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between which there extends a wide belt of ‘transitional’ dialects,
southern dialects on northern foundations (that is, historically
northern dialects that were assimilated by southern dialects). The
northern boundary of this transitional belt runs along the line
Włodawa–Kamin-Koshyrskyi–the town of Stepan–Kyiv–Nizhyn–
Hlukhiv; the southern, along the line Hrubeshiv–Zhytomyr–
Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi–Lubny–Romny–Sumy. The fundamental
difference between the northern and southern dialectal groups lies
in the role of accentuation in the transmutation of the old vowels ě,
o, and e to the i sound (did from dědъ [old man]; dim from domъ
[house]; lid from ledъ [ice]). In the south this change occurred
independently of the accent (lis – lisý [forest]; dim – dimký); in the
north it took place only under the accent (lies – lesý; müst, muost –
mostkí [bridge]). The same applies to the vowel ’a from the
Common Slavic ę (in the northern group, when accented—’a, ja:
z’at’ [son-in-law]; when unaccented—e: zetí [pl]). The northern
dialectal group is subdivided into the following dialects: the east
Polisian (east of the Dnieper River), the central Polisian (between
the Dnieper and the Horyn River), the west Polisian (between the
Horyn and the Buh River and Lisna River), and the Podlachian
dialects. The main differences among them are the varying
developments of diphthongs in place of ě, o, e; the appearance of
akan'e in east Polisian and dzekan'e and partially ukan'e in central
Polisian; and/or morphological similarities with the southwestern
dialects (in west Polisian).
The southern group of dialects is divided into two
subgroups: the more uniform southeastern dialects (central
Dnieper dialects, Slobidska Ukraine dialects, and steppe dialects)
and the southwestern dialects, which are highly differentiated (the
approximate boundary between the two is the line Khvastiv–
Uman–Balta). The southwestern group is composed of the
following dialects: South Volhynian dialects, Podilian dialects,
Dniester dialects, Sian dialects, Bukovyna-Pokutia dialects, Hutsul
dialect, Boiko dialect, Middle-Transcarpathian dialects, and

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