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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 ['tvʲo.rdɨj]) and soft (мягкий ['mʲæ.xʲkʲɪj]) or plain and palatalized. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ...
Phonetic (pho-NET-ic) is a nationwide voicemail-to-text messaging service available for most digital mobile phones in which a subscriber is provided a custom voice mailbox for the purpose of receiving all incoming voice messages as actual transcribed text for reading via short messaging (also known as SMS...
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This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ...
The vowels of modern (Standard) Arabic and (Israeli) Hebrew from the phonological point of view. ...
A standard language (also standard dialect or standardized dialect) is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status. ...
Location Position of Moscow in Europe Government Country District Subdivision Russia Central Federal District Federal City Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov Geographical characteristics Area - City 1,081 km² Population - City (2005) - Density 10,415,400 8537. ...
A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ...
Russian (Russian: , ) is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia and the most widespread of the Slavonic languages. ...
Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ...
Vowels Russian possesses five vowel phonemes which are subject to considerable allophony. Some linguists consider [ɨ] to be a separate phoneme but the general consensus (and that taken by this article) is that it is an allophone of /i/: Vowel allophony is largely dependent on stress and the palatalizaton of neighboring consonants: Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...
A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ...
A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ...
A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ...
A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ...
An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ...
/i/ When a preceding consonant is hard, /i/ is retracted to [ɨ]. While this is phonetically central, for phonological purposes it is considered back. Between soft consonants, both stressed and unstressed /i/ are raised as in пить [pʲi̝tʲ] (to drink) and маленький [ˈmalʲɪ̝nʲkʲɪj] (small). When preceded and followed by coronal or dorsal consonants, [ɨ] is fronted to [ɨ̟]. After a labial+/l/ cluster, [ɨ] is retracted, as in плыть [plɨ̠tʲ] (to float); it is also slightly dipthongized to [ɯ̟ɨ̟]. Coronal consonants are articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. ...
Dorsal consonants are articulated with the back of the tongue against either the hard palate, or the flexible velum just behind it, or even against the uvula. ...
/a/ Phonetically, /a/ is a front vowel, but phonologically it is back. Between soft consonants, it becomes [æ] as in пять [pʲætʲ] (five). When not following a palatalized consonant, /a/ is retracted to [ɑ̟] before /l/ as in палка ['pɑlkə] (stick)
/e/ In native words, /e/ only follows unpaired (i.e. the retroflexes and /ts/) and palatalized consonants. After palatalized consonants (but not before), it is a mid vowel ([e̞] or [ɛ̝]), while a following palatalized consonant raises it to [e]. Another allophone, an open-mid [ɛ] occurs word-initially and never before or after palatalized consonants (hereafter [ɛ̝] is represented without the diacritic for simplicity). Preceding hard consonants retract /e/ to [ɛ̠] and [e̠]. So жест (gesture) and цели (ambition) are pronounced [ʐɛ̠st] and [tse̠lʲ] respectively. Sub-apical retroflex plosive In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. ...
In words borrowed from other languages, it is often the case that /e/ does not follow a palatalized consonant until the word has been fully adopted into Russian. For instance, шофер (from French chauffeur) was pronounced [ʂoˈfɛr] in the early twentieth century but is now pronounced [ʂʌˈfʲor]. On the other hand, the pronunciations of words such as отель [ʌˈtɛlʲ] (hotel) retain the hard consonants despite a long presence in the language.
/o/ Like /e/, this is a mid vowel. Between palatalized consonants it is centralized to [ɵ̞] as in тётя [ˈtʲɵ.tʲə] (aunt).
/u/ As with other back vowels, /u/ is centralized between palatalized consonants, as in чуять [ˈʨʉ.jɪtʲ] (to sense).
Non-open back vowels velarize preceding hard consonants: ты [tˠɨ] (you). /o/ and /u/ labialize the same consonants: мок [mʷok] (side). Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant. ...
Labialisation is secondary articulatory feature of sounds in a language, most usually used to refer to consonants. ...
Unstressed vowels tend to merge together. /o/ and /a/ generally have the same unstressed allophones (see akanye) and /e/ becomes /i/ when unstressed (picking up its unstressed allophones). Russian orthography does not reflect vowel reduction. Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...
