used to form names of tools; similar in meaning, but less common, is -óšt / -ušt:

• vudir / vedyr "I cut" -> vudest / vedieść "saw"
• blugar / biugar "I beat, I hit" -> blužest / bliudžeść "hammer"
• słeřir / sjořyr "I dig" -> słešóšt / sliošušt "spade"

Adjectival derivations

• łoše / loše "star" -> łoš[e]meno / lošmeno "starry"
• níro / nyro "cloud" -> níruno / nyruno "cloudless"

Passive ability, English "-able", is expressed with -teso / -cioso added to the thematic vowel of the verb. Sometimes, especially if the stem ends in a sibilant or liquid, the thematic vowel is dropped:

• vnar "I break" -> vnateso / vnacioso "breakable, fragile"
• zeščer / dziaščor "I hear" -> deščeteso / deščocioso "audible", contracted to dešteso / deścioso with /SCt/ > /St/

"Having the quality of", as in Rachovian, is {4} -emo / -iemo: doresemo / doriesiemo "manly".

-še to the partitive singular is added to substances to make adjectives denoting "made of":

• zvók / zvuk "ice" -> zvókivoše / zvukyvoše "made of ice"
• subor / sebor -> subrivoše / sebryvoše "made of stone"

Verbal derivations

The intensive suffix -[a]car was borrowed from Dekavurian:

• cesin "it is raining" -> cescan "it is raining heavily"
• blugar / biugar "I beat, I hit" -> blugacar / biugacar "I batter, I hit"

General

• To nouns: zano "girl" -> zanésło / zanislo "little girl", vore / vorie "house" -> vořétle / vorićje "small house".
• To adjectives: ruho "red" -> rušésło / rušyslo "pale red", voje "hot" -> vojésło / vojslo "warm".
• To verbs: ratir / ratyr "I drink" -> ratétlir / racioslyr "I sip", mońer / mojor -> molétler / mojśjer "I snooze".

Syntax

Word-order

As in Rachovian, any part of a clause may be emphasised by moving it to the end; thus, with the Volinja examples only:

• zuša skłoti n łica zuřa skolan řede zano emphasises the girl;
• zuša skłoti n łica zuřa skolan zano řede emphasises her paleness;
• řede zano n łica zuřa skolan zuša skłoti emphasises the song;
• řede zano n łica zuřa skolan skłoti zuša emphasises its length.

Note that n łica "under the tree" is pronounced as one word, /nwi.tsa/.

Uses of the cases

As previously stated, the allative, locative, and partitive respectively indicate motion towards, rest, and motion away from. The partitive is also used after nouns of quantity: moso zanóm / moso zanum "all of the girls", and as the comparand with comparitives: řezino zaná / riedzino zanavo "paler than the girl".

Uses of the tenses and aspects

The approximate English equivalents are as follows.

• Punctual present: "I sing, I am singing". This is the least marked tense/aspect combination.
• Habitual present: "I sing, I tend to sing". This is also used for actions unbounded by time, as with "birds fly".
• Perfective present: "I have sung". This emphasises the resulting state rather than the action.
• Future: "I will sing", also "I will have sung, I will be singing". Here the point is that the singing has not yet started.
• Punctual past: "I sang". This is the usual narrative past tense, and is distinct in meaning from the perfective present.
• Habitual past: "I was singing, I used to sing, I sang (repeatedly)".
• Perfective past: "I had sung".
• Conditional: "I would sing", also "I would have sung, I would be singing".

Uses of the pronouns

The common and neuter third person pronouns, of course, refer to nouns of the appropriate gender. Two or more nouns of mixed gender are referred to with the approprate pronoun of the common gender.

The reflexive pronoun always refers to the subject of the verb; for example, "he/she is washing himself/herself" is žaci rísan / žacy rysan, whereas ta rísan / ta rysan, with the third person pronoun, can only mean "he/she is washing someone else". Compare also the Pechnar zano tona jodza batan "the girl is eating her (someone else's) food" with zano žoca jodza batan "the girl is eating her (own) food".

