Features of the pronunciation of Peter the Great

This article is aimed at studying the compilation Letters and Papers of Emperor Peter the Great in the phonetic aspect. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that a number of writings reflecting the pronunciation features of the Emperor are not covered in comparative historical works. While the pronunciation of vowels and assimilative-dissimilative phenomena regarding consonants have been thoroughly studied and deeply comprehended, the groups of consonants that are spaced by vowel insertions in the speech of Peter the Great have been ignored. The aim of this study was to analyze the vowel insertions, which are regularly presented in unstressed positions and at the junction of morphemes, both in Russian and borrowed words. The research objectives were determined by the need to explain how vowel insertions correlate with the stable tradition of writing extruding letters in Russian manuscripts of the XV-XVII centuries and the dialectal features of the Russian language, hence, how the Emperor’s pronunciation is reflected in such insertions. It has been proved that the individual and possibly dialectal pronunciation of Peter the Great manifests itself in vowel insertions in the form of a tendency towards having open syllables in words and a well-formed Church Slavonic pronunciation, with a semi-soft consonant before vowel e and a soft consonant before Ъ (yat).