This article discusses the
phonological system of
standard Russian based on the
Moscow dialect (unless otherwise noted). For discussion of other dialects, see
Russian dialects. Russian possesses five vowels and consonants typically come in pairs of ''hard'' (твёрдый ) and ''soft'' (мягкий ) or plain and
palatalized.
Vowels
Russian possesses five vowel phonemes which are subject to considerable
allophony. Some linguists consider to be a separate phoneme but the general consensus (and that taken by this article) is that it is an allophone of :
Vowel allophony is largely dependent on stress and the palatalizaton of neighboring consonants:
When a preceding consonant is ''hard'', is retracted to . While this is phonetically central, for phonological purposes it is considered back. When unstressed, becomes
near-close; that is, following a hard consonant and in most other environments. Between soft consonants, both stressed and unstressed are raised, as in пить ('to drink') and маленький ('small'). When preceded ''and'' followed by
coronal or
dorsal consonants, is fronted to . After a labial+ cluster, is retracted, as in плыть ('to float'); it is also slightly diphthongized to .
Phonetically, is a front vowel, but phonologically it is back. Between soft consonants, it becomes as in пять ('five'). When not following a palatalized consonant, is retracted to before as in палка ('stick').
In native words, only follows unpaired (i.e. the
retroflexes and ) and palatalized consonants. After palatalized consonants (but not before), it is a mid vowel ( or ), while a following palatalized consonant raises it to . Another allophone, an open-mid occurs word-initially and never before or after palatalized consonants (hereafter is represented without the diacritic for simplicity). Preceding hard consonants retract to and . So жест ('gesture') and цель ('target') are pronounced and respectively.
In words borrowed from other languages, it is often the case that does not follow a palatalized consonant until the word has been fully adopted into Russian. For instance, шофёр (from French ''chauffeur'') was pronounced in the early twentieth century but is now pronounced . On the other hand, the pronunciations of words such as отель ('hotel') retain the hard consonants despite a long presence in the language.
Like , this is a mid vowel. Between palatalized consonants it is centralized to as in тётя ('aunt').
As with other back vowels, is centralized between palatalized consonants, as in чуть ('narrowly'). When unstressed, becomes near-close.
Vowel reduction
Main articles: Vowel reduction in Russian
Unstressed vowels tend to merge together. and generally have the same unstressed allophones (see
akanye) and becomes when unstressed (picking up its unstressed allophones).
Russian orthography (as opposed to that of linguistically similar
Belarusian) does ''not'' reflect vowel reduction.
The realization of unstressed and goes as follows:
★ Both become after palatalized consonants. This occurs for after retroflex consonants as well. Examples: жена ('wife'), язык ('tongue').
★
★ Exceptions to this are across certain word-final suffixes and in non-final post-tonic (after the stressed syllable) positions. E.g. память ('memory') and выглянул, ('has looked out').
★ In pretonic and absolute word-initial position, unstressed and become (this is actually more front than cardinal , possibly to ). In all other positions, they reduce to an unclear
schwa (except where they've merged with ). Examples: паром ('ferry'), облако ('cloud'), трава ('grass').
★
★ When <аа>, <ао>, <оа>, or <оо> is written in a word, it indicates so that соображать ('to consider'), is pronounced
These processes occur even across word boundaries as in под морем ('under the sea').
There are a number of exceptions to the above comments on unstressed and .
★ Firstly, is not always reduced in foreign borrowings, eg радио, ('radio').
★ Secondly, some speakers pronounce as after retroflex consonants ( and . This pronunciation generally only applies to жалеть ('to regret'), к сожалению ('unfortunately'), and oblique cases of лошадь ('horse'), such as лошадей, . In addition, replaces after in the oblique cases of some
numerals, eg. двадцати, ('twenty').
★ Thirdly, when the perfectivizing prefix is added to a verb form, post-tonic and become after soft consonants where they otherwise would not: вытянет ('he will pull out').
In addition to this, the unstressed high vowels and become lax (or
near-close) as in ютиться ('to huddle'), этап ('stage'), дышать ('to breathe'), and мужчина ('man').
In weakly stressed positions, vowels may become voiceless between two voiceless consonants: выставка ('exhibition'), потому что ('because'). This may also happen in cases where only the following consonant is voiceless: череп ('skull').
Diphthongs
Russian diphthongs all end in a non-syllabic , which can be considered an allophone of , the only
semivowel in Russian. In all contexts other than after a vowel, is considered an approximant consonant. Phonological descriptions of may also classify it a consonant even in the coda. In such descriptions, Russian has no diphthongs.
The first part of diphthongs are subject to the same allophony as their constituent vowels. Examples of words with diphthongs: яйцо ('egg'), ей ('her'
instr), действенный ('effective'). (written <ий> or <ый>) is a common adjectival affix where it is often unstressed; at normal conversational speed, such endings are frequently monophthongized to or .
