Moscow dialect

The Moscow dialect or Moscow accent, sometimes Central Russian, is the spoken Russian language variety used in Moscow – one of the two major pronunciation norms of the Russian language alongside the Saint Petersburg norm. Influenced by both northern and southern Russian dialects, the Moscow dialect is the basis of the Russian literary language.

Overview

The 1911 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica wrote:

In the 15th century, the Moscow dialect was similar to the northern Russian dialects in its phonological system, except that, unlike now, it was not characterized by the ts–ch merger peculiar to Novgorod Russian. It shared the phonetic and grammatical features of Rostov-Suzdal and Vladimir Russian, which were part of the Vladimir-Volga subdialect of northern Russian. The changes in the system of sounds in Russian during the Moscow period primarily include the spread of akanye, as well as the preservation of certain pronunciations of 'e' before hard consonants in the 'ecclesiastical style', the complete merging of 'е' and 'ѣ', and the sporadic use of for in a small number of words.