Akanye or akanje[1] is a phonological phenomenon in Slavic languages in which speakers pronounce the sound a instead of o. The most familiar example is probably Russian akanye (pronounced but not represented orthographically in the standard language). Akanye is also found in standard Belarusian (represented orthographically) as well as in northern (Polissian) Ukrainian dialects, Slovene dialects (e.g., Lower Carniolan dialects),[2] and Bulgarian dialects (e.g., the Rhodope dialects, including the Smolyan dialect).[3]