Consonants
<> denotes
palatalization, meaning the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant.
Phonetic details:
★ Almost all consonants come in hard/soft pairs. Exceptions are consonants that are always hard , , and ; and consonants that are always soft , , , and . The soft/hard distinction for velar consonants is typically allophonic; might be considered a marginal phoneme, although its occurrence before non-front vowels is mostly in words of foreign origin.
★ is similar to the
in ''genre'', but the tongue is curled back (as with the of American English) rather than domed. differs from this only by being voiceless. For more, see retroflex consonant.
★ and are also marginal phonemes. Some speakers have instead of , which is likely to be two underlying phonemes: ||. The status of as a phoneme is similar since it may derive from an underlying || or || and its use is becoming more archaic compared to a geminated hard (although the former continues to be standard in media and government). For more information, see Alveolo-palatal consonant.
★ Plain and palatalized are both dental and apical while palatalized and are alveolar and laminal . Note that, for and , the tongue is raised enough to produce slight frication. Plain is typically pharyngealized ("dark" ).
★ and are laminal and dental (or dento-alveolar) while is alveolar and apical.
★ Plain is postalveolar: .
Phonology
Voiced consonants (, and ) are devoiced word-finally unless the next word begins with a voiced obstruent.
Russian features a general retrograde assimilation of voicing and palatalization.
Voicing
Within a morpheme, voicing is not distinctive before obstruents (except for and ). The voicing or devoicing is determined by that of the final obstruent in the sequence: просьба ('request'), водка ('vodka').
, , and have voiced allophones before voiced obstruents, as in плацдарм ('bridge-head').
Other than and , nasals and liquids devoice between voiceless consonants or a voiceless consonant and a pause: контрфорс ('buttress').
In foreign borrowings, this isn't always the case for ||, as in Адольф Гитлер ('Adolf Hitler').
Palatalization
Before , paired consonants are normally palatalized as in пью ('I drink') and пьеса ('theatrical play'). съездить ('to go/ travel') is an exception to this for many speakers.
Before plain dental consonants, , , labial and dental consonants are plain: орла ('eagle' gen. sg).
Before palatalized labial and dental consonants or , dental consonants (other than ) are palatalized.
assimilates the palatalization of the following velar consonant легких ('lungs' gen. pl).
Palatalization assimilation of labial consonants before labial consonants is in free variation with nonassimilation, that is бомбить ('to bomb') is either or depending on the individual speaker.
When plain precedes its palatalized cognate, it is also palatalized (see gemination). This is slightly less common across affix boundaries.
In addition to this, dental stridents conform to the place of articulation (not just the palatalization) of following postalveolars: с частью ('with a part'). In careful speech, this does not occur across word boundaries
Russian is rare in the fact that nasals do not typically have place assimilation. For example, both and appear before retroflex consonants: деньжонки ('money' (scornful)) and ханжой ('hypocrite' instr.). In the same context, other coronal consonants are always plain. Russian only has a velar nasal as a rare allophone before velar consonants: функция ('function'), but not in most other words like банк .
Consonant Clusters
Russian allows consonant clusters. Some, such as in встретить ('to encounter'), can have as much as four segments.
Other cluster types are also attested, some of which would be difficult for English speakers.
| 3 Segments | Russian | IPA | Translation |
|---|
| CCL | 'скр'ип | | squeak |
CCC
★ | 'ств'ол | | (tree) trunk |
| LCL | ве'рбл'юд | | camel |
| LCC | то'лст'ый | | thick |
For speakers who pronounce instead of , words like общий ('common') also constitute clusters of this type.
| 2 Segments | Russian | IPA | Translation |
|---|
| CC | ко'сть' | | bone |
| LC | 'рт'уть | | mercury |
| CL | 'сл'епой | | blind |
| LL | го'рл'о | | throat |
| CJ | 'дь'як | | dyak |
| LJ | 'рь'яный | | zealous |
If is considered a consonant in the coda position, then words like айва ('quince') contain semivowel+consonant clusters.
Clusters of four consonants are possible, but not very common, especially within a morpheme[1]. Some potential clusters are deleted as well. For example, dental plosives are dropped between a dental continuant and a dental nasal: лестный ('flattering').
Supplementary notes
and are the only consonants that can be geminated.
The historic transformation of into in the genitive case (and also the accusative for animate entities) of masculine singular adjectives and pronouns is not reflected in the modern Russian orthography: его ('his/him'), белого ('white' gen. sg.), синего ('blue' gen. sg.). Orthographic г also represents when it precedes other velar sounds.
Between any vowel and (excluding instances across affix boundaries but including unstressed vowels that have merged with ), is dropped: аист ('stork') and делает ('does') but заезжать ('to pick up'). This may be related to the historic de-iotification of initial и that occurred around the nineteenth century.
