pronounced as /notice/This article discusses the phonological system of standard Russian based on the Moscow dialect (unless otherwise noted). For an overview of dialects in the Russian language, see Russian dialects. Most descriptions of Russian describe it as having five vowel phonemes, though there is some dispute over whether a sixth vowel, pronounced as /link/, is separate from pronounced as //i//. Russian has 34 consonants, which can be divided into two types:
Russian also distinguishes hard consonants from soft consonants and from iotated consonants, making four sets in total: pronounced as //C Cʲ Cj Cʲj//, although pronounced as //Cj// in native words appears only at morpheme boundaries (Russian: подъезд|podyezd|label=none, pronounced as /und/ for example). Russian also preserves palatalized consonants that are followed by another consonant more often than other Slavic languages do. Like Polish, it has both hard postalveolars (pronounced as //ʂ ʐ//) and soft ones (pronounced as //tɕ ɕː// and marginally or dialectically pronounced as //ʑː//).
Russian has vowel reduction in unstressed syllables. This feature also occurs in a minority of other Slavic languages like Belarusian and Bulgarian and is also found in English, but not in most other Slavic languages, such as Czech, Polish, most varieties of Serbo-Croatian, and Ukrainian.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ |
Russian has five to six vowels in stressed syllables, pronounced as //i, u, e, o, a// and in some analyses pronounced as //ɨ//, but in most cases these vowels have merged to only two to four vowels when unstressed: pronounced as //i, u, a// (or pronounced as //ɨ, u, a//) after hard consonants and pronounced as //i, u// after soft ones.
A long-standing dispute among linguists is whether Russian has five vowel phonemes or six; that is, scholars disagree as to whether pronounced as /[ɨ]/ constitutes an allophone of pronounced as //i// or if there is an independent phoneme pronounced as //ɨ//. The five-vowel analysis, taken up by the Moscow school, rests on the complementary distribution of pronounced as /[ɨ]/ and pronounced as /[i]/, with the former occurring after hard (non-palatalized) consonants (e.g. Russian: жить 'to live', Russian: шип 'thorn, spine', Russian: цирк 'circus', etc.) and pronounced as /[i]/ after soft (palatalized) consonants (e.g. Russian: щит 'shield', Russian: чин 'rank', etc.). The allophony of the stressed variant of the open pronounced as //a// is largely the same, yet no scholar considers pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ to be separate phonemes (which they are in e.g. Slovak and Australian English).
The six-vowel view, held by the Saint-Petersburg (Leningrad) phonology school, points to several phenomena to make its case:
The most popular view among linguists (and the one taken up in this article) is that of the Moscow school, though Russian pedagogy has typically taught that there are six vowels (the term phoneme is not used).[2]
Reconstructions of Proto-Slavic show that Slavic languages: *i and Slavic languages: *y (which correspond to pronounced as /[i]/ and pronounced as /[ɨ]/) were separate phonemes. On the other hand, after the first palatalization, Old East Slavic *i and *y contrasted only after alveolars and labials: after palatals only *i occurred, and after velars only *y occurred. With the development of phonemic palatalized alveolars and labials, *i and *y no longer contrasted in any environment and were reinterpreted as allophones of each other, becoming a single phoneme /i/. Even so, this reinterpretation entailed no mergers and no change in the pronunciation. Subsequently, sometime between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, the allophone of /i/ occurring after a velar consonant changed from [ɨ] to [i] with subsequent palatalization of the velar, turning old Russian хытрыи pronounced as /['xɨtrɨj]/ into modern Russian: хитрый pronounced as /['xʲitrɨj]/ and old гыбкыи pronounced as /['gɨpkɨj]/ into modern Russian: гибкий pronounced as /['gʲipkʲij]/.
