Vowel reduction in the Russian language differs in language standard and in dialects. Several ways of reduction (and its absence) are distinguished. Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Russian ( , transliteration: russkiy yazyk, ) is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia and the most widespread of the Slavic languages. ... 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. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language characteristic of a particular group of the languages speakers. ...

Language standard

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. ... Russian orthography (правописание ) is formally considered to encompass spelling (орфография ) and punctuation (пунктуация ). 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). In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean: An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in any language, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel. ...

In addition to this, the unstressed high vowels /i/ and /u/ become lax (or near-close) as in ютиться [jʉ̞ˈtʲitsə] (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.dʲɪ.o] (radio).
• Secondly, some speakers pronounce /a/ as [ɨ] after retroflex consonants (/ʐ/ and /ʂ/. This pronunciation generally only applies to жалеть [ʐɨˈlʲetʲ] (to regret), к сожалению [ksə.ʐɨˈlʲe.nʲɪ.ju] (unfortunately), and oblique cases of лошадь (horse), such as лошадей, [lə.ʂɨˈdʲej]. In addition, /i/ replaces /a/ after /ts/ in the oblique cases of some numerals, eg. двадцати, [dvə.tsɨˈtʲi] (twenty).
• Thirdly, when the perfectivizing prefix /vɨ/ 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).

A numeral is a symbol or group of symbols that represents a number. ...

Types of reduction

Akanye

Akanye (Аканье in Cyrillic) is the term in the Russian language for the merger of /o/ as /a/ in unstressed syllables. Because /a/ has its own unstressed allophones, unstressed /o/ will be pronounced as one of these allophones and not actually an open front unrounded vowel. For example, молоко (“milk”) is pronounced [məlʌ'ko], identically to the hypothetical word (logatom) малако. Russian ( , transliteration: russkiy yazyk, ) is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia and the most widespread of the Slavic languages. ... 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. ...

Linguists have conjectured that this phenomenon appeared owing to the influence of Uralic languages, spoken by tribes who inhabited the region of what is now Russia before the arrival of the Slavs.^{[citation needed]} Geographical distribution of Samoyedic, Finnic, Ugric and Yukaghir languages  Yukaghir  Samoyedic  Ugric  Finnic The Uralic languages (pronounced: ) form a language family of about 30 languages spoken by approximately 20 million people. ... Distribution of Slavic people by language The Slavic peoples (Greek: , Latin: , Arabic: ‎ Saqaliba, Old Church Slavonic: , Russian: , Polish: , Serbian: ), Croatian: , Bulgarian: ) are a linguistic and ethnic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in Europe, where they constitute roughly a third of the population. ...

Beginning students of Russian are often confused by this phenomenon, as the pronunciation does not correspond to the spelling. For the most part Russian spelling is phonemic or morphophonemic, but akanye breaks this convention and often results in words being misspelled, especially by school children. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... A phonemic orthography is a writing system where the written graphemes correspond to phonemes, the spoken sounds of the language. ... In phonology, the word morphophonemic describes anything relating primarily to phonemes, but secondarily to morphemes. ...

Akanye is typical of the dialect of Moscow. In certain other Russian dialects, literal pronunciation of /o/ (also called okanye) has persisted to modern times (for example, in the accents of Kaluga and Vologda). Okanye is older and more similar to other Slavic languages such as Ukrainian. Akanye became a language norm in Russian by the middle of the nineteenth century. 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 (2007)    - Density 10,469,000   9684. ... Konstantin Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics in Kaluga, built in 1967 Kaluga (Калу́га in Russian) is a city in central Russia on the Oka River 188 km southwest of Moscow, administrative center of Kaluga Oblast. ... St. ...

Okanye

Okanye (Оканье in Cyrillic) is the term in the Russian language for the absence of the merger of /o/ as /a/ in unstressed syllables (i.e., absence of akanye). Russian ( , transliteration: russkiy yazyk, ) is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia and the most widespread of the Slavic languages. ...

Okanye is featured in the Povolzhye (Volga region) dialects, e.g., in accents of Kaluga and Vologda and in Northern Russian dialects. Russia is divided into eleven economic regions (Russian: экономические районы, sing. ... For other meanings of the word Volga see Volga (disambiguation) &#1042;&#1086;&#1083;&#1075;&#1072; Length 3,690 km Elevation of the source 225 m Average discharge  ? m³/s Area watershed 1. ... Konstantin Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics in Kaluga, built in 1967 Kaluga (Калу́га in Russian) is a city in central Russia on the Oka River 188 km southwest of Moscow, administrative center of Kaluga Oblast. ... St. ... Northern Russian dialects are the dialects of a group of dialects of the Russian language. ...

Akanye became a language norm in Russian by the middle of the 19th century. Okanye is older and more similar to other Slavic languages such as Ukrainian. The archaic trait of okanye is preserved in the Church Slavonic language. Page from the Spiridon Psalter in Church Slavonic. ...

