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Revision as of 05:01, 22 April 2012 editAeusoes1 (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers38,520 edits Consonant clusters: source for cluster tables← Previous edit Revision as of 06:16, 22 April 2012 edit undoDale Chock (talk | contribs)1,004 editsm Delete a foolish citation tag demanding confirmation of a phrase. That's like demanding a source for the English phrases "and you", "you irrevocably", "irrevocably agree", "agree to", or "to release".Next edit →
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If {{IPA|/j/}} is considered a consonant in the coda position, then words like айва ('quince') contain semivowel+consonant clusters. If {{IPA|/j/}} is considered a consonant in the coda position, then words like айва ('quince') contain semivowel+consonant clusters.


Clusters of four consonants are possible, such as in '''встр'''етить {{IPA|}} ('to encounter'), '''вздр'''огнуть {{IPA|}} ('to flinch'), and '''взгл'''яд {{IPA|}} ('to gaze'). However, these aren't very common, especially within a morpheme.{{sfn|Halle|1959|pp=51–52}}. The phrase '''к взгл'''яду {{IPA|}} ('to (the) gaze') begins with a rare cluster of five consonants.{{citation needed|date=April 2012}} Clusters of four consonants are possible, such as in '''встр'''етить {{IPA|}} ('to encounter'), '''вздр'''огнуть {{IPA|}} ('to flinch'), and '''взгл'''яд {{IPA|}} ('to gaze'). However, these aren't very common, especially within a morpheme.{{sfn|Halle|1959|pp=51–52}}. The phrase '''к взгл'''яду {{IPA|}} ('to (the) gaze') begins with a cluster of five consonants.


Some potential clusters are deleted. For example, ] ] are dropped between a dental continuant and a ]: лес'''т'''ный {{IPA|}} ('flattering'). At word boundaries, there is usually an audible release between consecutive consonants at word boundaries (rather than an overlap) so that each consonant is pronounced distinctly, especially in comparison to English (the major exception is clusters of homorganic consonants {{Harvcoltxt|Zsiga|2003|p=403}}.) This allows for a more accurate perception of similar consonants such as {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/tʲ/}}. Some potential clusters are deleted. For example, ] ] are dropped between a dental continuant and a ]: лес'''т'''ный {{IPA|}} ('flattering'). At word boundaries, there is usually an audible release between consecutive consonants at word boundaries (rather than an overlap) so that each consonant is pronounced distinctly, especially in comparison to English (the major exception is clusters of homorganic consonants {{Harvcoltxt|Zsiga|2003|p=403}}.) This allows for a more accurate perception of similar consonants such as {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/tʲ/}}.

Revision as of 06:16, 22 April 2012

Main article: Russian language For assistance with IPA transcriptions of Russian for Misplaced Pages articles, see WP:IPA for Russian. This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between , / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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 which typically come in pairs of hard / plain (твёрдый ) and soft / palatalized (мягкий ).

Vowels

The standard view among linguists and grammarians is that Russian possesses five vowel phonemes in stressed syllables; this interpretation is assumed in this article. A minority view regards the sounds (which is usually rendered by the Russian letter ⟨и⟩) and (usually rendered by ⟨ы⟩) as distinct phonemes. These two sounds appear quite different to the ear, and Russians are normally taught in school that they are two separate "vowels". In Proto-Slavic times they clearly were separate phonemes, with /i/ deriving from Balto-Slavic (and late PIE) /iː/ and /ei/, and with /ɨ/ deriving from Balto-Slavic (and late PIE) /uː/. The five-vowel analysis rests on the complementary distribution of and in modern Russian, with the former occurring after hard (non-palatalized) consonants and elsewhere, showing them to be allophones of a single phoneme /i/.

Russian vowels are subject to considerable allophony, especially between stressed and unstressed syllables. In most unstressed positions, in fact, only three phonemes are distinguished after hard consonants, and only two after soft consonants. Unstressed /a/ and /o/ merge (a phenomenon known as akan'je); unstressed /e/ and /i/ merge (ikan'je); and all four unstressed vowels merge after soft consonants, except in absolute final position in a word. None of these mergers are represented in writing.

