Shifts of a phoneme’s position in the process of forming the normative system of a standard language (based on the example of the Slovak phoneme [ä])

Abstract
Thе paper deals with the change in the position of the phoneme ä in the Slovak standard language. First attempts to introduce this phoneme and fix it in writing appear already in the earliest Slovak written texts, but a special grapheme for its designation appeared only in the first half of the 19th century. This phoneme was not included in the phonemic system of the first two codifications of the Slovak language norm (1787 and 1846) and was entered into its fixed standard only in the codification of 1852. But despite these efforts of linguists, it has never been observed as a compulsory norm and gradually changed its position: being fixed at first as an element of High style, it then acquired a dialect coloring. At present, it is almost lost, and the grapheme that designates it remains only as an element of spelling.

Keywords: fixation, codification, phoneme, grapheme, Slovak standard language, variant