| Phoneme | Letter (typically) | Phonemic position | Stressed | Reduced | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pronounced as //i// | Russian: [[и]] | pronounced as /(Cʲ)i/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Russian: [[ы]], и | pronounced as /Ci/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| pronounced as //e// | Russian: [[э]], Russian: [[е]]† | pronounced as /(C)e(C)/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| pronounced as /(C)eCʲ/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| pronounced as /Cʲe/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| pronounced as //a// | Russian: [[а]] | pronounced as /(C)a/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| Russian: [[я]] | pronounced as /Cʲa(C)/ | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |||
| pronounced as /CʲaCʲ/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| pronounced as //o// | Russian: [[о]] | pronounced as /(C)o/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| Russian: [[ё]] | pronounced as /Cʲo/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| pronounced as //u// | Russian: [[у]] | pronounced as /(C)u/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Russian: [[ю]] | pronounced as /Cʲu(C)/ | ||||
| pronounced as /CʲuCʲ/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
"C" represents a hard consonant only. "(C)" represents a hard consonant, a vowel, * Reduced (ё) is written as (е), except in loanwords. † (е) after a hard consonant is used | |||||
When a preceding consonant is hard, pronounced as //i// is retracted to pronounced as /link/. Formant studies in demonstrate that pronounced as /link/ is better characterized as slightly diphthongized from the velarization of the preceding consonant,[3] implying that a phonological pattern of using velarization to enhance perceptual distinctiveness between hard and soft consonants is strongest before pronounced as //i//. When unstressed, pronounced as //i// becomes near-close; that is, pronounced as /link/ following a hard consonant and pronounced as /link/ in most other environments. Between soft consonants, stressed pronounced as //i// is raised, as in Russian: пить ('to drink'). When preceded and followed by coronal or dorsal consonants, pronounced as /link/ is fronted to pronounced as /[ɨ̟]/. After a cluster of a labial and pronounced as //ɫ//, pronounced as /link/ is retracted, as in Russian: плыть ('to float'); it is also slightly diphthongized to pronounced as /[ɯ̟ɨ̟]/.
In native words, pronounced as //e// only follows unpaired (i.e. the retroflexes and pronounced as //ts//) and soft consonants. After soft consonants (but not before), it is a mid vowel pronounced as /link/ (hereafter represented without the diacritic, for simplicity), while a following soft consonant raises it to close-mid pronounced as /link/. Another allophone, an open-mid pronounced as /link/, occurs word-initially and between hard consonants. Preceding hard consonants retract pronounced as //e// to pronounced as /[ɛ̠]/ and pronounced as /[e̠]/ so that Russian: жест ('gesture') and Russian: цель ('target') are pronounced and respectively.
In words borrowed from other languages, pronounced as //e// often follows hard consonants; this foreign pronunciation usually persists in Russian for many years until the word is more fully adopted into Russian. For instance, Russian: шофёр (from French chauffeur) was pronounced in the early twentieth century,[4] but is now pronounced . On the other hand, the pronunciations of words such as Russian: отель ('hotel') retain the hard consonants despite a long presence in the language.
Between soft consonants, pronounced as //a// becomes pronounced as /link/, as in Russian: пять ('five'). When not following a soft consonant, pronounced as //a// is retracted to pronounced as /link/ before /ɫ/ as in Russian: палка ('stick').
For most speakers, pronounced as //o// is a mid vowel pronounced as /link/, but it can be a more open pronounced as /link/ for some speakers. Following a soft consonant, pronounced as //o// is centralized and raised to pronounced as /link/ as in Russian: тётя ('aunt').
As with the other back vowels, pronounced as //u// is centralized to pronounced as /link/ between soft consonants, as in Russian: чуть ('narrowly'). When unstressed, pronounced as //u// becomes near-close; central pronounced as /link/ between soft consonants, centralized back pronounced as /link/ in other positions.
See main article: Vowel reduction in Russian.
Russian unstressed vowels have lower intensity and lower energy. They are typically shorter than stressed vowels, and pronounced as //a e o i// in most unstressed positions tend to undergo mergers for most dialects:
The merger of unstressed pronounced as //e// and pronounced as //i// in particular is less universal in the pretonic (pre-accented) position than that of unstressed pronounced as //o// and pronounced as //a//. For example, speakers of some rural dialects as well as the "Old Petersburgian" pronunciation may have the latter but not the former merger, distinguishing between Russian: лиса́ pronounced as /[lʲɪˈsa]/ and Russian: леса́ pronounced as /[lʲɘˈsa]/, but not between Russian: валы́ and Russian: волы́ (both pronounced as /[vʌˈɫɨ]/). The distinction in some loanwords between unstressed pronounced as //e// and pronounced as //i//, or pronounced as //o// and pronounced as //a// is codified in some pronunciation dictionaries, for example, Russian: фо́рте pronounced as /[ˈfortɛ]/ and Russian: ве́то pronounced as /[ˈvʲeto]/.