Front Central Back
Close i (ɨ) u
Mid e (ə) o
Open a

Vowel allophony is largely dependent on stress and the palatalization of neighboring consonants:

Front vowels

When a preceding consonant is hard, /i/ is retracted to . Formant studies in Padgett (2001) demonstrate that is better characterized as slightly diphthongized from the velarization of the preceding consonant, implying that a phonological pattern of using velarization to enhance perceptual distinctiveness between hard and soft consonants is strongest before /i/. When unstressed, /i/ becomes near-close; that is, following a hard consonant and in most other environments. Between soft consonants, both stressed and unstressed /i/ 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 + /l/ cluster, is retracted, as in плыть ('to float'); it is also slightly diphthongized to .

In native words, /e/ only follows unpaired (i.e. the retroflexes and /t͡s/) and soft consonants. After soft consonants (but not before), it is a mid vowel ( or ), while a following soft consonant raises it to . Another allophone, an open-mid occurs word-initially and never before or after soft consonants (hereafter is represented without the diacritic for simplicity). Preceding hard consonants retract /e/ to and so that жест ('gesture') and цель ('target') are pronounced and respectively.

In words borrowed from other languages, it is often the case that /e/ does not follow a soft 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.

Back vowels

Between soft consonants, /a/ becomes as in пять ('five'). When not following a soft consonant, /a/ is retracted to before /l/ as in палка ('stick').

For most speakers, /o/ is a mid vowel but it can be more open for some speakers. Between soft consonants or simply following one, /o/ is centralized to as in тётя ('aunt').

As with the other back vowels, /u/ is centralized between soft consonants, as in чуть ('narrowly'). When unstressed, /u/ becomes near-close.

Vowel reduction

Main article: Vowel reduction in Russian

Unstressed vowels tend to merge. /o/ and /a/ generally have the same unstressed allophones and unstressed /e/ becomes /i/ (picking up its unstressed allophones). Russian orthography (as opposed to that of closely related Belarusian) does not reflect vowel reduction.

The realization of unstressed /o/ and /a/ goes as follows:

  • After hard consonants, both reduce to or ; appears in the syllable immediately before the stress and in absolute word-initial position. Examples: паром ('ferry'), облако ('cloud'), трава ('grass').
    • When ⟨aa⟩, ⟨ao⟩, ⟨oa⟩, or ⟨oo⟩ is written in a word, it indicates so that соображать ('to use common sense/to reason'), is pronounced .
  • Both /o/ and /a/ merge with /i/ after soft consonants and /j/ (/o/ is written as ⟨e⟩ in these positions). This occurs for /o/ after retroflex consonants as well. Examples: жена ('wife'), язык ('tongue').
  • These processes occur even across word boundaries as in под морем ('under the sea').

Across certain word-final suffixes, the reductions do not completely apply. In certain suffixes, after soft consonants and /j/, /a/ and /o/ (which is written as ⟨e⟩) can be distinguished from /i/ and from each other: по́ле (ˈpo̞.lʲɪ) ('field' nom. sg. neut.) is different from по́ля ('field' sg. gen.), and these final sounds differ from the realization of /i/ in such position.

There are a number of exceptions to the above comments on unstressed /o/ and /a/.

  • Firstly, /o/ is not always reduced in foreign borrowings, e.g. радио, ('radio').
  • Secondly, there are at least two word roots for whose derivatives some speakers pronounce /a/ as after retroflex consonants (/ʐ/ and /ʂ/: жал- 'regret' and лошадь 'horse'. This pronunciation applies to жале́ть ('to regret'), к сожалéнию ('unfortunately'), and plural oblique cases of лошадь ('horse'), such as лошаде́й, (pl. gen. and acc.).
  • Thirdly, /i/ replaces /a/ after /t͡s/ in the oblique cases of some numerals, e.g. двадцати, ('twenty').

In addition to this, the unstressed high vowels /i/ and /u/ 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 /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 as 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' dat.), действенный ('effective'). /ij/ (written ⟨ий⟩ or ⟨ый⟩) is a common adjectival affix where it is often unstressed; at normal conversational speed, such unstressed endings may be monophthongized to .

Consonants

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⟨ʲ⟩ denotes palatalization, meaning the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant.