The Russian folk song ensemble Yaroslavskie Rebyata, (The Yaroslavl Guys) has been notable for their okanye in chastushkas. Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. ... A musical ensemble is a group of two or more musicians who gather to perform music. ... Chastushka (часту́шка), a type of traditional Russian poetry, is a single quatrain in trochaic tetrameter with an abab or abcb rhyme scheme. ...

Ikanye

Ikanye, (Иканье in Cyrillic) is the practice in the Russian language of pronouncing unstressed /e/ as /i/. Because /i/ has several allophones (depending on stress and proximity to palatalized consonants), unstressed /e/ will be pronounced as one of these allophones and not actually the close front unrounded vowel. For example, семена ("seeds") is pronounced [sʲɪ.mʲɪ'na] and цена ("price") is pronounced [tsɨ̞'na]. Russian ( , transliteration: russkiy yazyk, ) is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia and the most widespread of the Slavic 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 See also: IPA, Consonants Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...

Ikanye often causes confusion in learners of Russian, as there is a difference between pronunciation and writing. For the most part, Russian spelling is phonemic or morphophonemic, but ikanye breaks this convention and often results in words being misspelled, especially by school children. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... A phonemic orthography is a writing system where the written graphemes correspond to phonemes, the spoken sounds of the language. ... In phonology, the word morphophonemic describes anything relating primarily to phonemes, but secondarily to morphemes. ...

Ikanye is typical of the dialect of Moscow. In certain other Russian dialects, /e/ has its own unstressed allophones. This is called yekanye. 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 (2007)    - Density 10,469,000   9684. ...

Yekanye

Yekanye, (Еканье in Cyrillic) is the practice in the Russian language of pronouncing unstressed /e/ as with its own unstressed allophones rather than those of /i/. The distinction between unstressed /e/ and unstressed /i/ is most clearly heard in the syllable just before the stress. Thus, придать ("to add to") contrasts with предать ("to betray"); the two are pronounced [prʲɪ'datʲ] and [prʲe̱'datʲ]. Russian ( , transliteration: russkiy yazyk, ) is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia and the most widespread of the Slavic languages. ... In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme. ...

Yekanye is not typical of the dialect of Moscow. In Standard Russian, as well as other dialects, unstressed /e/ is pronounced as /i/ (ikanye). Speakers may code-switch between the two types of pronunciation due to various factors, the strongest likely being speed of pronunciation. 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 (2007)    - Density 10,469,000   9684. ... Russian (Russian: ,  ) is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia and the most widespread of the Slavonic languages. ... Code-switching is a term in linguistics referring to alternation between one or more languages, dialects, or language registers in the course of discourse between people who have more than one language in common. ...

Yakanye

Yakanye (Яканье in Cyrillic) is the practice in the Russian language whereby unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllabus are not reduced to [ɪ] (unlike the Standard Russian) and are instead pronounced as /a/ in such positions (e.g. несли is pronounced as [nʲasˈlʲi], not as [nʲɪsˈlʲi]). Russian ( , transliteration: russkiy yazyk, ) is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia and the most widespread of the Slavic languages. ... Palatalization generally refers to two phenomena: As a process or the result of a process, the effect that front vowels and the palatal approximant frequently have on consonants; As a phonetic description, the secondary articulation of consonants by which the body of the tongue is raised toward the hard palate... Russian (Russian: ,  ) is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia and the most widespread of the Slavonic languages. ...

This style is observed east of Moscow, particularly in Ryazan Region, as expressed in a Russian quip (with liberal yakanye): Administrative center Ryazan Area - total - % water Ranked 61 - 39,600 km² - Population - Total - Density Ranked 44 - est. ... Wit is a form of intellectual humour, based on manipulation of concepts; a wit is someone who excels in witty remarks, typically in conversation and spontaneously, since wit carries the connotation of speed of thought. ...

Orthography	Standard pronunciation	Yakanye pronunciation	English language version
А у нас в Рязани	[ʌ u nəs vrʲɪˈzanʲɪ]	[a u nəs vrʲaˈzanʲə]	And here in Ryazan
пироги с глазами.	[pʲɪˈrʌgʲɪ z glʌˈzamʲɪ]	[pʲɪˈrogʲɪ z glaˈzamʲə]	Pies are with eyes:
Их едят,	[ɪxʲ jɪˈdʲat],	[ɪxʲ jaˈdʲætʲ],	While being eaten,
а они глядят.	[ə ʌnˈʲi glʲɪˈdʲat]	[ə anˈʲi glʲaˈdʲætʲ]	They stare at you.

This example also demonstrates yet another feature of dialects in this area: palatalized final /t/ in 3rd person forms of verbs. Ryazan (Ряза́нь) is a city in Central Russia federal district, the administrative center of the Ryazan Oblast. ... This article is about the baked good, for other uses see Pie (disambiguation). ... A human eye. ...

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, International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (1st ed.), New York: Oxford University Press.

External links

• Vowel Reduction in Russian
• Vowel Reduction in Russian
• Adaptive Dispersion Theory and Phonological Vowel Reduction in Russian
• The Language of the Russian Village (A dialect atlas for use in Russian junior high school. Maps 12 and 13 shows the extend of vowel reduction in Russian dialects.) (Russian)