Сосед in genitive plural

Question

Why is the word сосед declined as соседей instead of соседов since the stem ending is a consonant?

Let's hope someone gives a detailed answer but in a nutshell - there are nouns with irregularities in declension and you've stumbled across one of them. Your lessons don't seem to mention this at all. — tum_, Apr 25 '20 at 10:50
I presume you know how to use Wiktionary to check the declension forms. The noun сосед is marked as "тип склонения 1a^ по классификации А. А. Зализняка", where the ^ symbol means "особые случаи отклонений, нерегулярное словоизменение". — tum_, Apr 25 '20 at 11:28
https://russian.stackexchange.com/questions/14821/is-there-a-reason-why-%D1%87%D1%91%D1%80%D1%82-and-%D1%81%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%B5%CC%81%D0%B4-dont-decline-for-nominative-plural-ac — Quassnoi, Apr 28 '20 at 15:51

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 25 '20 at 12:33

It's just an exception. In Zalizniak's Grammatical Dictionary this word is marked with the △ sign:

сосе́д мо 1a △ мн. сосе́д|и, -ей, -ям

This word's stem gets softened in the plural: соседи, соседям, соседях (rather than *соседы, *соседам, *соседах) so the declension follows the soft pattern (as if the nominative singular were *соседь, similar to медведь, лебедь, жёлудь).

As to exactly why and how this exception came into existence, I have no information. At least соседи is consistent throughout the plural. There are cases when softness is lost in just one form, genitive plural: башни - башен (not *башень) but деревни - деревень.

Сосед in genitive plural

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