In Pechnar, the reflexive pronoun is also used with the first and second persons; "I am eating my food" is soma joza batar in Volinja, but žoca jodza batar in Pechnar.

The switch reference pronoun is only used as the subject of the verb, and only when the subject is different from that of a preceding verb: vestos ta viłan ja bezan / viostos ta vylan je biodzan "the boy sees her and smiles", but vestos ta viłan ja bezes / viostos ta vylan je biodzes "the boy sees her and she smiles".

The indefinite form of the verb, with no personal ending, expresses the equivalent of the passive voice: bata jodza "the food is being eaten". In northern Volinja, the Dekavurian construction with "to be" and the passive participle" is also found, but only if there is no explicit agent: jodze batotúto jsa "the food is being eaten", but zano jodza batan "the food is being eaten by the girl", which is identical in form to "the girl is eating the food".

Subordination

The basic subordinating conjunction, which is equivalent to English "that" or French "que", is ci (/tsi/ in Volinja, /tCi/ in Pechnar); it is never omitted. "I want to sing" is thus vinar ci skołir / vynar ci skolyr, literally "I want that I sing". This clause order emphasises "sing"; if "want" is to be emphasised, the clauses are reversed, and the main clause is additionally preceded by te / cie: ci skołir te vinar / ci skolyr cie vynar.

teno / ciono and tena / cienia, the original allative and partitive cases of the abstract pronoun, were appropriated to express purpose ("in order to") and consequence ("for, because"), a development often attributed to Mossian influence. For example, "I will sleep, because I am tired" is mołavir tena dete jsi / mojavyr cienia dziecie josy, or with reversed clause order tena dete jsi te mołavir / cienia dziecie josy cie mojavyr.

Many other conjunctions are compounds of this, for example baste / baście "while" which replaced the Rachovian bâzto: zano skłazan baste n łica łestu / zano skladzyn baście n licia joste "the girl sings (habitual aspect) while she is under the tree".

Conditional sentences, as in Rachovian, are expressed with the conjuction preceding the dependent clause; it is méci / micy for fulfillable conditions and sanci for unfulfillable conditions. Compare zano viłir méci bezan / zano vylyr micy biozan "If I see the girl, she will smile" with zano viłir sanci bezan / zano vylyr sanci biozan "if I were to see the girl, she would smile".

If there are two or more dependent clauses, ci becomes trav / triev, from the older plural of the abstract pronoun.

The principal coordinating conjunctions have all replaced the Rachovian enclitics. They are ja / je "and", peł / piol "or", and ben / bion "but".

Relative clauses

• jito skolan zano rede jsa / jito skojan zano riedzie josa emphasises the paleness.
• rede jsa jito skolan zano / riedzie josa jito skojan zano emphasises the girl, rather than, say, a boy.

The relative pronoun always agrees with its antecedent in case, number, and gender; "the tree under which the girl is standing is tall" is thus łito zuřa jsa n jitu zano łetan / lito dzuria josa n jite zano jotan.

If the antecedent of the relative clause is in the nominative case, a phrase with a participle can be used instead, which precedes or follows the noun depending on whether it merely comments on the noun or adds new information. This is felt to be bookish in Volinja, but is more common towards the south; in Vorotsa it is unremarkable. For example, "the girl who is singing is pale" has two possible translations:

• skłatúto zano rede jsa / sklatejto zano riedzie josa; here the fact that the girl is singing is incidental.
• zano skłatúto rede jsa / zano sklatejto riedzie josa; this picks out the singing girl as opposed to other girls who are not singing.

The embedded phrase can be of any length; in zano [n łica vłatúto] skolan / zano [n licia vlatejto] skojon, "the girl who is under the tree is singing", the bracketed words form a relative phrase meaning "who is under the tree".

Negatives, interrogatives, and responses

• zano skolon ła / zano skojon le "the girl is not singing".
• zano ła skolon / zano le skojon "the girl is not singing, but doing something else".
• ła zano skolon / le zano skojon "it is not the girl who is singing, but someone else".

