Beginning phonetic course - Grammar Index

• Organs of speech
• Phonetic transcription
• Syllable
• Accent
• Accented vowels, unaccented vowels, reduction
• Vowel sounds and letters
• Consonant sounds and letters
• Voiced and voiceless consonant sounds
• Hard and soft consonant sounds
• Indication of softness and hardness in writing
• "И" after к, г, х, ш, ж
• Combinations "тс" and "тьс"
• The endings of the word "рубль"
• Functions and orthography of Ъ (the hard sign) and Ь (the soft sign)
• Sentence intonation
• Time and age
• Sounds and letters of Russian language
• Table of numbers from 1 to 1000

 

Organs of speech

 

The speech sounds are generated by the organs of speech, which consist of a respiratory apparatus, a larynx, an oral cavity and a nasal cavity. There are the vocal cords in a larunx and there is a glottis between the vocal cords. When the vocal cords are tense (in that case the glottis between them is restricted), the breathed out from lungs air vibrate them. That is how the voice or the voicing is generated. If the vocal cords are not tense and the glottis is opened, the air easily passes through it; the voice doesn't arise. When the breathed out from lungs air makes the voice, vibrating the vocal cords, and passes through the oral cavity without any barriers, we hear the vowel sound.

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Phonetic transcription

 

To write down the sounds of an oral speech is using a phonetic transcription, based on the concept of one-to-one correspondence between a sound and its graphic symbol.
The phonetic transcription is written in square brackets. In the word consisting of two and more syllables, one syllable is distinguished with an accent. The accented syllable differs from the unaccented ones by force and length of sound. Vowel in unaccented syllable is pronounced briefly and tensely. The accent in Russian can be on different syllables in different words.
If two words have the united accent they are a single phonetic unit and should be written as a solid word: в сад [фсат], [ф сат].
The transcription symbols have no punctuation marks and capital letters.
An apostrophe designates a softness of the consonant sound: сел [с'эл].
A softness of all unpaired consonants is designated in the following way: ([ч'], [щ'], [й']).
The vowel sounds are written by the following transcription signs: accented vowels - [а́], [о́], [у́], [и́], [ы́], [э́], unaccented vowels - [а], [и], [ы], [у].
The diphthongs я, ю, е, ё are not used in transcription.

 

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Syllable

 

A phonetic syllable is a vowel or vowel in combination with one or more consonants. A number of syllables depends on the numder of vowels. Two vowels can not be inside one syllable.
Syllables can be accented and unaccented.

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Accent

 

Accent - it is the pronunciation of one of the syllables in the word (to be more correct one of the vowels) more tensely and long. Russian words have one accented syllable. The accent may fall on the first, second, third etc. syllable of a word: ко́мната, кварти́ра, потоло́к.

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Accented vowels, unaccented vowels, reduction

 

Russian words have one accented syllable. The accent may fall on the first, second, third etc. syllable of a word: ко́мната, кварти́ра, потоло́к.

In unaccented syllables the vowels undergo the reduction. There are 2 types of the reduction:

1. Quantitative reduction – the sound becomes shorter
2. Qualitative reduction – the sound changes its timbre

The accented syllable is longer and is articulated more tensely than unaccented ones. In unaccented syllables the vowels undergo reduction and are shorter {quantitative reduction}, while the vowels О, Е, Я change their timbre {qualitative reduction}.
The vowels А, И, У, Ы undergo only quantitative reduction, i.e. they are shorter in an unaccented syllable than in an accented one: иди́-кино́, тут-туда́, сыр-сыро́к.

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Vowel sounds and letters

 

Russian has ten vowel letters: а, у, о, ы, э, я, ю, ё, и, е, and twenty-one consonant letters: б, в, г, д, ж, з, й, к, л, м, н, п, р, с, т, ф, х, ц, ч, ш, щ; the letters ъ и ь are neither a vowel nor a consonant, they are called the graphic signs.

 

There are ten vowel letters: а, у, о, ы, и, э, я, ю, ё, е but six vowel sounds distinguished under the accent: [а], [у], [о], [ы], [и], [э]. Thus Russian language has more vowel letters than vowel sounds. This is a result of features of using the diphthongs: я, ю, е, ё.

 

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Consonant sounds and letters

 

The consonant sounds recognized in Russian are 36: [б], [б'], [в], [в'], [г], [г'], [д], [д'], [ж], [з], [з'], [й'], [к], [к'], [л], [л'], [м], [м'], [н], [н'], [п], [п'], [р], [р'], [с], [с'], [т], [т'], [ф], [ф'], [х], [х'], [ц], [ч'], [ш], [щ']. There are more consonant sounds in Russian (36) than consonant letters (21). This is a feature of Russian phonetic system, because the softness of the paired consonant sounds is indicated by letters е, ё, ю, я, и, ь - мал [мал], мял [м’ал].