Akanye (Russian Ðканье) is the term in the Russian language for the merger of as in unstressed syllables. ...
Russian orthography (правопиÑание ) is formally considered to encompass spelling (Ð¾Ñ€Ñ„Ð¾Ð³Ñ€Ð°Ñ„Ð¸Ñ ) and punctuation (Ð¿ÑƒÐ½ÐºÑ‚ÑƒÐ°Ñ†Ð¸Ñ ). Russian spelling, which is quite phonetic in practice, is a mix of the morphological and phonetic principles, with a few etymological or historic forms, and occasional grammatical differentiation. ...
The realization of unstressed /o/ and /a/ goes as follows:
- Both become /i/ after palatalized consonants. This occurs for /o/ after retroflex consonants as well. Examples: жена [ʐɨ̞ˈna] (wife), язык [jɪˈzɨk] (tongue).
- Exceptions to this are across certain word-final suffixes and in non-final post-tonic (after the stressed syllable) positions. E.g. память [ˈpa.mʲɪtʲ] (memory) and выглянул, [ˈvɨ.glʲɪnul] (has looked out).
- In pretonic and absolute word-initial position, unstressed /a/ and /o/ become [ʌ]. In all other positions, they reduce to an unclear schwa (except where they’ve merged with /i/). Examples: паром [pʌˈrom] (ferry), облако [ˈobləkə] (cloud), трава [trʌˈva] (grass).
- When <аа>, <ао>, <оа>, or <оо> is written in a word, it indicates [ʌ.ʌ] so that соображать (to consider), is pronounced [sʌ.ʌ.brʌˈʐatʲ]
These processes occur even across word boundaries as in под морем [pʌˈd‿morʲɪm] (under the sea). Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...
In addition to this, the unstressed high vowels /i/ and /u/ become lax (or near-close) as in ютиться [jʉ̞ˈtʲitʲsə] (to huddle), этап [ɪˈtap] (stage), дышать [dɨ̞ˈʂatʲ] (to breathe), and мужчина [mʊˈɕːinə] (man).-1...
In weakly stressed positions, vowels may become voiceless between two voiceless consonants: выставка [ˈvɨstə̥fkə] (exhibition), потому что [pə̥tʌˈmu ʂtə] (because). This may also happen in cases where only the following consonant is voiceless: череп [tɕerʲɪ̥p] (skull).
There are a number of exceptions to the above comments on unstressed /о/ and /a/. Firstly, /o/ is not always reduced in foreign borrowings, eg радио, [ˈra.dʲɪo] (radio). Secondly, some speakers pronounce /a/ as [ɪ] after retroflex consonants (/ʐ/ and /ʂ/. This pronunciation generally only applies to жалеть, [ʐɪˈlʲetʲ] (to regret), к сожалению, [ksə.ʐɪˈlʲe.nʲɪ.u] (unfortunately), and oblique cases of лошадь (horse), such as лошадей, [lə.ʂɪˈdʲej]. In addition, /i/ replaces /a/ after /ts/ in the oblique cases of some numerals, eg двадцати, [dvə.tsɨˈtʲi] (twenty). Thirdly, when the perfectivizing prefix /vi/ is added to a verb form, post-tonic /a/ and /o/ become /i/ after soft consonants where they otherwise would not: вытянет [ˈvɨtʲɪnʲɪt] (he will pull out).
Diphthongs Russian diphthongs all end in a non-syllabic [i̯], which can be considered an allophone of /j/, the only semivowel in Russian. In all contexts other than after a vowel, /j/ is considered an approximant consonant. Phonological descriptions of /j/ may also classify it a consonant even in the coda. In such descriptions, Russian has no diphthongs. Semivowels (also called semiconsonants or glides) are vowels that function phonemically as consonants. ...
The first part of diphthongs are subject to the same allophony as their constituent vowels. Examples of words with diphthongs: яйцо [jɪjˈtso] (egg), ей [jɛj] (her instr), действенный [ˈdʲejstvʲɛnːɨj] (effective). /ij/ (written <ий> or <ый>) is a common adjectival affix where it is often unstressed; at normal conversational speed, such endings are frequently monophthongized to [ɪ] or [ɨ̞]. In linguistics, the instrumental case (also called the eighth case) indicates that a noun is the instrument or means by which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. ...
