Новый ѣ в истории науки и истории языка

The new ê developed from e before a syllable containing ь in a weak position, as a result of regressive assimilation of e to the (mid-)high vowel ь [ɪ]. It took place before the development of the pleophony *TereT, *TeleT. The earliest examples of the new ê are found in the Byčkov-Sinai Psalter and in the 13 Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus (11th c.). The next oldest examples of the new ê are found in the manuscript GIM, Sin. 262 (early or mid-12th c.), which contains a commentary on the liturgy (a translation of the Historia Mystagogica Ecclesiastica, recension Ψ) and the Didactic Gospel of Constantine the Presbyter. Both texts were created in the southwestern Balkan area and show no traces of Old East Bulgarian (Preslav) influence. The new ê should be regarded as a common South East Slavic, or Old Ukrainian, innovation. From the standpoint of the history of Slavic studies, Sobolevsky’s discovery of the new ê can be seen as a continuation of the grammatical research previously conducted by the philologists of Ukrainian Galicia and by Franz Miklosich. Nonetheless, his historical interpretation of the phenomenon reflects ideologically motivated assumptions, portraying the “Galician-Volhynian dialect” as the sole early base of the Ukrainian language.