Unstressed vowels (except pronounced as //o//) are preserved word-finally, for example in second-person plural or formal verb forms with the ending Russian: -те, such as ("you do") pronounced as //ˈdʲeɫajitʲe// (phonetically pronounced as /[ˈdʲeɫə(j)ɪtʲe]/). The same applies for vowels starting a word.
As a result, in most unstressed positions, only three vowel phonemes are distinguished after hard consonants (pronounced as //u//, pronounced as //a ~ o//, and pronounced as //e ~ i//), and only two after soft consonants (pronounced as //u// and pronounced as //a ~ o ~ e ~ i//). For the most part, Russian orthography (as opposed to that of the closely related Belarusian) does not reflect vowel reduction. This can be seen in Russian (nébo) as opposed to Belarusian (néba) "sky", both of which can be phonemically analyzed as pronounced as //ˈnʲeba// and morphophonemically as pronounced as /ˈnʲebo/, as the nominative singular ending of neuter nouns is pronounced as /[o]/ when stressed: compare Russian pronounced as /[sʲɪˈɫo]/, Belarusian pronounced as /[sʲaˈɫo]/ "village".
In terms of actual pronunciation, there are at least two different levels of vowel reduction: vowels are less reduced when a syllable immediately precedes the stressed one, and more reduced in other positions. This is particularly visible in the realization of unstressed pronounced as //o// and pronounced as //a//, where a less-reduced allophone pronounced as /link/ appears alongside a more-reduced allophone pronounced as /link/.
The pronunciation of unstressed pronounced as //o ~ a// is as follows:
The pronunciation of unstressed pronounced as //e ~ i// is pronounced as /link/ after soft consonants and pronounced as //j//, and word-initially (Russian: эта́п ('stage'); Russian: икра́ ('roe'); Russian: диви́ть pronounced as /[dʲɪˈvʲitʲ]/ ('to surprise'), etc.), but pronounced as /link/ after hard consonants (Russian: дыша́ть ('to breathe')). When in a word-final position after pronounced as //ʐ//, pronounced as //ʂ// or pronounced as //ts// it might have an even more open allophone pronounced as /link/, as in полоте́нце ('towel').
There are a number of exceptions to the above vowel-reduction rules:
Unstressed pronounced as //u// is generally pronounced as a lax (or near-close) pronounced as /link/, e.g. Russian: мужчи́на ('man'). Between soft consonants, it becomes centralized to pronounced as /link/, as in Russian: юти́ться ('to huddle').
Note a spelling irregularity in pronounced as //s// of the reflexive suffix Russian: -ся: with a preceding Russian: -т- in third-person present and a Russian: -ть- in infinitive, it is pronounced as pronounced as /[tsə]/, i.e. hard instead of with its soft counterpart, since pronounced as /[ts]/, normally spelled with (ц), is traditionally always hard.[7] In other forms both pronunciations pronounced as /[sə]/ and pronounced as /[sʲə]/ (or pronounced as /[s]/ and pronounced as /[sʲ]/ after vowels, spelled Russian: -сь) alternate for a speaker with some usual form-dependent preferences: in the outdated dialects, reflexive imperative verbs (such as Russian: бо́йся, lit. "be afraid yourself") may be pronounced with pronounced as /[sə]/ instead of modern (and phonetically consistent) pronounced as /[sʲə]/.[8] [9] In adverbial participles ending on Russian: -я́сь or Russian: -а́сь (with a stressed suffix), books on Russian standard pronunciation prescribe pronounced as /[sʲ]/ as the only correct variant.[10] [11]
In weakly stressed positions, vowels may become voiceless between two voiceless consonants: Russian: вы́ставка ('exhibition'), Russian: потому́ что ('because'). This may also happen in cases where only the following consonant is voiceless: Russian: че́реп ('skull').
Because of mergers of different phonemes in unstressed position, the assignment of a particular phone to a phoneme requires phonological analysis. There have been different approaches to this problem:
Russian diphthongs all end in a non-syllabic pronounced as /[i̯]/, an allophone of pronounced as //j// and the only semivowel in Russian. In all contexts other than after a vowel, pronounced as //j// is considered an approximant consonant. Phonological descriptions of pronounced as //j// may also classify it as a consonant even in the coda. In such descriptions, Russian has no diphthongs.