Consonants <ʲ> denotes palatalization, meaning the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant. Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ...
Phonetic details: In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ...
In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lips and the upper teeth, or viceversa. ...
Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ...
Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. ...
Postalveolar (or palato-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue between the alveolar ridge (the place of articulation for alveolar consonants) and the palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants). ...
Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ...
Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ...
A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ...
A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ...
Affricate consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or ), but release as a fricative such as or (or, in a couple of languages, into a fricative trill) rather than directly into the following vowel. ...
Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. ...
In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. ...
Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ...
- Almost all consonants come in hard/soft pairs. Exceptions are consonants that are always hard /ʦ/, /ʂ/, and /ʐ/; and consonants that are always soft /tɕ/, /ɕː/, /ʑː/, and /j/. The soft/hard distinction for velar consonants is typically allophonic; /kʲ/ might be considered a marginal phoneme, although its occurrence before non-front vowels is mostly in words of foreign origin.
- /ʐ/ is similar to the <g> in genre, but the tongue is curled back (as with the /r/ of American English) rather than domed. /ʂ/ differs from this only by being voiceless. For more, see retroflex consonant.
- /ɕː/ and /ʑː/ are also marginal phonemes. Some speakers have /ɕtɕ/ instead of /ɕː/, which is likely to be two underlying phonemes: |ʂtɕ|; this pronunciation is falling into disuse[citation needed]. The status of /ʑː/ as a phoneme is similar since it may derive from an underlying |zʐ| or |sʐ| and its use is becoming more archaic compared to a geminated hard [ʐː] (although the former continues to be standard in media and government). For more information, see Alveolo-palatal consonant.
- Plain /t/ /d/ /n/ /l/ and palatalized /rʲ/ are both dental [t̪] [d̪] [n̪] [l̪] [r̪ʲ] and apical [t̺] [d̺] [n̺] [l̺] [r̺ʲ] while palatalized /tʲ/ /dʲ/ /nʲ/ and /lʲ/ are alveolar and laminal [t̻ʲsʲ] [d̻ʲzʲ] [nʲ̻] [lʲ̻]. Note that, for /tʲ/ and /dʲ/, the tongue is raised enough to produce slight frication. Plain /l/ is typically pharyngealized ("dark" [ɫ]).
- /s/ and /z/ are laminal and alveolar while /ʦ/ is apical.
- Plain /r/ is postalveolar: [r̠].
 The letter Щ in an ABC book printed in St. Petersburg in 1904 Sub-apical retroflex plosive In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. ...
In phonology, the underlying representation or underlying form of a morpheme is the abstract form the morpheme is postulated to have before any phonological rules have applied to it. ...
Sagittal section of alveolo-palatal fricative In phonetics, alveolo-palatal (or alveopalatal) consonants are palatalized postalveolar fricatives, articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate. ...
Pharyngealisation is a secondary feature of phonemes in a language. ...
A page for the Cyrillic letter Щ from the 1904 Russian ABC book Азбука в картинках /azbuka v kartinkax/ The alphabet in pictures. Щеголь /Segol/ = dandy, toff, щет...
A page for the Cyrillic letter Щ from the 1904 Russian ABC book Азбука в картинках /azbuka v kartinkax/ The alphabet in pictures. Щеголь /Segol/ = dandy, toff, щет...
Phonology Voiced consonants (/b/, /bʲ/, /d/, /dʲ/ /g/, /v/, /vʲ/, /z/, /zʲ/, /ʐ/, and /ʑː/ 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 /v/ and /vʲ/). The voicing or devoicing is determined by that of the final obstruent in the sequence: просьба [ˈprozʲbə] (request), водка [ˈvo.tkə] (vodka).
/ʦ/, /tɕ/, and /x/ have voiced allophones before voiced obstruents, as in плацдарм [plʌʣˈdarm] (bridge-head).
Other than /mʲ/ and /nʲ/, nasals and liquids devoice between voiceless consonants or a voiceless consonant and a pause: контрфорс [ˌkontr ̥ˈfors] (buttress).