Consonant phonemes of Russian
  Labial Dental &
Alveolar
Post-
alveolar
/
Palatal
Velar
hard soft hard soft hard soft hard soft
Nasal m n    
Plosive p   b pʲ   bʲ t   d tʲ   dʲ   k   ɡ kʲ   ɡʲ
Affricate   t͡s (t͡sʲ)   t͡ɕ  
Fricative f   v fʲ   vʲ s   z sʲ   zʲ ʂ   ʐ ɕː   ʑː x     xʲ    
Trill   r    
Approximant   l   j  
Note ^a The soft/hard distinction for velar consonants is typically allophonic. They might be considered marginal phonemes because they do occur before non-front vowels, although this distribution is found predominantly in loanwords.
^b /ɕː/ and /ʑː/ are also marginal phonemes. A formerly common pronunciation of /ɕ t͡ɕ/ indicates the sound may be two underlying phonemes: /ʂ t͡ɕ/. The status of /ʑː/ as a phoneme is also marginal since it may derive from an underlying /zʐ/ or /sʐ/ and its use is becoming more archaic compared to a geminated hard (although the former continues to be common in media and government). For more information, see Alveolo-palatal consonant.

Phonetic details:

  • Almost all consonants come in hard/soft pairs. Exceptions are /ʂ/, and /ʐ/, which are always hard, and /t͡ɕ/, /ɕː/, /ʑː/, and /j/, which are always soft. /t͡s/ is also typically listed among the always-hard consonants, however certain foreign proper names, including those of Polish, Ukrainian, or Lithuanian origin (Цюрих (Zurich), Цюрупа, Пацюк, Цявловский), loanwords (e.g., хуацяо, from Chinese), and occasional neologisms (фрицёнок, шпицёнок, принцёнок, pl. фрицята, шпицята, принцята) contain a soft /t͡sʲ/. There is a marked tendency of Russian hard consonants to be velarized, though this is a subject of some academic dispute. Velarization is clearest before the front vowels /e/ and /i/.
  • /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.
  • Hard /t/ /d/ /n/ /l/ and soft /rʲ/ are both dental and apical while soft /tʲ/ /dʲ/ /nʲ/ and /lʲ/ are alveolar and laminal . Note that, for /tʲ/ and /dʲ/, the tongue is raised enough to produce slight frication. Hard /l/ is typically pharyngealized (, "dark l").
  • /s/ and /z/ are laminal and dental (or dento-alveolar) while /t͡s/ is alveolar and apical.
  • Hard /r/ is postalveolar: .
  • Some linguists (like I. G. Dobrodomov and his school) postulate the existence of a phonemic glottal stop /ʔ/. This marginal phoneme can be found, for example, in the word не-а . Claimed minimal pairs for this phoneme include суженный 'narrowed' (a participle from сузить 'to narrow', with prefix с- and root -уз-, cf. узкий 'narrow') vs суженый 'betrothed' (originally a participle from судить 'to judge', now an adjective; the root is суд 'court') and с Аней 'with Ann' vs Саней '(by) Alex'.

In the mid-twentieth century, a small number of reductionist approaches made by structuralists put forth that palatalized consonants occur as the result of a phonological processes involving /j/ (or palatalization as a phoneme in itself), so that there were no underlying palatalized consonants. Despite such proposals, linguists have long agreed that the underlying structure of Russian is closer to that of its acoustic properties, namely that soft consonants are separate phonemes in their own right.

Phonological processes

Voiced consonants (/b/, /bʲ/, /d/, /dʲ/ /ɡ/, /v/, /vʲ/, /z/, /zʲ/, /ʐ/, and /ʑː/) are devoiced word-finally unless the next word begins with a voiced obstruent. /ɡ/, in addition to becoming voiceless, also lenites to in some words, such as бог .

Russian features a general retrograde assimilation of voicing and palatalization. In longer clusters, this means that multiple consonants may be soft despite their underlyingly (and orthographically) being hard. The process of voicing assimilation applies across word-boundaries when there is no pause between words.

