The modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The phonetics of the modern Russian number defines 42 sounds. Sounds are vowels and consonants. The letters ь (soft sign) and ъ (hard sign) do not form sounds.
Vowel sounds
There are 10 vowels and 6 vowels in Russian.
- Vowels: a, i, e, e, o, u, s, e, u, i.
- Vowel sounds: [a], [o], [y], [e], [i], [s].
For memorization, vowels are often written in pairs according to a similar sound: a-z, o-e, ee, u-s, u-yu.
percussion and unstressed
The number of syllables in a word is equal to the number of vowels in a word: forest - 1 syllable, water - 2 syllables, road - 3 syllables, etc. A syllable that is pronounced with more intonation is stressed. The vowel forming such a syllable is stressed, the rest of the vowels in the word are unstressed. The position under stress is called a strong position, without stress - a weak position.
Iotated vowels
A significant place is occupied by iotated vowels - the letters e, e, u, i, which mean two sounds: e → [y'] [e], e → [y'] [o], yu → [y'] [y], i → [d'][a]. Vowels are iotated if:
- stand at the beginning of the word (spruce, tree, spinning top, anchor),
- stand after a vowel (what, sings, hare, cabin),
- stand after b or b (stream, stream, stream, stream).
In other cases, the letters e, e, u, i mean one sound, but there is no one-to-one correspondence, since different positions in the word and various combinations with the consonants of these letters give rise to different sounds.
Consonants
There are 21 consonants and 36 consonants in total. The discrepancy in number means that some letters can mean different sounds in different words - soft and hard sounds.
Consonants: b, c, d, e, g, s, d, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, f, x, c, h, w, u.
Consonants: [b], [b '], [c], [c '], [g], [g '], [d], [d '], [g], [h], [h ' ], [d'], [k], [k'], [l], [l'], [m], [m'], [n], [n'], [n], [n' ], [p], [p'], [s], [s'], [t], [t'], [f], [f'], [x], [x'], [c] , [h'], [w], [w'].
The ‘ sign means a soft sound, that is, the letter is pronounced softly. The absence of a sign indicates that the sound is solid. So, [b] is hard, [b ’] is soft.
Voiced and voiceless consonants
There is a difference in how we pronounce consonants. Voiced consonants - are formed in a combination of voice and noise, deaf consonants - are formed due to noise (the vocal cords do not vibrate). There are 20 voiced consonants and 16 voiceless consonants.
| Voiced consonants | voiceless consonants | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| unpaired | paired | paired | unpaired |
| th → [th"] | b → [b], [b "] | n → [n], [n"] | h → [h"] |
| l → [l], [l"] | in → [in], [in"] | f → [f], [f"] | u → [u"] |
| m → [m], [m"] | g → [g], [g"] | to → [to], [to "] | ts → [ts] |
| n → [n], [n "] | d → [d], [d "] | t → [t], [t"] | x → [x], [x"] |
| p → [p], [p "] | f → [f] | w → [w] | |
| s → [s], [s "] | s → [s], [s"] | ||
| 9 unpaired | 11 doubles | 11 doubles | 5 unpaired |
| 20 voiced sounds | 16 deaf sounds | ||
According to pairing-unpairness, voiced and deaf consonants are divided into:
b-p, v-f, g-k, d-t, w-w, s-s- paired by sonority-deafness.
d, l, m, n, p - always voiced (unpaired).
x, c, h, u - always deaf (unpaired).
Unpaired voiced consonants are called sonorants.
Among the consonants, according to the level of "noisiness", there are also groups:
f, w, h, u - hissing.
b, c, d, e, g, h, k, p, s, t, f, x, c, h, w, u- noisy.
Hard and soft consonants
| hard consonants | Soft consonants | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| unpaired | paired | paired | unpaired |
| [f] | [b] | [b"] | [h"] |
| [w] | [in] | [in"] | [sch"] |
| [c] | [G] | [G"] | [th"] |
| [e] | [d"] | ||
| [h] | [h "] | ||
| [to] | [to"] | ||
| [l] | [l"] | ||
| [m] | [m"] | ||
| [n] | [n"] | ||
| [P] | [P"] | ||
| [R] | [R"] | ||
| [with] | [with"] | ||
| [t] | [t"] | ||
| [f] | [f"] | ||
| [X] | [X"] | ||
| 3 unpaired | 15 doubles | 15 unpaired | 3 doubles |
| 18 solid sounds | 18 soft sounds | ||
One of the most difficult sections for schoolchildren and students in the Russian language is phonetics. Quite often, students make mistakes in words, characterization of certain sounds, phonemes. But in many ways, knowledge of phonetics is the key to competent and cultural speech. Therefore, a lot of attention should be paid to such an issue as sounds. Today we are interested in the letters that they represent will also be discussed in our article. We will not ignore the general characteristics of the sound system of our language.