In foreign borrowings, this isn't always the case for |f|, as in Адольф Гитлер [aˈdolʲfˈgʲi.tlʲɛr] (Adolf Hitler).
Palatalization Before /j/, paired consonants are normally palatalized as in пью [pʲju] (I drink) and пьеса [ˈpʲjɛ.sə] (theatrical play). съездить [ˈsje.zʲdʲɪtʲ] (to go/ travel) is an exception to this for many speakers.
Before plain dental consonants, /r/, /rʲ/, labial and dental consonants are plain: орла [ʌrˈla] (eagle gen. sg). The genitive case is a grammatical case that indicates a relationship, primarily one of possession, between the noun in the genitive case and another noun. ...
Before palatalized labial and dental consonants or /lʲ/, dental consonants (other than /ʦ/) are palatalized.
/x/ assimilates the palatalization of the following velar consonant легких [ˈlʲɵxʲkʲɪx] (lungs gen. pl).
Palatalization assimilation of labial consonants before labial consonants is in free variation with nonassimilation, that is бомбить (to bomb) is either [bʌmˈbʲitʲ] or [bʌmʲˈbʲitʲ] depending on the individual speaker.
When plain /n/ precedes its palatalized cognate, it is also palatalized (see gemination). This is slightly less common across affix boundaries. Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-20, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ...
In addition to this, dental stridents conform to the place of articulation (not just the palatalization) of following postalveolars: с частью [ˈɕːasʲtʲu] (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 /n/ and /nʲ/ appear before retroflex consonants: деньжонки [ˈdʲenʲʐənkʲɪ] (money) and ханжой [xʌnˈʐoj] (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 [ˈfuŋk.ʦɨjə] (function), but not in most other words like банк [bank]. The velar nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...
Consonant Clusters Russian allows consonant clusters. Some, such as in встретить [ˈfstrʲetʲɪtʲ] (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 | скрип | [skrʲip] | squeak | | CCC* | ствол | [stvol] | gun barrel | | LCL | верблюд | [vʲɛrˈblʲut] | camel | | LCC | толстый | [ˈtolstɨj] | fat | For speakers who pronounce [ɕtɕ] instead of [ɕː], words like общий (common) also constitute clusters of this type. Liquid consonants, or liquids, are approximant consonants that are not classified as semivowels (glides) because they do not correspond phonetically to specific vowels (in the way that, for example, the initial in English yes corresponds to ). The class of liquids can be divided into lateral liquids and rhotics. ...
| 2 Segments | Russian | IPA | Translation | | CC | кость | [kosʲtʲ] | bone | | LC | ртуть | [rtutʲ] | mercury | | CL | слепой | [sʲlʲɛˈpoj] | blind | | LL* | горло | [ˈgorlə] | throat | | CJ | дьяк | [dʲjak] | deacon | | LJ | рьяный | [ˈrʲjanɨj] | zealous | - *|lr| is not an accepted cluster in Russian.
If /j/ is considered a consonant in the coda position, then words like айва (quince) contain semivowel+consonant clusters. Semivowels (also called semiconsonants or glides) are vowels that function phonemically as consonants. ...
Some potential clusters are deleted, though. For example, dental plosives are dropped between a dental continuant and a dental nasal: лестный [ˈlʲɛsnɨj] (flattering).
Supplementary notes /n/ and /nʲ/ are the only consonants that can be geminated.
The historic transformation of /g/ into /v/ 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 [jɪˈvo] (his/him), белого [ˈbʲɛ.lə.və] (white gen. sg.), синего [ˈsʲi.nʲɪ.və] (blue gen. sg.). Orthographic г also represents /x/ when it precedes other velar sounds. The genitive case is a grammatical case that indicates a relationship, primarily one of possession, between the noun in the genitive case and another noun. ...
The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a verb. ...
Russian orthography (правопиÑание ) is formally considered to encompass spelling (Ð¾Ñ€Ñ„Ð¾Ð³Ñ€Ð°Ñ„Ð¸Ñ ) and punctuation (Ð¿ÑƒÐ½ÐºÑ‚ÑƒÐ°Ñ†Ð¸Ñ ). Russian spelling, which is quite phonetic in practice, is a mix of the morphological and phonetic principles, with a few etymological or historic forms, and occasional grammatical differentiation. ...
