Phonetic variants of spirants in the Malkin dialect of the Kabardian language (based on field sources from the village of Malka (Khazhihable))

The research aims to identify specific phonetic isoglosses in the Malkin dialect of the Kabardian literary language, which is based on the dialect of Greater Kabarda (referred to as the Baksan dialect in specialized literature). The article presents the determination of phonetic features in extemporaneous speech, observed in the dialect and constituting the content of its dialectal individuality, as a unique way to determine phonemic authenticity and form a dialectal worldview as a linguocultural phenomenon of the Malkin dialect of the Kabardian language. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that, based on the latest passportized field material of Z. R. Khezheva (2024), the main phonetic isoglosses of the Malkin dialect of the Kabardian language are systematized and described. The novelty also consists in a comparative revision of the only sources at the present stage of linguistic data from the dialectological expedition of the Kabardino-Balkarian Research Institute of History, Philology and Economics (1972-1975) and the passportized field material (2024) to account for phonetic transformations and the current state of the dialect as a whole. The results of the research indicate that phonetic features are found in the systematic rotation of sibilant-hissing sounds [жь], [щ], [щI] with soft sibilants [ж'], [ш'], [ш'I]. It was revealed that the replacement of the sibilant-hissing [щ] with the hissing spirant [с] is found in verbs of the affirmative form with indicative modality and is observed only in the speech of a small number of people.