There is the concept of voiced and voiceless consonants in Russian language. A voiced consonant is a consonant that vibrates the vocal chords. As you might guess, a voiceless consonant is a consonant that does not vibrate the vocal chords. A voiceless consonant uses the same shape of the mouth to pronounce the word as a voiced one. There are 6 pairs of voiced/voiceless consonants: [п - б], [в - ф], [з - с] etc. The voiced consonants [р], [л], [м], [н], [й] have not their voiceless counterparts, and voiceless consonants [х], [ч], [щ] have not their voiced counterparts.

 

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Voiced and voiceless consonant sounds

 

 

At the end of a word and before a voiceless consonant a voiced consonant is pronounced as voiceless: сад [сат], зуб [зуп], глаз [глас], нож [нош], луг [лук]; ложка [ло́шкa], завтра [за́фтра].

 

Before a voiced consonant, a voiceless consonant is pronounced as its voiced counterpart: cделать [зд’э́лaт’], вокзал [вaгза́л], футбол [фудбо́л].

 

A preposition with a following word is pronounced as one word. The final voiced consonant of a preposition preceding the initial voiceless consonant of the following word becomes voiceless: в сад [ф сат], в клуб [ф клуп], из клуба [ис клу́ба]; and the final voiceless consonant of a preposition preceding the initial voiced consonant of the following word becomes voiced: с доклада [з дакла́да], от брата [ад бра́та], с братом [з бра́там].

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Hard and soft consonant sounds

 

Russian consonants may be hard or soft. Fifteen hard consonants have soft counterparts: [б] – [б’], [в] – [в’], [г] – [г’], [д] – [д’], [з] – [з’], [к] – [к’], [л] – [л’], [м] – [м’], [н] – [н’], [п] – [п’], [р] – [р’], [с] – [с’], [т] – [т’], [ф] – [ф’], [х] – [х’]. The consonants [ц], [ш], [ж] are always hard. And the consonants [ч’], [щ’], [й’] are always soft.

 

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Indication of softness and hardness in writing

 

The softness of paired (according to hardness/softness) consonants is designated by:
1) the letters я, е, ё, ю, и: мял, мёл, перо, бюро, мило (before “е” in the foreign words a consonant can be hard - пюре);
2) the soft sign ь: конь, раньше;
The hardness of paired consonants is designated by:
1) absence of soft sign ь (кон, банка);
2) writing the letters а, о, у, ы, э after consonants (мал, мол, мул, мыл, пэр);
3) in some foreign words hard consonant is pronounced before е (фонетика).
The hardness of unpaired hard consonants does not need any designation.

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"И" after к, г, х, ш, ж

 

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Combinations "тс" and "тьс"

 

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The endings of the word "рубль"

  

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Functions and orthography of Ъ (the hard sign) and Ь (the soft sign)

 

Hard sign in Russian language implements a dividing function – it shows that after consonant a diphtong does not designate a softness of consonant but the two sounds: я – [й’а], е – [й’э], ё – [й’о], ю – [й’у] (объять [абй’а́т’], съест [сй’э́ст], съёмка [сй’о́мка]).
Soft sign has three functions:
1. A dividing function - before я, ю, е, ё, and inside a word (вьюга, соловьиный) and in the some foreign words: (бульон, компаньон).
2. The soft sign designates a softness of consonants (see before): конь, банька.
3. A grammatical function – in traditional writing without any phonetic work (ключ – ночь, учится – учиться).

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Sentence intonation

 

In russian language there are several types of intonational constructions,  the main five are:
1. IC-1 – it is the intonation of message with completed statement.
2. IC-2 – it is the intonation of interrogative sentence with interrogative word.
3. IC-3 – it is the intonation of interrogative sentence without interrogative word.
4. IC-4 – it is the intonation of interrogative sentence with adversative conjunction “a”.
5. IC-5 – it is the intonation of exclamation sentence with the interrogative word in the beginning.

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Time and age

 

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Sounds and letters of Russian language

 

The Russian alphabet has thirty-three letters: Аа – «а», Бб – «бэ», Вв – «вэ», Гг – «гэ», Дд – «дэ», Ее – «е», Ёё – «ё», Жж – «жэ», Зз – «зэ», Ии – «и», Йй – «й», Кк – «ка», Лл – «эль», Мм – «эм», Нн – «эн», Оо – «о», Пп – «пэ», Рр – «эр», Сс – «эс», Тт – «тэ», Уу – «у», Фф – «эф», Хх – «ха», Цц – «цэ», Чч – «че», Шш – «ша», Щщ – «ща», ъ – «the hard sign», Ыы – «ы», ь – «the soft sign», Ээ – «э», Юю – «ю», Яя – «я». It is called the Cyrillic alphabet.
Any Russian letter may appear either capitalized, or lower case. The letters ъ,ь have not capitalized form, and the capitalized Ы is used only in the foreign proper names. The sound [ы] does not appear at the beginning of the Russian words.

 

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Table of numbers from 1 to 1000

 

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