title: INITIAL И: A CHARACTERISTIC FEATURE OF THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE, A DIALECT INFLUENCE OR A WRITTEN TRADITION?
abstract: The article deals with one phonetic feature – the initial и, around which linguistic discussions have lasted for centuries. Declaring in many cases the presence of words with the initial и as a specific feature of the Ukrainian language, linguists mainly appeal to the classical point of view developed in the second half of the 20th century under strict ideological supervision, where this phenomenon had to be considered in the context of the creation of modern Russian forms such as игра "game" – 
journal: Вісник Житомирського державного університету імені Івана Франка Філологічні науки