Sounds or letters?
To begin with, let's figure out what exactly we will describe in this article. It is worth noting that many people believe that there are consonants and vowels in the Russian language. Many are even ready to argue and will defend their case with foam at the mouth. But is it?
In fact, in Russian, only sounds lend themselves to such a classification. Letters, on the other hand, serve only as a graphic designation of a particular phoneme or even a combination of phonemes, and also indicate the peculiarity of the pronunciation of a particular sound. Therefore, one cannot say that letters are vowels or consonants, stressed or unstressed.
General information
Let us proceed directly to the characterization of vowel phonemes. In Russian, there are six vowel sounds, which in turn are denoted by ten "vowels". When these sounds are formed, a stream of air escapes from the oral cavity, which does not encounter obstacles in its path. Thus, vowel sounds consist only of a voice. Unlike consonants, they can be stretched or sung. These sounds include: [a], [o], [y], [e], [i], [s].
Vowels have the following main characteristics: row, elevation, stressed or unstressed position. In addition, one can single out such a specific characteristic as labialization.
It is also worth noting that it is the vowels that serve as syllable-forming sounds. Remember how in elementary school children are taught to identify the syllables in a word by counting the vowels "letters".
Sound is the smallest part of speech, which serves not only as material for the formation of words, but also helps to distinguish words with a similar sound composition (for example, "fox" and "forest" differ in only one vowel). He studies vowels and such a science as phonetics.
Let's now take a look at each of the mentioned characteristics.
Striking and unstressed
It is also worth noting that unstressed vowels sound less distinct and may act as a different phoneme when transcribed. So, the unstressed vowel “o” can sound like “a”, and “i” can sound like “e” in the speech stream, in addition, sometimes the vowel sound can disappear altogether. In this case, the transcription will differ from the usual recording of the word.
For example, the word "milk" might look like this:
1. [malak'o] - transcription as part of the school curriculum.
2. [malak'o] - such transcription is often used in higher educational institutions at philological faculties. The sign "b" means that the sound "a" pronounces very briefly, practically drops out of the word during pronunciation.
Note that one of the difficulties of the Russian language is precisely unstressed vowels. The letters denoting them on the letter are not always similar to the audible sound, which gives rise to a lot of errors. If you are in doubt about the correct spelling of a word, use a spelling dictionary or check the spelling of a word using the rules you know.
Labialization
In Russian there are so-called labialized sounds - "o" and "u". In some manuals, they may also be called rounded. Their peculiarity lies in the fact that when they are pronounced, the lips are involved, stretching forward. The remaining vowel sounds of the Russian language do not have this feature.
Letters denoting vowel sounds that have this feature are written in transcription in the same way as ordinary sounds.
Row
In Russian, according to the position of the tongue in the mouth when pronouncing a sound, three rows are distinguished: front, middle and back.
If the main part of the tongue, when pronouncing a sound, is in the back of the oral cavity, then it (the sound) belongs to the back row. The front row is characterized by the fact that when pronouncing the vowels related to it, the main part of the tongue is in the front. In the event that the language occupies an intermediate position during pronunciation, the sound belongs to the middle vowels.
What series do certain sounds in Russian belong to?
[o], [y] - back row;
[a], [s] - middle;
[and], [e] - front.
As you can see, these characteristics are quite simple, the main thing is to remember them. Considering that there are not so many vowel sounds in Russian, it will not be difficult to memorize this classification.
uplift
There is also another characteristic of vowel sounds according to the position of the tongue during pronunciation. Here, as well as in the classification by series, three types of sounds are distinguished: low, medium and high elevation.
This characteristic takes into account the position of the tongue in relation to the palate. If during pronunciation the language is as close as possible to it, then the sound belongs to the vowels of the upper elevation, but if it is in the most distant position from the palate, then the lower one. If the tongue is in an intermediate position, it belongs to the vowel sounds of the middle rise.