Voicing

Within a morpheme, voicing is not distinctive before obstruents (except for /v/, and /vʲ/ when followed by a vowel or sonorant). The voicing or devoicing is determined by that of the final obstruent in the sequence: просьба ('request'), водка ('vodka'). In foreign borrowings, this isn't always the case for /f(ʲ)/, as in Адольф Гитлер ('Adolf Hitler') and граф болеет ('the count is ill'). /v/ and /vʲ/ are unusual in that they seem transparent to voicing assimilation; in the syllable onset, both voiced and voiceless consonants may appear before /v(ʲ)/:

  • тварь ('the creature')
  • два ('two')
  • световой ('luminous')
  • звезда ('star')

When /v(ʲ)/ precedes and follows obstruents, the voicing of the cluster is governed by that of the final segment (per the rule above) so that voiceless obstruents that precede /v(ʲ)/ are voiced if /v(ʲ)/ is followed by a voiced obstruent (e.g. к вдове 'to the widow') while a voiceless obstruent will devoice all segments (e.g. без впуска 'without an admission').

/t͡ɕ/, /t͡s/, and /x/ have voiced allophones before voiced obstruents, as in дочь бы ('a daughter would') and плацдарм ('bridge-head').

Other than /mʲ/ and /nʲ/, nasals and liquids devoice between voiceless consonants or a voiceless consonant and a pause: контрфорс ('buttress').

Palatalization

Before /j/, paired consonants are normally soft as in пью 'I drink' and пьеса 'theatrical play'. However the last consonant of prefixes and parts of compound words generally remains hard in the standard language: отъезд 'departure', Минюст 'Min Just'; and only when prefix ends in /s/ or /z/, there exists an optional softening: съездить ('to go/travel').

Paired consonants preceding /e/ are also soft; although there are exceptions from loanwords, alternations across morpheme boundaries are the norm. The following examples show the different types of alternations.

  • дом 'house' nominative) vs. доме 'house' prepositional)
  • ржавый 'rusty' vs. ржаветь 'to rust'. (The verb ржаветь has a dual pronunciation: an older norm prescribes stress on the first syllable, but younger speakers stress it on the second syllable.

  • отве́т 'answer' vs. ответить 'to answer'
  • несу́ 'I carry' vs. несёт 'carries'
  • жена́ 'wife' vs. же́нин 'wife's'
  • корова 'cow' vs. коровий 'bovine'
  • прям 'straight' vs. прямизна 'straightness'
  • вор 'thief') vs. воришка 'thief (pejorative)'
  • написа́л 'he wrote) vs. написа́ли 'they wrote'
  • горбу́н 'hunchback' vs. горбу́нья 'female hunchback'
  • высо́к 'high' vs. высь 'height'

Because velar consonants are unpaired, palatalization contrasts do not exist, especially before front vowels. Allophonically, they become soft as in короткий ('short') unless there is a word boundary, in which case they are hard (e.g. к Ивану 'to Ivan').

Before hard dental consonants, /r/, /rʲ/, labial and dental consonants are hard: орла ('eagle' gen. sg).

Before soft labial and dental consonants or /lʲ/, dental consonants (other than /t͡s/) are soft (In literary pronunciation this is more complicated and, for example, dental continuants are hard before soft labial consonants across a prefix or presupposition boundary.)

Velar consonants are soft when preceding /i/; within words, this means that velar consonants are never followed by .

/x/ assimilates the palatalization of the following velar consonant лёгких ('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 hard /n/ precedes its soft equivalent, it is also soft (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 has the rare feature of nasals not typically being assimilated in place of articulation. Both /n/ and /nʲ/ appear before retroflex consonants: деньжонки ('money' (scornful)) and ханжой ('hypocrite' instr.). In the same context, other coronal consonants are always hard. A partial exception to this is the velar nasal, which occurs as an allophone before velar consonants in some words (функция 'function'), but not in most other words like банк ('bank').

Consonant clusters

As a Slavic language, Russian has fewer phonotactic restrictions than many other languages, allowing word-initial clusters that would be difficult for English speakers such as word-initial /xv/, /zd/, and /ʐd/. Fricatives, in particular, can cluster with other consonants much more freely in Russian.

3 Segments
Russian IPA Translation
CCL скрип squeak
CCC* ствол (tree) trunk
LCL верблюд camel
LCC толстый thick

For speakers who pronounce instead of , words like общий ('common') also constitute clusters of this type.

2 Segments
Russian IPA Translation
CC кость bone
LC ртуть mercury
CL слепой blind
LL горло throat
CJ дьяк dyak
LJ рьяный zealous

If /j/ is considered a consonant in the coda position, then words like айва ('quince') contain semivowel+consonant clusters.

