on the second syllable, resulted from a Proto-Slavic acute or neoacute accent. Examples: Proto-Slavic "town" (circumflex) > (górod) Proto-Slavic "doorsill" (acute) > (poróg) Proto-Slavic "king" (neoacute) > (korólʹ) Development of *i and *y Proto-Slavic and contrasted only after alveolars and labials. After palatals only occurred, and after velars only occurred. With the development of phonemic palatalized alveolars and labials in Old East Slavic, and no longer contrasted in any environment, and were reinterpreted as allophones of each other, becoming a single phoneme . Note that this reinterpretation entailed no change in the pronunciation and no mergers. Subsequently, (sometime between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries), the allophone of occurring after a velar consonant changed from to with subsequent palatalization of the velar. Hence, for example, Old Russian became modern . Conversely, the soft consonants were hardened, causing the allophone of to change from to . The yat vowel Proto-Slavic (from Balto-Slavic and Proto-Indo-European long *ē) developed into Old Russian , distinct from (the outcome of Proto-Slavic from Balto-Slavic and Proto-Indo-European short *e). They apparently remained distinct until the 18th century, although the timeline of the merger has been debated. The sound denoted may have been a higher sound than , possibly high-mid vs. low-mid . They still remain distinct in some Russian dialects, as well as in Ukrainian, where Proto-Slavic developed into respectively. The letter remained in use until 1918; its removal caused by far the greatest of all Russian spelling controversies. The yo vowel Proto-Slavic stressed developed into , spelled , when following a soft consonant and preceding a hard one. The shift happened after , which were still soft consonants at the time. The preceding consonant remained soft. OR ('about which' loc. sg.) > R That has led to a number of alternations: This development occurred prior to the merger of ѣ (yat) with е, and ѣ did not undergo this change, except by later analogy in a short list of words as of about a century ago. Nowadays, the change has been reverted in two of those exceptional words. 'threading needle, bodkin' 'nests' 'glandule' (however 'piece of iron') '[he/it is] depicted; [he/it is] imprinted (in the mind)' 'stars' '[he] used to yawn' 'jibe' () '[it is] (never) worn' '[he] found' 'saddles' 'apprehension' '[he] flowered, flourished' '[he] used to put on' (this word has fallen into disuse in the standard language) 'fuel, chips; instigation; firebrand' (this word has fallen