The first part of diphthongs is subject to the same allophony as their constituent vowels. Examples of words with diphthongs: ('egg'), Russian: ей ('her' dat.), Russian: де́йственный ('effective'). pronounced as //ij//, written (-ий) or (-ый), is a common inflexional affix of adjectives, participles, and nouns, where it is often unstressed; at normal conversational speed, such unstressed endings may be monophthongized to pronounced as /link/. When stressed, this affix is spelled (-ой) and pronounced pronounced as //oj//. Unstressed (-ый) may be pronounced pronounced as /[əj]/ (as if spelled (-ой)) in free variation with pronounced as /[ɨj]/.[14] [15] In adjectives ending in (-кий, -гий, -хий), traditional Moscow norm prescribed the pronunciation pronounced as /[kəj, ɡəj, xəj]/ (as if spelled (-кой, -гой, -хой)),[16] but now those adjectives are usually pronounced according to the spelling, thus pronounced as /[kʲɪj, ɡʲɪj, xʲɪj]/.[17] The same can be said about verbs ending in (-кивать, -гивать, -хивать).[18]
(IPA|ʲ) denotes palatalization, meaning the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant. Phonemes that have at different times been disputed are enclosed in parentheses.
| Labial | Dental, Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /mʲ/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /nʲ/ | ||||||
| Stop | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /pʲ/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /tʲ/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /kʲ/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /bʲ/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /dʲ/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /ɡʲ/ | ||||
| Affricate | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /t͡sʲ/) | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /fʲ/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /sʲ/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /xʲ/ | |
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /vʲ/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /zʲ/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | (pronounced as /link/) | (pronounced as /ɣʲ/) | ||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /lʲ/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Trill | pronounced as /rʲ/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
There is some dispute over the phonemicity of soft velar consonants. Typically, the soft–hard distinction is allophonic for velar consonants: they become soft before front vowels, as in ('short'), unless there is a word boundary, in which case they are hard (e.g. Russian: к Ива́ну pronounced as /[k‿ɨˈvanʊ]/ 'to Ivan'). Hard variants occur everywhere else. Exceptions are represented mostly by:
The rare native examples are fairly new, as most of them were coined in the last century:
In the mid-twentieth century, a small number of reductionist approaches made by structuralists put forth that palatalized consonants occur as the result of phonological processes involving pronounced as //j// (or palatalization as a phoneme in itself), so that there were no underlying palatalized consonants.[32] 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.[33]
| Б /b/ | П /p/ | |
| В /v/ | Ф /f/ | |
| Г /g/ | К /k/ | |
| Д /d/ | Т /t/ | |
| Ж /ʐ/ | Ш /ʂ/ | |
| З /z/ | С /s/ | |
| Л /l/ | – | |
| М /m/ | – | |
| Н /n/ | – | |
| Р /r/ | – | |
| – | Х /x/ | |
| – | Ц /ts/ | |
| – | Ч /tɕ/ | |
| – | Щ /ɕː/ | |
| Й /j/ | – |
Voiced consonants (pronounced as //b/, /bʲ/, /d/, /dʲ/ /ɡ/, /v/, /vʲ/, /z/, /zʲ/, /ʐ//, and pronounced as //ʑː//) are devoiced word-finally unless the next word begins with a voiced obstruent. In other words, their voiceless equivalent will be used (see table on the right).[34]
Examples:
Russian: Г also represents voiceless pronounced as /[x]/ word-finally in some words, such as pronounced as /[ˈbox]/ ('god'). This is related to the use of the marginal (or dialectal) phoneme pronounced as //ɣ// in some religious words
See also: Consonants. .
Basically, when a voiced consonant comes before a voiceless one, its sound will shift to its voiceless equivalent (see table).
That happens because ж is a voiced consonant, and it comes before the voiceless к.
The same logic applies when a voiceless consonant comes before a voiced one (except в). In this case, the sound of the former will change to its voiced equivalent.