Clusters of four consonants are possible, such as in встретить ('to encounter'), вздрогнуть ('to flinch'), and взгляд ('to gaze'). However, these aren't very common, especially within a morpheme.. The phrase к взгляду ('to (the) gaze') begins with a cluster of five consonants.

Some potential clusters are deleted. For example, dental plosives are dropped between a dental continuant and a dental nasal: лестный ('flattering'). At word boundaries, there is usually an audible release between consecutive consonants at word boundaries (rather than an overlap) so that each consonant is pronounced distinctly, especially in comparison to English (the major exception is clusters of homorganic consonants Zsiga (2003:403).) This allows for a more accurate perception of similar consonants such as /t/ and /tʲ/.

Supplementary notes

/n/ and /nʲ/ are the only consonants that can be geminated within morpheme boundaries. Such gemination does not occur in loanwords.

The historical transformation of /ɡ/ 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 ('his/him'), белого ('white' gen. sg.), синего ('blue' gen. sg.). Orthographic г also represents /x/ when it precedes other velar sounds: легко ('easily').

Between any vowel and /i/ (excluding instances across affix boundaries but including unstressed vowels that have merged with /i/), /j/ may be dropped: аист ('stork') and делает ('does'). (Halle (1959) cites заезжать and other instances of intervening prefix and preposition boundaries as exceptions to this tendency.)

Stress in Russian may fall on any syllable and words can contrast based just on stress (e.g. мука 'ordeal, pain, anguish' vs. 'flour, meal, farina'); stress shifts can even occur within an inflexional paradigm: до́ма ('house' gen. sg.) vs дома́ ('houses'). The place of the stress in a word is determined by the interplay between the morphemes it contains, as some morphemes have underlying stress, while others do not. However, other than some compound words, such as морозоустойчивый ('frost-resistant') 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.). /o/ and /u/ labialize all consonants: бок ('side'), нёс ('he carried').

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 innovation in the early historical period, before being largely settled by about 1400.

Like all Slavic languages, Old Russian was a language of open syllables. All syllables ended in vowels, and consonant clusters, in far lesser variety than today, existed only in the syllable onset. However, by the time of the earliest records, Old Russian already showed characteristic divergences from Common Slavonic.

Around the tenth century, Russian may have already had paired coronal fricatives and sonorants so that /s z n l r/ could have contrasted with /sʲ zʲ nʲ lʲ rʲ/, though any possible contrasts were limited to specific environments. Otherwise, palatalized consonants appeared allophonically before front vowels. When the yers were lost, the palatalization initially triggered by high vowels remained, creating minimal pairs like данъ /dan/ ('given') and дань /danʲ/ ('tribute'). At the same time, , which was already a part of the vocalic system, was reanalyzed as an allophone of /i/ after hard consonants, prompting leveling that caused vowels to alternate according to the preceding consonant rather than vice versa.

The nasal vowels (spelled in the Cyrillic alphabet with yuses), which had developed from Common Slavic *eN and *oN before a consonant, were replaced with nonnasalized vowels, possibly iotated or with softening of the preceding consonant:

Borrowings in the Uralic 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 Slavic *dl and *tl to *l:

  • Common Slavonic:
  • mydlo
  • Polish: mydło
  • Russian: мыло ('soap').

A tendency for greater maintenance of intermediate ancient , , etc. before frontal vowels, than in other Slavic languages, the so-called incomplete second and third palatalizations:

Pleophony or "full-voicing" (polnoglasie, 'полногласие' ), 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:

  • Old Church Slavonic: vrabii *
  • Russian: воробей ('sparrow')
  • Ukrainian: Володимир /woloˈdɪmɪr/
  • 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):

  • Old East Slavic: объ мьнѣ /o.bŭ mĭˈně/ > R: обо мне ('about me')
  • OR: сънъ /ˈsŭ.nŭ/ > R: сон ('sleep' nom. sg.), cognate with Lat. somnus;
  • OR: съна /sŭˈna/ > R: сна ('of sleep') (gen. sg.).

The loss of the yers has led to geminated consonants and a much greater variety of consonant clusters, with attendant voicing and/or devoicing in the assimilation:

  • OR: къдѣ /kŭˈdě/ > 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 ѣ /ě/ (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 /ě/ into /e/ or /je/ has also been debated.