Russian stress is similar to English in how it determines accentuation. The stress may fall on any syllable, and may shift within an inflexional paradigm: до́ма ('house' gen. sg.) vs дома́ ('houses'). A number of morphemes have underlying stress and are, therefore, always stressed. However, other than some complex words, only one syllable is stressed in a word. Russian also has an intonation pattern similar to that of English.
Non-open back vowels velarize preceding hard consonants: ты ('you' sing.). and labialize all consonants: бок ('side'), нёс ('he carried').
Historical sound changes
Russian scribe, 15th century
The modern phonological system of Russian is inherited from Common Slavonic, but underwent considerable modification in the early historical period, before being largely settled by about 1400.
Like all Slavic languages, Russian was originally a language of ''open syllables''. All syllables ended in vowels (as in Fijian and Hawaiian), and consonant clusters, in far lesser variety than today, existed only at the start of a syllable.
By the time of the earliest records, Old Russian already showed characteristic divergences from Common Slavonic. Major features of this stage include:
The loss of the nasal vowels (the yuses of ancient Cyrillic), which had themselves developed from Indo-European [-en-]/[-an-]/[-on-] before a consonant—usually dental or labial—and at word boundaries. Non-nasalized vowels took their place, possibly iotated or with softening of the preceding consonant:
★ PIE:
★ ’sonti
★ Lat: sunt
★ ComSl:
★ OCS:
★ Russian: суть ('they are').
Borrowings in the Finno-Ugric languages with interpolated [-n-] after Common Slavonic nasal vowels have been taken to indicate that the nasal vowels did exist in East Slavic until some time possibly just before the historical period.
Simplification of Common Slavonic [-dl-/-tl-] to [-l-]:
★ ComSl:
★ Polish: mydło
★ Russian: мыло ('soap').
A tendency for greater maintenance of intermediate ancient [-s-], [-k-], etc. before frontal vowels, than in other Slavic languages, the so-called ''incomplete second and third palatalizations'':
★ Uk нозі
★ Russian: ноги ('legs').
''Pleophony'' or "full-voicing" ('полногласие' ), that is, the addition of vowels on either side of and between two consonants. Church Slavonic influence has made it less common in Russian than in modern Ukrainian and Belarusian:
★ OCS: врабіи
★ Russian: воробей ('sparrow')
★ Uk: Володимір
★ Russian: Владимир ('Vladimir') (although the nickname form in Russian is still Володя ).
Major phonological processes in the last thousand years have included the absence of the Slavonic open-syllable requirement, achieved in part through the loss of the ultra-short vowels, the so-called ''fall of the yers'', which alternately lengthened and dropped (the yers are given conventional transcription rather than precise IPA symbols in the Old Russian pronunciations):
★ OR: > R: обо мне ('about me')
★ OR: ''сънъ'' > R: ''сон'' ('sleep' nom. sg.), cognate with Lat. somnus;
★ OR: ''съна'' > R: сна ('of sleep') (gen. sg.).
The loss of the yers has led to a much greater variety of consonant clusters, with attendant voicing and/or devoicing in the assimilation:
★ OR: > R: где ('where').
Consonant clusters thus created were often simplified:
★ здравствуйте ('hello'), ''not'' , although such a pronunciation could be affected in the archaic meaning ''be healthy''
★ сердце ('heart'), ''not''
★ солнце ('sun'), ''not'' .
The development of OR (conventional transcription) into , as seen above. This development has caused by far the greatest of all Russian spelling controversies. The timeline of the development of into or has also been debated.
The development of into under stress:
★ OR о чемъ ('about which' loc. sg.) > R о чём .
A greater variety of palatalized phonemes, and the systematic palatalization of consonants before and .
The retroflexing of postalveolars: became and become . This is considered a "hardening" since retroflex sounds are difficult to palatalize. At some point, resisted palatalization, which is why it is also "hard" although phonetically it is no different than before. The sound represented by <щ> was much more commonly pronounced as than it is today.
The adoption of as a non-foreign sound, stemming from the loss of the final yer and the devoicing of terminal . Before a vowel, where the occurs only in borrowed words, it was considered difficult for uneducated speakers to pronounce until at least the end of the nineteenth century.
See also
★ Russian alphabet,
★ Russian orthography
★
★ Reforms of Russian orthography
★ List of Russian language topics
★ List of phonetics topics
References
1.
Bibliography
★ The Phonetics of Russian, Jones, Daniel & Ward, Dennis, , , Cambridge University Press, 1969,
★ Sound Pattern of Russian, Halle, Morris, , , MIT Press, 1959,
Further reading
★ Introduction to Russian Phonology and Word Structure, Hamilton, William S., , , Slavica Publishers, 1980,
★ .
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