Russian features general regressive 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.Within a morpheme, voicing is not distinctive before obstruents (except for pronounced as //v//, and pronounced as //vʲ// when followed by a vowel or sonorant). The voicing or devoicing is determined by that of the final obstruent in the sequence: Russian: просьба ('request'), Russian: водка ('vodka'). In foreign borrowings, this isn't always the case for pronounced as //f(ʲ)//, as in Russian: Адольф Гитлер ('Adolf Hitler') and Russian: граф болеет ('the count is ill'). pronounced as //v// and pronounced as //vʲ// are unusual in that they seem transparent to voicing assimilation; in the syllable onset, both voiced and voiceless consonants may appear before pronounced as //v(ʲ)//:
When pronounced as //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 pronounced as //v(ʲ)// are voiced if pronounced as //v(ʲ)// is followed by a voiced obstruent (e.g. Russian: к вдове pronounced as /['''ɡ'''vdʌˈvʲe]/ 'to the widow') while a voiceless obstruent will devoice all segments (e.g. Russian: без впуска pronounced as /[bʲɪs ˈfpuskə]/ 'without an admission').
pronounced as //tɕ//, pronounced as //ts//, and pronounced as //x// have voiced allophones (pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/) before voiced obstruents, as in Russian: дочь бы ('a daughter would'), Russian: плацдарм ('bridge-head') and Russian: горох готов pronounced as /[ɡɐˈroɣ ɡɐˈtof]/ ('peas are ready').
Other than pronounced as //mʲ// and pronounced as //nʲ//, nasals and liquids devoice between voiceless consonants or a voiceless consonant and a pause: Russian: контрфорс) ('buttress').
Before pronounced as //j//, paired consonants (that is, those that come in a hard-soft pair) are normally soft as in Russian: пью ('I drink') and Russian: бью ('I hit'). However, the last consonant of prefixes and parts of compound words generally remains hard in the standard language: Russian: отъезд ('departure'), Russian: Минюст ('Min[istry of] Just[ice]'); when the prefix ends in pronounced as //s// or pronounced as //z// there may be an optional softening: Russian: съездить ('to travel').
Paired consonants preceding pronounced as //e// are also soft; although there are exceptions from loanwords, alternations across morpheme boundaries are the norm. The following examples show some of the morphological alternations between a hard consonant and its soft counterpart:
| Hard | Soft | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russian | IPA/Audio | Translation | Russian | IPA/Audio | Translation | |
| Russian: дом | 'house' (nom) | Russian: до́ме | 'house' (prep) | |||
| Russian: крова́вый | 'bloody' | Russian: крова́веть | 'to become bloody' | |||
| Russian: отве́т | 'answer' | Russian: отве́тить | 'to answer' | |||
| Russian: (я) несу́ | 'I carry' | Russian: (он, она, оно) несёт | 'carries' | |||
| Russian: жена́ | 'wife' | Russian: же́нин | 'wife's' | |||
| Russian: коро́ва | 'cow' | Russian: коро́вий | 'bovine' | |||
| Russian: прямо́й | 'straight' | Russian: прямизна́ | 'straightness' | |||
| Russian: вор | 'thief' | Russian: вори́шка | 'little thief (diminutive)' | |||
| Russian: написа́л | 'he wrote' | Russian: написа́ли | 'they wrote' | |||
| Russian: горбу́н | 'hunchback' | Russian: горбу́нья | 'female hunchback' | |||
| Russian: высо́к | 'high' | Russian: высь | 'height' | |||
Velar consonants are soft when preceding pronounced as //i//, and never occur before pronounced as /[ɨ]/ within a word.
Before hard dental consonants and pronounced as //r//, labial and dental consonants are hard: Russian: орла́ ('eagle' gen. sg), cf. Russian: орёл pronounced as /[ʌˈrʲoɫ]/ ('eagle' nom. sg).
Paired consonants preceding another consonant often inherit softness from it. This phenomenon in literary language has complicated and evolving rules with many exceptions, depending on what these consonants are, in what morphemic position they meet and to what style of speech the word belongs. In old Moscow pronunciation, softening was more widespread and regular; nowadays some cases that were once normative have become low colloquial or archaic. In fact, consonants can be softened to differing extents, become semi-hard or semi-soft.
The more similar the consonants are, the more they tend to soften each other. Also, some consonants tend to be softened less, such as labials and pronounced as //r//.
Softening is stronger inside the word root and between root and suffix; it is weaker between prefix and root and weak or absent between a preposition and the word following.[35]
In addition to this, dental fricatives conform to the place of articulation (not just the palatalization) of following postalveolars: Russian: 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 pronounced as //n// and pronounced as //nʲ// appear before retroflex consonants: Russian: деньжонки) ('money' (scornful)) and Russian: ханжой) ('sanctimonious one' instr.). In the same context, other coronal consonants are always hard.