As in Rachovian, in a negative sentence, all negatable words appear in their negative forms; thus "I did not see anybody" is ła łeto vłísa / le joto vlysa.

Interrogatives similarly use za / dza. The answer to such questions depends on exactly what is being asked:

• zano skolon za / zano skojon dza "is the girl singing?", which expects skolon /skojon for "yes" or ła skolon / le skojon for "no".
• zano za skolon / zano dza skojon "is the girl singing, or doing something else?" The answer here is skolon /skojon or another verb as appropriate.
• za zano skolon / dza zano skojon "is the girl singing, or someone else?" Here the answer is similarly zano or another noun.

Interrogative pronouns, as in Rachovian, appear at the end of the clause: vłísta šta / vlysta šta "who(m) did you see?", daci vłíša što / dziacy vlysie što "who saw you?".

Dialectal variations

/ts tS dz dZ/ are commonly deaffricated to /s S z Z/ before another consonant, not just nasals and liquids, and after /s z/; łačtir / lečtyr are thus /wa.Stir/ and /le.Stir/, and péšč / pišč is often /pe:SS/ and /piSS/.

A distinctive characteristic of northern varieties of Volinja, especially in Žíno, is the raising and diphthonging of long vowels, which is often attributed to influence from south-east Dekavurian. The details are straightforward:

• /u:/ > /ou/: kút "something" /kout/
• /i:/ > /ei/ if from /i:/, /oi/ if from /y:/: fíli "I squash" /feili/, fír "winter" /foir/.
• /e:/ and /o:/ > /i:/ and /u:/: péšč "tooth" /pi:StS/ or /pi:SS/, zvók "ice" /zvu:k/.
• /a:/ > /e:/ after soft consonants and /o:/ after hard consonants; lát "horn" /le:t/, sáno "dark" /so:no/.

A few coastal varieties of northern Volinja front /a o u/ to [{ 2 y] after soft consonants; thus juno "eleven" has [y] for /u/, and sela "three" similarly has [{] for /a/.

The pronunciation of /g/ as /G/ in Pechnar is a southern trait.

The popular Pechnar speech of Voroca has two extra vowels: /e/ and /o/ from older /e: è/ and /o: ò/ are high-mid [e o], by contrast with low-mid [E O] for other /e/ and /o/. Thus "you fall", elsewhere dziesieć from /de:setj/, is /dj\eCEtC/ here, with different vowels in each syllable.

Many southern dialects of Volinja and northern varieties of Pechnar show features characteristic of each other:

• Southern Volinja dialects have /i: u:/, rather than /e: o:/, as the reflexes of neoacute /è ò/; thus píšč "tooth" and zvúk "ice". That these agree with the developments in northern Volinja is coincidence; southern dialects otherwise have no tendency to raising or diphthonging.
• The reflexes of the back jer and of the nasal vowels are several; for example, some varieties of Pechnar have /o/ instead of /e/ for the back jer, thus plov "liver", and the back nasals sometimes appear as /a/ amd /á/ in Volinja, as in sako "smoke" and kát "something".
• Northern Pechar merges /tC d\j S j\/ with /tS dZ S Z/, and does not change /e/ to /o/ or /a/ before hard dentals; some of these dialects also distinguish soft /r_j/, which is realised as [r_r] (never [Z]), from hard /r/. "Word" is thus ševo, and rieto "mouse" has initial /r_j/.
• Original /l/ and /L/ variously develop as /j l/ or /l w/; the first is more typical of coastal regions, the second more of the higher lands to the east. There are no dialects in which both laterals merge; however, a small area near Scioremo has no laterals at all: /l L/ become /j w/, and when syllabic /i u/. "Dirty", standardly graše, is thus gruše.

Quite often, differences in palatalisation are found across dialects; in particular, in southern Volinja environment 4 causes the same changes as environment 2.

The only variation in grammar or syntax it is possible to mention here is the use of the nominative for the accusative in northern Volinja.