Why a 'V'?

[mokslininkas.livejournal.com]

Hello,

I have a question: does anyone know why in Russian it is writen kogo, chego, ego etc but is pronounced kovo, chevo, evo?
I am a native Russian speaker but never really thought much about the wonders of the lang. until now....so if anyone could please kindly explain to me why the above is the case, I'd be very greatful.....many thanks in advance.

Comments

speaking speculatively

[wordchick.livejournal.com]

I don't know why, actually, though I'm inclined to blame it on Old Church Slavonic, as I do with everything irregular in Russian. However, it does seem to me as though it only happens in relation to the genitive case (including the word for today- "of this day").

[beowabbit]

DISCLAIMER: This is entirely a guess. I do not know.

I know that there are some regions in Russia where -ого, -его is in fact pronounced with a normal -г- sound (or like a Ukranian г, sort of like a voiced English h, like the way some people pronounce “Господи”). I also know there’s at least one other Slavic language (although I can’t remember which one) where the corresponding ending is pronounced with a -v- sound and written the way it sounds.

So I’m guessing that at one point both endings were in use, and that the spelling -ого won out (perhaps by analogy with Church Slavonic), but that in most of Russia the pronunciation /ovo/ won out.

For comparison

[ataltane.livejournal.com]

Indeed, in Czech, the ending is -ého (or -ího), and in Polish it's ego. Both pronounced like they're written.

[quem98.livejournal.com]

The same reason why we have "ough", "tion". Languages mutate in wierd ways if they stay around long enough

[dr-s.livejournal.com]

In Old Russian Г sounded as fricative G (voiced Х — same as in modern Ukranian or southern Russian dialects, or Gamma in modern Greek). The hypothetic chain of transformations is: koGo--koho--ko'o--kowo--kovo.

[wretched-girl.livejournal.com]

I read in a Russian grammar book that the ogo and ego suffixes are pronounced evo and ovo. Just exceptions...no real reason.

Reason exists!

[profess.livejournal.com]

Pronounciation -OVO is the original one. "G" Appeared when russian government in the 19th century decided to unify "writing language". It was nesessary to avoid misreadings(чтобы избежать разночтений). Why they chose "G"? I don't know but that's how it happened.

[macleginn.livejournal.com]

The situation is even more interesting because in the 19th sentury in some cases these endings were written as 'аго'. For instance, "ПРАВИЛА РУССКАГО ПРАВОПИСАНIЯ" despite that it was pronounced as 'ovo'. But when the changes in the spelling took place everything was further unified.