Between any vowel and /i/ (excluding instances across affix boundaries but including unstressed vowels that have merged with /i/), /j/ is dropped: аист [ʌˈist] (stork) and делает [ˈdʲɛləɪt] (does) but заезжать [zəjɪˈʑːatʲ] (to pick up). This may be related to the historic de-iotification of initial и that occured 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 [ˈdo.mə] (house gen. sg.) vs дома́ [dʌˈma] (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.
Historical sound changes - See also: History of the Russian language
 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. Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...
Download high resolution version (513x701, 192 KB)A fifteenth-century Russian manuscript illustration showing the scribe (or author) bent over his pad, inking the words ( [vŭ vremja ono]. Note the retention of the yer: the modern Russian spelling is во время оно...
Download high resolution version (513x701, 192 KB)A fifteenth-century Russian manuscript illustration showing the scribe (or author) bent over his pad, inking the words ( [vŭ vremja ono]. Note the retention of the yer: the modern Russian spelling is во время оно...
The vowels of modern (Standard) Arabic and (Israeli) Hebrew from the phonological point of view. ...
This article or section should be merged with Proto-Slavic language Common Slavonic is the common language spoken by the Slavs, which eventually broke up into the ancestors of the modern Slavic languages. ...
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. Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup...
The Hawaiian language is an Austronesian language that takes its name from that of the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. ...
By the time of the earliest records, Old Russian already showed characteristic divergences from Common Slavonic. Major features of this stage include: The name Old Russian language has been applied to different things. ...
This article or section should be merged with Proto-Slavic language Common Slavonic is the common language spoken by the Slavs, which eventually broke up into the ancestors of the modern Slavic languages. ...
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: Little Yus and Big Yus , or Jus, are the letters representing two Common Slavonic nasal vowels, in the early Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets. ...
The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages; (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ...
- PIE: *’sonti
- Lat: sunt
- ComSl: *[sо̃tĭ]
- OCS: сѫть
- Russian: суть [sutʲ] (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. Proto-Indo-European (PIE) may refer to: Proto-Indo-European language the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages Proto-Indo-Europeans, the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language Proto-Indo-European roots, A list of reconstructed Proto-Indo-European roots Categories: | ...
Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ...
This article or section should be merged with Proto-Slavic language Common Slavonic is the common language spoken by the Slavs, which eventually broke up into the ancestors of the modern Slavic languages. ...
Old Church Slavonic (also called Old Church Slavic, Old Bulgarian, Old Macedonian, and Old Slavonic) is the first literary Slavic language, developed from the Slavonic dialect of Thessaloniki by 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius. ...
Approximate geographical distribution of areas where indigenous Finno-Ugric languages are spoken. ...
Simplification of Common Slavonic [-dl-/-tl-] to [-l-]:
- ComSl: *[mydlo]
- Polish: mydło
- Russian: мыло ['mɨ.lə] (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 /nozʲi/
- Russian: ноги [ˈno.gʲɪ] (legs).
Pleophony or "full-voicing" (полногласие [pə.lnʌˈgla.sʲjə]), that is, the addition of vowels on either side of /l/ and /r/ between two consonants. Church Slavonic influence has made it less common in Russian than in modern Ukrainian and Belarusian: - OCS: врабіи [ˈvra.bii]
- Russian: воробей [və.rʌˈbʲej] (sparrow)
- Uk: Володимір /volodɪmʲir/
- Russian: Владимир [vlʌˈdʲi.mʲɪr] (Vladimir) (although the * nickname form in Russian is still Володя [vʌˈlodʲə]).
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): The letter (Ъ, ÑŠ) of the Cyrillic alphabet is known as the hard sign (твёрдый знак ) in the modern Russian alphabet and as er golyam (ер голÑм, big yer) in the Bulgarian alphabet. ...