Assimilative palatalization may sometimes also occur across word boundaries as in Russian: других гимназий pronounced as /[drʊˈɡʲiɣʲ ɡʲɪmˈnazʲɪj]/, but such pronunciation is uncommon and characteristic of uncareful speech (except in preposition+main word combinations).
As a Slavic language, Russian has fewer phonotactic restrictions on consonants than many other languages, allowing for clusters that would be difficult for English speakers; this is especially so at the beginning of a syllable, where Russian speakers make no sonority distinctions between fricatives and stops. These reduced restrictions begin at the morphological level; outside of two morphemes that contain clusters of four consonants: встрет-/встреч- 'meet' (pronounced as /[ˈfstrʲetʲ/ˈfstrʲetɕ]/), and чёрств-/черств- 'stale' (pronounced as /[ˈtɕɵrstv]/), native Russian morphemes have a maximum consonant cluster size of three:
| + 3-Segment clusters | Russian | IPA/Audio | Translation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russian: '''скр'''ыва́ть | 'to hide' | |||
| Russian: '''мгн'''ове́ние | '(an) instant' | |||
| CCC* | Russian: '''ств'''ол | 'tree trunk' | ||
| LCL | Russian: ве'''рбл'''ю́д | 'camel' | ||
| LCC | Russian: то́'''лст'''ый | 'thick' |
| + 2-Segment clusters | Russian | IPA/Audio | Translation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CC | Russian: ко'''сть''' | 'bone' | ||
| LC | Russian: сме'''рт'''ь | 'death' | ||
| CL | Russian: '''сл'''епо́й | 'blind' | ||
| LL | Russian: го́'''рл'''о | 'throat' | ||
| CJ | Russian: ста'''ть'''я́ | 'article' | ||
| LJ | Russian: '''рь'''я́ный | 'zealous' |
If pronounced as //j// is considered a consonant in the coda position, then words like Russian: айва́ ('quince') contain semivowel+consonant clusters.
Affixation also creates consonant clusters. Some prefixes, the best known being вз-/вс- (pronounced as /[vz-]/[fs-]/), produce long word-initial clusters when they attach to a morpheme beginning with consonant(s) (e.g. |pronounced as /fs/|+ |pronounced as /pɨʂkə/| → Russian: вспы́шка pronounced as /[ˈfspɨʂkə]/ 'flash'). However, the four-consonant limitation persists in the syllable onset.
Clusters of three or more consonants are frequently simplified, usually through syncope of one of them, especially in casual pronunciation.
All word-initial four-consonant clusters begin with pronounced as /[vz]/ or pronounced as /[fs]/, followed by a stop (or, in the case of pronounced as /[x]/, a fricative), and a liquid:
| + 4-Segment clusters | Russian | IPA/Audio | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| (Russian: ему) Russian: '''взбр'''ело (Russian: в голову) | pronounced as /[vzbrʲɪˈɫo]/ | '(he) took it (into his head)' | |
| Russian: '''взгл'''яд | 'gaze' | ||
| Russian: '''взгр'''омоздиться | 'to perch' | ||
| Russian: '''вздр'''огнуть | 'to flinch' | ||
| Russian: '''вскл'''окоченный | 'disheveled' | ||
| Russian: '''вскр'''ыть | 'to unseal' | ||
| Russian: '''вспл'''еск | 'splash' | ||
| Russian: '''вспр'''ыгнуть | 'to jump up' | ||
| Russian: '''встл'''еть | pronounced as /[ˈfstlʲetʲ]/ | 'to begin to smolder' | |
| Russian: '''встр'''ечать | 'to meet' | ||
| Russian: '''всхл'''ип | pronounced as /[ˈfsxlʲip]/ | 'whimper' | |
| Russian: '''всхр'''апывать | 'to snort' |
Because prepositions in Russian act like clitics, the syntactic phrase composed of a preposition (most notably, the three that consist of just a single consonant: к, с, and в) and a following word constitutes a phonological word that acts like a single grammatical word. This can create a 4-consonant onset cluster not starting in pronounced as /[vz]/ or pronounced as /[fs]/; for example, the phrase Russian: в мгнове́ние ('in an instant') is pronounced [{{IPA|vmɡnɐˈvʲenʲɪje}}].