Let's determine which elevation the vowels of the Russian language belong to:
[a] - lower;
[e], [o] - average;
[and], [s], [y] - top.
This characteristic and classification can also be quite easy to remember.
Correspondence of sounds and letters
As already mentioned, there are only six vowels, but in writing they are indicated by ten letters. Let's discuss what letters of vowels exist in Russian.
The sound [a] can be conveyed by the following letters: “a”, “ya” (phonetically [ya]). Regarding the phoneme [o], then in writing it is denoted as “o” and “yo” (phonetically [yo]). Labialized [y] can also convey two letters "u" and "yu" (phonetically [yu]). The same can be said about the sound [e]: it can be denoted by the letters "e" and "e" (phonetically [ye]).
The remaining two sounds [and] and [s] are indicated by only one letter - “and” and “s”, respectively. Here are all the so-called vowels: a, o, y, i, e, u, e, e, i, s.
Transcription order
Many schoolchildren, and university students too, have to deal with such a task as transcribing words. Consider the algorithm, focusing on the characteristics of vowel sounds.
The order of execution of tasks of this type is as follows:
1. We write down the word in the form in which it is given to you.
3. Divide the word into syllables. In this we can use all the same vowel sounds.
4. We write down the phonetic transcription of the word, taking into account the position of both vowels and consonants in the word, their variants (for example, in an unstressed position [o] can sound like [a]).
5. We write down all the letters in a column.
6. We determine which sound or counting of sounds means this or that letter, and write this data in the column opposite.
7. Describe the characteristics of the sound. Here we will not dwell on the characteristics of consonants, we will dwell only on vowels. In the school tradition, only the position of the sound relative to the stress is indicated (shocked or unstressed). At universities, at the philological faculties, the series and elevation, as well as the presence of sound labialization, are additionally indicated.
8. The last step is to count the number of letters and sounds in the analyzed word.
As you can see, nothing complicated. If you doubt the transcription, you can always check it using the spelling dictionary.
findings
There are six sounds in Russian, which correspond to ten letters of the alphabet in writing. These sounds, like other phonemes, are the building blocks of which lexical units are built. It is thanks to sounds that we distinguish words, because changing even one sound can completely change their meaning and turn them into completely different lexemes.
So, we learned what “letters” are vowels: stressed and unstressed, labialized. We found out that each vowel has such characteristics as row and rise, learned how to make phonetic transcription. In addition, we found out what science studies vowel sounds.
We hope that this material will be useful not only for schoolchildren, but also for students of philological faculties.
The number of letters of the Russian alphabet is well known - 33. It would seem that there are the same number of sounds. But in fact, letters and sounds are different concepts, although they are interconnected. There are, for example, letters that do not have a sound correspondence at all - these are hard and soft signs. They convey not the sounds themselves, but certain signs, for example, the hardness or softness of the consonant phonemes of the Russian language. In addition, these unpronounceable letters affect not only consonants, but also the vowels that follow them. But how?
Paired and unpaired
Let's count how many vowels are in the Russian alphabet: "a", "e", "e", "i", "o", "y", "s", "e", "yu", "i". Total 10. What about sounds? only six: [a], [o], [i], [y], [s], [e]. It turns out that the letters "e", "e", "yu", "i" do not have a sound correspondence? Not certainly in that way. Let's make the following table:
Thus, we see that some vowels denote not one sound, but a whole combination. So the "I" in the word "poison" is actually [ya]. And the “yo” in the word “ice” is [o] after the soft “l”: [l "from]. But what if after the consonant there was suddenly an unpronounceable soft sign, for example, "pouring"? Then we would again get a double phoneme: [l "iot]. Why did “extra” paired letters appear in the Russian language? Obviously, because the alphabet was born earlier than the science called phonetics, which studies sounds. In any case, the compilers of the alphabet least of all thought about how the consonant sounds of the Russian language affect vowels.
What does position in a word mean?
It turns out that the sound of vowels and the spelling of the corresponding letters depends on the previous consonant, or rather, on its hardness or softness. There are no exceptions to this rule, because if “u” or “I” are even at the beginning of a word, then, from the point of view of phonetics, such a word begins with a consonant [th "], which, unlike other consonants, is always soft. However, since traditionally there are letters in the language, denoting double sounds, then we write "south" and "box", not "yug" and "box".
