Quote Originally Posted by Throbert McGee View Post
заец -- "a hare"
Заяц.

It’s a rare word where я is беглая (how to say it in English? disappearing?). Historically, it used to be a normal я in all the cases, but due to an analogy with words ending with -ец, it became disappearing.
In 1960s, an orthography reform was proposed by linguists where заяц was suggested to be spelled as заец (alongside some other things that make the spelling more predictable). The proposition was widely discussed in media and was taken with indignation by public and writers. People interpreted this subtle regularization of spelling as an encroachment on their «великий и могучий» language. So the reform has been never implemented.