In the syllable coda, suffixes that contain no vowels may increase the final consonant cluster of a syllable (e.g. Russian: Ноя́брьск 'city of Noyabrsk' |pronounced as /noˈjabrʲ/|+ |pronounced as /sk/| → pronounced as /[nʌˈjabrʲsk]/), theoretically up to seven consonants: *Russian: мо́нстрств pronounced as /[ˈmonstrstf]/ ('of monsterships'). There is usually an audible release of plosives between these consecutive consonants at word boundaries, the major exception being clusters of homorganic consonants.
Consonant cluster simplification in Russian includes degemination, syncope, dissimilation, and weak vowel insertion. For example, pronounced as //sɕː// is pronounced pronounced as /[ɕː]/, as in Russian: расще́лина ('cleft'). There are also a few isolated patterns of apparent cluster reduction (as evidenced by the mismatch between pronunciation and orthography) arguably the result of historical simplifications. For example, dental stops are dropped between a dental continuant and a dental nasal or lateral: Russian: ле́с'''т'''ный pronounced as /[ˈlʲesnɨj]/ 'flattering' (from Russian: ле́с'''т'''ь pronounced as /[ˈlʲesʲtʲ]/ 'flattery'). Other examples include:
| pronounced as //vstv// > pronounced as /[stv]/ | Russian: чу́вство | 'feeling' | (not pronounced as /[ˈtɕu'''f'''stvə]/) | ||
| pronounced as //ɫnts// > pronounced as /[nts]/ | Russian: со́лнце | 'sun' | (not pronounced as /[ˈso'''ɫ'''ntsɘ]/) | ||
| pronounced as //rdts// > pronounced as /[rts]/ | Russian: се́рдце | 'heart' | (not pronounced as /[ˈsʲer'''t'''tsɘ]/) | ||
| pronounced as //rdtɕ// > pronounced as /[rtɕ]/ | Russian: сердчи́шко | 'heart' (diminutive) | pronounced as /[sʲɪrˈtɕiʂkə]/ (not pronounced as /[sʲɪr'''t'''tɕiʂkə]/) | ||
| pronounced as //ndsk// > pronounced as /[nsk]/ | Russian: шотла́ндский | 'Scottish' | (not pronounced as /[ʂʌtˈɫan'''t'''skʲɪj]/) | ||
| pronounced as //stsk// > pronounced as /[sk]/ | Russian: маркси́стский | 'Marxist' (adj.) | pronounced as /[mʌrkˈsʲiskʲɪj]/ (not pronounced as /[mʌrkˈsʲis'''t'''skʲɪj]/) |
Compare: Russian: со́лнечный pronounced as /[ˈsoɫnʲɪt͡ɕnɨj]/ 'solar, sunny', Russian: серде́чный pronounced as /[sʲɪrˈdʲet͡ɕnɨj]/ 'heart (adj.), cordial', Russian: Шотла́ндия pronounced as /[ʂɐtˈɫanʲdʲɪjə]/ 'Scotland', Russian: маркси́ст pronounced as /[mʌrkˈsʲist]/ 'Marxist' (person).
The simplifications of consonant clusters are done selectively; bookish-style words and proper nouns are typically pronounced with all consonants even if they fit the pattern. For example, the word Russian: голла́ндка is pronounced in a simplified manner pronounced as /[ɡʌˈɫankə]/ for the meaning of 'Dutch oven' (a popular type of oven in Russia) and in a full form pronounced as /[ɡʌˈɫantkə]/ for 'Dutch woman' (a more exotic meaning). The orthographic combination (вств) is pronounced pronounced as /[stv]/ in the words Russian: здра́вствуй(те) [ˈzdrastvʊj(tʲe)] 'hello', Russian: чу́вство [ˈt͡ɕustvə] 'feeling' (does not have related words with pronounced (в) in the modern language, so the first (в) in the spelling exists only for historical reasons), Russian: безмо́лвствовать [bʲɪzˈmoɫstvəvətʲ] 'to be silent', and related words, otherwise pronounced pronounced as /[fstv]/: Russian: баловство́ [bəɫɐfstˈvo] 'naughtiness'.
In certain cases, this syncope produces homophones, e.g. Russian: ко́стный ('bony') and Russian: ко́сный ('rigid'), both are pronounced .