It would seem logical to get rid of this confusion, cancel the "extra" vowels and write as we hear. But it's not so simple. The fact, what if we delve into phonetics, we will find: the sound of vowels depends not only on the previous consonant, but also on such an important thing as stress. If the vowel is distinct and understandable under stress, then the farther it is from the stressed syllable, the less clear its sound. Let's take the word "bun". It is clear that the last vowel here is [o]. What's after the "l"? If we listen closely, we will hear something in between [a] and [o]. Such a change in sound, depending on its position relative to the stressed syllable, is called reduction in phonetics.
For this new vowel, the middle between [a] and [o], a new designation is also introduced - [ʌ]. But that's not all. As already mentioned, the farther the syllable is from the stressed one, the more the vowel changes in it. And if you listen carefully again, then in the first syllable of the word "kolobok" we will hear a sound similar to [a], and to [o], and to [e]. And this new phoneme is designated as [ъ].
Thus, if we wanted to write "as we hear", then getting rid of some letters, we had to introduce others. Yes, and change the rules of spelling. After all, if today you just need to remember that there is not a single letter “a” in the word “kolobok”, then calculating which vowel you need to write, depending on the position of stressed and unstressed syllables, is hardly an easier task. In any case, literacy will not increase from this. In addition, writing “as you hear” can become a problem for understanding. It's not like everyone hears the same thing. This means that different spellings of the same word are not excluded. For example, "Bigimot", "Begimot", "Bigemot" and, finally, "Behemoth".
But we haven’t taken into account yet that not only “a” and “o” change in the same way, but also other vowels. At the same time, scientists go further, discovering new variants of sounds. For example, along with [ʌ] and [ъ], another version of the same sound appeared - [ɑ̟]. This is "a" after hard consonants before "l". It turns out that the further we delve into the topic, the less likely it is to get an answer to the question: how many vowels are there in Russian?
Vowels of the Russian alphabet - how many are there?
In fact, everything is not so sad. There are still six vowels. The fact is that science recognizes vowels as real sounds in the form they are heard under stress. Yet other variants are called allophones, in other words, forms depending on the position in the word and stress. Of course, the division is somewhat artificial, but still better than chaos.
Video
Vowel sounds and letters, how to figure it out? This video will help you.
In Russian there are 10 vowels, 6 vowels. Vowels: a, i, e, e, o, u, s, e, u, i. Vowel sounds: [a], [o], [y], [e], [and], [s]. In the school curriculum, vowel sounds are indicated in the diagrams in red. In elementary grades, they explain: vowels are called so because they “voice”, they are pronounced “voiced”, while consonants got such a name because they “agree” with vowels.
Scheme 1. Vowels and vowel sounds of the Russian language.
Stressed and unstressed vowels
Vowel sounds are:
- drums: juice [o] - ice ['o], forest ['e] - mayor [e], drill [y] - hatch ['y],
- unstressed: in about yes [a], s at duck [y], l e juice [and].
Note. It is correct to say "stressed syllable" and "unstressed syllable". Instead of "stress falls on a vowel" say "stress falls on a syllable with a vowel." However, in the literature there are formulations "stressed vowel" and "unstressed vowel".
Stressed vowels are in a strong position, they are pronounced with more force and intonation. Unstressed vowels are in a weak position, they are pronounced with less force and may be subject to change.
Note. The designation of the letter e in a weak position differs in different school programs. Above, we showed the sound [and], in other school programs the designation [e] is found, in the institute program - [e and] (e with an overtone and).
Scheme 2. The division of vowels into stressed and unstressed. In Russian, there are compound words with primary and secondary stress. In them, with a strong intonation, we highlight the main stress, with a weak intonation - a secondary one. For example, in the word foam blocks, the main stress falls on the syllable with the letter o, the secondary stress on the syllable with the letter e. In phonetic analysis, the vowel with the main stress is stressed, the vowel with the secondary stress is unstressed. For example: tricuspid, three-year-old.
Iotated vowel sounds
The letters i, u, e, e are called iotated and mean two sounds in the following positions of the word:
- at the beginning of the word: tree [th "olka], Yana [th" ana], raccoon [th" inot];
- after the vowel: hare [hare "its], button accordion [bai" an];
- after b or b: streams [ruch "y" and], rise [fall "om].
For ё and stressed vowels i, u, e, a replacement is made: i → [y'a], yu → [y'y], e → [y'e], yo → [y'o]. For unstressed vowels, a replacement is used: i → [th "and], e → [th" and]. In some school programs, when compiling a transcription of a word and during phonetic analysis, they write Latin j instead of th.