Sometime between the twelfth and fourteenth century, the allophone of /i/ before velar consonants changed from to with subsequent palatalization of the velars.

The retroflexing of postalveolars: /ʒ/ became and /ʃ/ become . This is considered a "hardening" since retroflex sounds are difficult to palatalize. At some point, /t͡s/ 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 /ɕt͡ɕ/ than it is today. Today's common and standard pronunciation of ⟨щ⟩ is /ɕː/.

The development of stressed /e/ into /o/ when between a soft consonant and a hard one.

  • OR о чемъ /o ˈt͡ʃe.mŭ/ ('about which' loc. sg.) > R о чём .

This has led to a number of alternations:

Word Gloss Word Gloss
весе́лье merriment весёлый merry
вле́чь to attract влёк he attracted
деше́вле cheaper дешёвый cheap
е́ль fir-tree ёлка fir-tree
жечь to burn жёг he burned
коле́сник wheel-wright колёса wheels
лечь to lie down лёг he lay down
Пе́тя Pete Пётр Peter
поме́лья brooms мёл he swept
сельский rural сёла villages
се́стрин sister's сёстры sisters
смерть death мёртвый dead
шесть six сам-шо́ст with five others

Note that the /e/ that derives from the now obsolete vowel, yat (ѣ) usually did not undergo this change with only the following fifteen exceptions:

  • звёзды 'stars'
  • гнёзда 'nests'
  • сёдла 'saddles'
  • издёвка 'jibe'
  • смётка 'apprehension'
  • медвёдка 'mole crickets'
  • вёшка 'pole for hanging'
  • вдёжка 'something to be inserted'
  • цвёл 'flowered'
  • обрёл 'found'
  • зёвывал 'was yawning'
  • надёвывал 'was putting on'
  • надёван ' put on'
  • запечатлён ' captured'
  • подгнёта ' rotten'

Loanwords from Church Slavonic reintroduced /e/ between a soft consonant and a hard one, including:

  • лев vs. лёв 'lion'
  • небо 'sky' vs. нёбо 'roof of the mouth'
  • хребе́т vs. хребёт 'spine'

A number of the phonological features of Russian are attributable to the introduction of loanwords (especially from non-Slavic languages), including:

  • Sequences of two vowels within a morpheme. Only a handful of such words, like паук 'spider' and оплеуха 'slap in the face' are not loanwords.
    • поэт 'poet'. From French poète.
    • траур 'mourning'. From German Trauer.
  • Word-initial /e/, except for the root эт-.
    • эра 'era'. From German Ära
  • Word-initial /a/.
    • авеню 'avenue. From French avenue.
    • афера 'swindle'. From French affaire.
    • агнец 'lamb'. From Church Slavonic
  • The phoneme /f/ (see Ef (Cyrillic) for more information).
    • фонема 'phoneme'. From Greek φώνημα.
    • эфир 'ether'. From Greek αἰθήρ.
    • фиаско 'fiasco. From Italian fiasco.
  • The occurrence of non-palatalized consonants before /e/ within roots.(The initial /e/ of a suffix invariably triggers palatalization of an immediately preceding consonant, as in брат / брате.)
  • The sequence /dʐ/ within a morpheme.
    • джин 'gin' from English.
    • джаз 'jazz' from English.

Many double consonants have become degeminated, though they are still written with two letters in the orthography. (In a 1968 study, long remains long in only half of the words that it appears written in, while long only a sixth of the time. The study, however, did not distinguish spelling from actual historical pronunciation, since it included loanwords in which consonants were written doubled but never pronounced long in Russian.)