Another method of dealing with consonant clusters is inserting an epenthetic vowel (both in spelling and in pronunciation), (о) after most prepositions and prefixes that normally end in a hard consonant. This includes both historically motivated usage (from historical extra-short vowel (ъ)) and cases of its modern extrapolations. There are no strict limits when the epenthetic (о) is obligatory, optional, or prohibited. One of the most typical cases of the epenthetic (о) is between a morpheme-final hard consonant and a cluster starting with the same or similar consonant. E.g. Russian: со среды́ 'from Wednesday' |pronounced as /s/|+|pronounced as /srʲɪˈdɨ/| → pronounced as /[səsrʲɪˈdɨ]/, not *с среды; Russian: ототру́ 'I'll scrub' |pronounced as /ot/|+|pronounced as /tru/| → pronounced as /[ʌtʌˈtru]/, not *оттру. The interfix (о) (spelled (е) after soft consonants) is also used in compound words: Russian: пищево́д 'oesophagus' (lit. food path) |pronounced as /пища/|+|pronounced as /вод/| → pronounced as /[pʲɪɕːɪˈvot]/.
Stress in Russian is phonemic and therefore unpredictable. It may fall on any syllable, and can vary drastically in similar or related words. For example, in the following table, in the numbers 50 and 60, the stress moves to the last syllable, despite having a structure similar to, say, 70 and 80:
| де́сять | 10 | |
| два́дцать | 20 | |
| три́дцать | 30 | |
| со́рок | 40 | |
| пятьдеся́т | 50 | |
| шестьдеся́т | 60 | |
| се́мьдесят | 70 | |
| во́семьдесят | 80 | |
| девяно́сто | 90 |
Generally, only one syllable in a word is stressed; this rule, however, does not extend to most compound words, such as Russian: моро́зоусто́йчивый pronounced as /[mʌˌrozəʊˈstojtɕɪvɨj]/ ('frost-resistant'), which have multiple stresses, with the last of them being primary.
Phonologically, stressed syllables are mostly realised not only by the lack of aforementioned vowel reduction, but also by a somewhat longer duration than unstressed syllables. More intense pronunciation is also a relevant cue, although this quality may merge with prosodical intensity. Pitch accent has only a minimal role in indicating stress, mostly due to its prosodical importance, which may prove a difficulty for Russians identifying stressed syllables in more pitched languages.
A stress defines a phonological concept of phonetic word — a sequence of morphemes clustered around one nuclear stress. A phonetic word may contain multiple lexical items.[36]
There are numerous ways in which Russian spelling does not match pronunciation. The historical transformation of pronounced as //ɡ// into pronounced as //v// in genitive case endings and the word for 'him' is not reflected in the modern Russian orthography: the pronoun Russian: его pronounced as /[jɪˈvo]/ 'his/him', and the adjectival declension suffixes -ого and -его. Orthographic г represents pronounced as //x// in a handful of word roots: легк-/лёгк-/легч- 'easy' and мягк-/мягч- 'soft'. There are a handful of words in which consonants which have long since ceased to be pronounced even in careful pronunciation are still spelled, e.g., the 'l' in Russian: солнце pronounced as /[ˈsontsɨ]/ ('sun').
Between any vowel and pronounced as //i// (excluding instances across affix boundaries but including unstressed vowels that have merged with pronounced as //i//), pronounced as //j// may be dropped: Russian: аист pronounced as /[ˈa.ɪst]/ ('stork') and Russian: делает pronounced as /[ˈdʲeɫəɪt]/ ('does'). (cites Russian: заезжать and other instances of intervening prefix and preposition boundaries as exceptions to this tendency.)
pronounced as //i// velarizes hard consonants: Russian: ты ('you' sing.). pronounced as //o// and pronounced as //u// velarize and labialize hard consonants and labialize soft consonants: Russian: бок ('side'), Russian: нёс ('(he) carried'). pronounced as //o// is a diphthong pronounced as /[ʊ̯o]/ or even a triphthong pronounced as /[ʊ̯ɔʌ̯]/, with a closer lip rounding at the beginning of the vowel that gets progressively weaker, particularly when occurring word-initially or word-finally under stress.
A weak palatal offglide may occur between certain soft consonants and back vowels (e.g. Russian: ляжка 'thigh' pronounced as /[ˈlʲi̯aʂkə]/).
"Note that though Russian has traditionally been described as having all consonants either palatalized or velarized, recent data suggests that the velarized gesture is only used with laterals giving a phonemic contrast between pronounced as //lʲ// and pronounced as //ɫ// (...)."