What is the difference between vowels and consonants and sounds? What rules do they follow? How is the hardness and softness of sounds and letters indicated? You will get answers to all these questions in the presented article.
General information about vowels and consonants
Vowels and consonants are the basis of the entire Russian language. Indeed, with the help of their combinations, syllables are formed that add up to words, expressions, sentences, texts, and so on. That is why quite a lot of hours are devoted to this topic in high school.
and sounds in Russian
A person will learn about what vowels and consonants are in the Russian alphabet from the first grade. And despite all the seeming simplicity of this topic, it is considered one of the most difficult for students.
So, in the Russian language there are ten vowels, namely: o, i, a, s, u, i, e, e, u, e. During their direct pronunciation, you can feel how the air passes freely through the oral cavity. At the same time, we hear our own voice quite clearly. It should also be noted that vowels can be pulled (ah-ah-ah-ah, uh-uh-uh, i-i-i-i-i, u-u-u-u-u and so on ).
Features and letters
Vowels are the basis of the syllable, that is, they organize it. As a rule, there are as many syllables in Russian words as there are vowels themselves. Let's give a good example: u-che-no-ki - 5 syllables, re-bya-ta - 3 syllables, he - 1 syllable, o-no - 2 syllables, and so on. There are even words that consist of only one vowel sound. Usually these are interjections (Ah!, Oh!, Woo!) and unions (and, a, etc.).
Endings, suffixes and prefixes are very important topics in the Russian language discipline. Indeed, without knowing how such letters are written in a particular word, it is rather problematic to compose a competent letter.
Consonants and sounds in Russian
Vowel and consonant letters and sounds differ significantly. And if the former can be easily pulled, then the latter are pronounced as short as possible (except for hissing ones, since they can be pulled).
It should be noted that in the Russian alphabet the number of consonant letters is 21, namely: b, c, d, e, g, h, d, k, l, m, n, p, p, s, t, f, x, c, h, sh, sh. The sounds denoted by them are usually divided into deaf and voiced. What is the difference? The fact is that during the pronunciation of voiced consonants, a person can hear not only the characteristic noise, but also his own voice (b!, z!, p!, etc.). As for the deaf, they cannot be pronounced loudly or, for example, shouted. They create only a kind of noise (sh-sh-sh-sh-sh, s-s-s-s-s, etc.).
Thus, almost everything falls into two different categories:
- voiced - b, c, d, d, f, z, d, l, m, n, r;
- deaf - k, p, s, t, f, x, c, h, w.
Softness and hardness of consonants
Not everyone knows, but vowels and consonants can be hard and soft. This is the second most important feature in the Russian language (after voiced and deaf).
A distinctive feature of soft consonants is that during their pronunciation, the human language takes on a special position. As a rule, it shifts slightly forward, and its entire middle part rises slightly. As for when they are pronounced, the tongue is pulled back. You can compare the position of your speech organ yourself: [n] - [n '], [t] - [t ']. It should also be noted that voiced and soft sounds sound somewhat higher than hard ones.
In Russian, almost all consonants have pairs on the basis of softness and hardness. However, there are those who simply do not have them. These include hard ones - [g], [w] and [c] and soft ones - [th "], [h"] and [w"].
Softness and hardness of vowels
Surely few people have heard that the Russian language has soft vowels. Soft consonants are sounds that are quite familiar to us, which cannot be said about the above. This is partly due to the fact that in high school there is practically no time for this topic. After all, it is already clear with the help of which vowels the consonants become soft. However, we still decided to dedicate you to this topic.
So, soft letters are those letters that are able to soften the consonants that come before them. These include the following: i, e, i, e, u. As for such letters as a, y, s, e, o, they are considered hard, since they do not soften the consonants going in front. To see this, here are a few examples:
The designation of the softness of consonants in the phonetic analysis of the word
The sounds and letters of the Russian language are studied by phonetics. Surely, in high school you were asked more than once to make a certain word. During such an analysis, it is imperative to indicate whether it is separately considered or not. If yes, then it must be denoted as follows: [n '], [t '], [d '], [in '], [m '], [n ']. That is, at the top right, next to the consonant letter in front of the soft vowel, you need to put a kind of dash. The following soft sounds are also marked with a similar icon - [th "], [h"] and [sh"].
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