See also

References

  1. Held for example by Shcherba and Rubach
  2. Jones & Ward 1969, pp. 37–38. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJonesWard1969 (help)
  3. Jones & Ward 1969, p. 31. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJonesWard1969 (help)
  4. ^ Jones & Ward 1969, p. 33. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJonesWard1969 (help)
  5. Jones & Ward 1969, pp. 41–44. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJonesWard1969 (help)
  6. Jones & Ward 1969, p. 193. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJonesWard1969 (help)
  7. Halle 1959, p. 63.
  8. ^ Jones & Ward 1969, p. 50. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJonesWard1969 (help)
  9. Jones & Ward 1969, p. 56. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJonesWard1969 (help)
  10. Jones & Ward 1969, p. 62. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJonesWard1969 (help)
  11. ^ Crosswhite 2000, p. 167.
  12. Jones & Ward 1969, pp. 67–68. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJonesWard1969 (help)
  13. Crosswhite 2000, p. 112.
  14. has also been transcribed as ⟨ʌ⟩
  15. Padgett & Tabain 2005, p. 16.
  16. ^ Jones & Ward 1969, p. 51. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJonesWard1969 (help)
  17. Jones & Ward 1969, p. 194. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJonesWard1969 (help)
  18. ^ Halle 1959.
  19. Note a spelling irregularity. The /s/ of the reflexive suffix -ся is not palatalized in modern standard Russian.
  20. Jones & Ward 1969, p. 37. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJonesWard1969 (help)
  21. Padgett 2003a, p. 42.
  22. The dictionary of Агеенко and Зарва (1993) explicitly says that the nonpalatalized pronunciation /t͡s/ is an error in such cases.
  23. Padgett 2001, p. 7.
  24. Padgett 2003b, p. 319.
  25. Because of the acoustic properties of and that make velarization more noticeable before front vowels and palatalization before back vowels Padgett (2003b) argues that the contrast before /i/ is between velarized and plain consonants rather than plain and palatalized.
  26. Hamann 2004, p. 65.
  27. Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996.
  28. Dobrodomov 2002. sfn error: no target: CITEREFDobrodomov2002 (help)
  29. Dobrodomov & Izmest'eva 2009. sfn error: no target: CITEREFDobrodomovIzmest'eva2009 (help)
  30. Stankiewicz (1962:131)
  31. see Lightner (1972) and Bidwell (1962) for two examples.
  32. See Stankiewicz (1962) and Folejewski (1962) for a criticism of Bidwell's approach specifically and the reductionist approach generally.
  33. ^ Halle 1959, p. 22.
  34. Jones & Ward 1969, p. 156. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJonesWard1969 (help)
  35. Lightner 1972, p. 377.
  36. Lightner 1972, p. 73.
  37. Halle 1959, p. 31.
  38. Lightner 1972, p. 75.
  39. Lightner 1972, p. 82.
  40. Jones & Ward 1969, p. 190. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJonesWard1969 (help)
  41. Padgett 2003a, p. 43.
  42. Lightner 1972, pp. 9–11, 12–13.
  43. 1939 Толковый словарь (Ушаков): ржа́веть / regional ржаве́ть
  44. 1956 Орфографический словарь (Ожегов, Шапиро): ржа́веть
  45. 1985 Орфоэпический словарь (Аванесов): ржа́веть/ржаве́ть
  46. 2009 Большой толковый словарь (Кузнецов): ржа́веть/ржаве́ть
  47. Padgett 2003a, pp. 44, 47.
  48. Halle 1959, p. 68.
  49. ^ Padgett 2003a, p. 39.
  50. Davidson & Roon 2008, p. 138.
  51. ^ Halle 1959, p. 52.
  52. Halle 1959, pp. 51–52.
  53. Lightner 1972, p. 130.
  54. Lightner 1972, p. 4.
  55. Jones & Ward 1969, pp. 79–80. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJonesWard1969 (help)
  56. ^ Padgett 2003b, p. 324.
  57. Padgett 2003b, p. 325.
  58. Padgett 2003b, p. 307.
  59. Padgett 2003b, p. 330.
  60. Vinogradov. sfn error: no target: CITEREFVinogradov (help)
  61. Schenker 2002, p. 74.
  62. Padgett (2003b) attributes this to the velarization of the hard consonant.
  63. Lightner 1972, pp. 20–23.
  64. Lightner 1972, pp. 75–76, 84.
  65. ^ Lightner 1972, p. 66. Cite error: The named reference "FOOTNOTELightner197266" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  66. Padgett 2003b.
  67. Lightner 1972, pp. 67, 82.
  68. Lightner 1972, p. 71.

Bibliography

  • Агеенко Ф. Л., Зарва М. В. . 1993. Словарь ударений русского языка. Мoscow: Russkij Yazyk. ISBN 5-200-01127-2.

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