- OR: объ мьнѣ /o.bŭ mĭˈnĕ/ > R: обо мне [ə.bʌ ˈmnʲe] (about me)
- OR: сънъ /ˈsŭ.nŭ/ > R: сон [son] (sleep nom. sg.), cognate with Lat. somnus;
- OR: съна /sŭˈna/ > R: сна [sna] (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: Old East Slavic language is one name for a language spoken between the 10th and 14th centuries in Kievan Rus and its successor states, the ancestor of the modern East Slavic languages. ...
- OR: къдѣ /kŭˈdĕ/ > R: где [gdʲɛ] (where).
Consonant clusters thus created were often simplified: - здравствуйте [ˈzdra.stvuj.tʲə] (hello), not *[ˈzdra.fstvuj.tʲə], although such a pronunciation could be affected in the archaic meaning be healthy
- сердце [ˈsʲɛ.rʦə] (heart), not *[ˈsʲɛ.rdʦə]
- солнце [ˈso.nʦə] (sun), not *[ˈso.lnʦə].
The development of OR ѣ /ĕ/ (conventional transcription) into /(j)e/, as seen above. This development has caused by far the greatest of all Russian spelling controversies. The timeline of the development of /ĕ/ into /e/ or /je/ has also been debated. The Old Russian language adopted the Cyrillic alphabet, approximately during the tenth century and at about the same time as the introduction of Eastern Christianity into the territories inhabited by the Eastern Slavs. ...
Yat or Jat (, ) is the 32nd letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet and name of the sound represented by it. ...
The development of /e/ into /o/ under stress:
- OR о чемъ /о ˈʧe.mŭ/ (about which loc. sg.) > R о чём [ʌ ˈʧom].
A greater variety of palatalized phonemes, and the systematic palatalization of consonants before /e/ and /i/.
The retroflexing of postalveolars: /ʒ/ became [ʐ] and /ʃ/ become [ʂ]. This is considered a "hardening" since retroflex sounds are difficult to palatalize. At some point, /ʦ/ 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 /ɕʨ/ than it is today.
The adoption of /f/ as a non-foreign sound, stemming from the loss of the final yer and the devoicing of terminal /v/. Before a vowel, where the /f/ 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 The modern Russian alphabet is a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet (Кириллица). It was introduced into Kievan Rus (КиевÑÐºÐ°Ñ Ð ÑƒÑÑŒ) at the time of its conversion to Christianity (988), or, if certain archaelogical finds are correctly dated, at a slightly earlier date. ...
Image File history File links RU-alfavit. ...
Russian orthography (правопиÑание ) is formally considered to encompass spelling (Ð¾Ñ€Ñ„Ð¾Ð³Ñ€Ð°Ñ„Ð¸Ñ ) and punctuation (Ð¿ÑƒÐ½ÐºÑ‚ÑƒÐ°Ñ†Ð¸Ñ ). Russian spelling, which is quite phonetic in practice, is a mix of the morphological and phonetic principles, with a few etymological or historic forms, and occasional grammatical differentiation. ...
The Old Russian language adopted the Cyrillic alphabet, approximately during the tenth century and at about the same time as the introduction of Eastern Christianity into the territories inhabited by the Eastern Slavs. ...
The list of Russian language topics stores articles on grammar and other language-related topics that discuss (or should discuss) peculiarities of the Russian language, among others. ...
A Acoustic phonetics Affricate Airstream mechanism Alfred C. Gimson Allophone Alveolar approximant Alveolar consonant Alveolar ejective fricative Alveolar ejective Alveolar flap Alveolar nasal Alveolar ridge Alveolar trill Alveolo-palatal consonant Apical consonant Approximant consonant Articulatory phonetics aspiration Auditory phonetics B Back vowel Bilabial click Bilabial consonant Bilabial ejective Bilabial nasal...
References - Jones, Daniel & Ward, Dennis (1969). The Phonetics of Russian. Cambridge University Press.
- Halle, Morris (1959). Sound Pattern of Russian. MIT Press.
Further reading - Hamilton, William S. (1980). Introduction to Russian Phonology and Word Structure. Slavica Publishers.
- Sussex, Roland (1992), "Russian" in W. Bright, ed., International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (1st ed.), New York: Oxford University Press.
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