pronounced as /notice/In the pronunciation of the Russian language, several ways of vowel reduction (and its absence) are distinguished between the standard language and dialects. Russian orthography most often does not reflect vowel reduction, which can confuse foreign-language learners, but some spelling reforms have changed some words.
There are five vowel phonemes in Standard Russian. Vowels tend to merge when they are unstressed. The vowels pronounced as //a// and pronounced as //o// have the same unstressed allophones for a number of dialects and reduce to an unclear schwa pronounced as //ə//. Unstressed pronounced as //e// may become more central and merge with pronounced as //i//. Under some circumstances, pronounced as //a//, pronounced as //e//, pronounced as //i// and pronounced as //o// may all merge. The fifth vowel, pronounced as //u//, may also be centralized but does not typically merge with any of the other vowels.
Other types of reduction are phonetic, such as that of the high vowels (pronounced as //i// and pronounced as //u//), which become near-close. Thus, Russian: игра́ть ('to play') is pronounced pronounced as /[ɪˈɡratʲ]/, and Russian: мужчи́на ('man') is pronounced pronounced as /[mʊˈɕːinə]/.
The five Russian vowels pronounced as //u, i, e, a, o// in unstressed position show two levels of reduction:
The allophonic result of the reduction is also heavily dependent on the quality or the nonexistence of the preceding consonant. Thus, the reduction is further grouped into three types according to the environment:
The unstressed vowels also may be grouped in series that reflect similar patterns of reduction:
Two high vowels pronounced as //u// and pronounced as //i// are usually thought to undergo no reduction. However, on the phonetic level, they show allophonic centralization, particularly under the influence of preceding or following consonants.
The unstressed high back vowel pronounced as //u// is either pronounced as /link/ (after hard consonants, written) or pronounced as /link/ (after soft consonants, written, except,).
The unstressed high front vowel pronounced as //i// is either pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ (after soft consonants, written) or pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ (after hard consonants, written, except,). Nevertheless, in rapid colloquial speech they both may be reduced to schwa pronounced as /link/, for example, Russian: до́брым pronounced as /[ˈdobrɨ̆m]/ ('kind', instrumental case, singular masculine neuter) versus Russian: до́бром pronounced as /[ˈdobrəm]/ ('kind', prepositional case, singular masculine neuter). The case ending //-im// in the former case may surface as pronounced as /[-əm]/ like the case ending //-om//, which thus leads to the merger of pronounced as //i// and pronounced as //o//, or as Russian: де́лают pronounced as /[ˈdʲeləjʊ̈t]/ ('they do') versus Russian: де́лает pronounced as /[ˈdʲeləjɪt]/ ('he/it does'). Both may surface as pronounced as /[ˈdʲeləɪt]/ or pronounced as /[ˈdʲeləːt]/.
See also: Akanye. Other than in Northern Russian dialects, Russian-speakers have a strong tendency to merge unstressed pronounced as //a// and pronounced as //o//. The phenomenon is called akanye (Russian: аканье), and some scholars postulate an early tendency towards it in the earliest known textual evidence of confusion between written "a" and "o" in a manuscript that was copied in Moscow in 1339.[1] Akanye contrasts with okanye (Russian: оканье) pronunciations in Standard Russian as follows:
Across certain word-final suffixes, the reductions do not completely apply. In certain suffixes, after palatalised consonants and pronounced as //j//, pronounced as //a// and pronounced as //o// (which is written as) can be distinguished from pronounced as //i// and from each other: Russian: по́ле pronounced as /[ˈpolʲɪ]/ ('field' nominative singular neuter) is different from Russian: по́ля pronounced as /[ˈpolʲə]/ ('field' singular genitive), and the final sounds differ from the realisation of pronounced as //i// in that position.
There are a number of exceptions to the above comments regarding the akanye:
ru:Иванов, Валерий Васильевич
. Историческая грамматика русского языка: Допущено в качестве учебника для филологичесих факультетов государственных университетов и педагогических институтов . 1964 . Historical grammar of the Russian language . Russian . Moscow . Просвещение . 1964 . 30 . 9 September 2021.The main feature of front vowel reduction is ikanye (Russian: иканье), the merger of unstressed pronounced as //e// with pronounced as //i//. Because pronounced as //i// has several allophones (depending on both stress and proximity to palatalised consonants), unstressed pronounced as //e// is pronounced as one of those allophones, rather than the close front unrounded vowel. For example, Russian: семена́ pronounced as //sʲimʲiˈna// ('seeds') is pronounced pronounced as /[sʲɪmʲɪˈna]/ and Russian: цена́ pronounced as //t͡siˈna// as ('price') pronounced as /[t͡sɨ̞ˈna]/.
In registers without the merger (yekanye or Russian: еканье), unstressed pronounced as //e// is more retracted. Even then, however, the distinction between unstressed pronounced as //e// and unstressed pronounced as //i// is most clearly heard in the syllable immediately before the stress. Thus, Russian: прида́ть ('to add to') contrasts with Russian: преда́ть ('to betray'). Both are pronounced pronounced as /[prʲɪˈdatʲ]/ and pronounced as /[prʲe̠ˈdatʲ]/ respectively. The yekanye pronunciation is coupled with a stronger tendency for both unstressed pronounced as //a// and pronounced as //o//, which are pronounced the same as pronounced as //i//.
Speakers may switch between both pronunciations because of various factors, the most important factor likely being the speed of pronunciation.
Yakanye (Russian: яканье) is the pronunciation of unstressed pronounced as //e// and pronounced as //a// after palatalised consonants preceding a stressed syllable as pronounced as //a//, rather than pronounced as //i// (Russian: несли́ is pronounced pronounced as /[nʲasˈlʲi]/, not pronounced as /[nʲɪsˈlʲi]/).
This pronunciation is observed in Belarusian and in most Southern Russian dialects, as is expressed in a quip (with liberal yakanye):
| Orthography | Standard pronunciation | Yakanye pronunciation | Translation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russian: А у нас в Ряза́ни | pronounced as /[ə‿ʊ‿ˈnas v‿rʲɪˈzanʲɪ]/ | pronounced as /[a w nəs wrʲaˈzanʲə]/ | And we have in Ryazan | |
| Russian: пироги́ с глаза́ми. | pronounced as /[pʲɪrɐˈɡʲɪ z‿ɡlɐˈzamʲɪ]/ | pronounced as /[pʲɪˈraɣʲɪ z ɣlaˈzamʲə]/ | Pies with eyes: | |
| Russian: Их едя́т, | pronounced as /[ɪx jɪˈdʲat]/ | pronounced as /[ɪxʲ jaˈdʲætʲ]/ | They are being eaten, | |
| Russian: а они́ глядя́т. | pronounced as /[ɐ‿ɐˈnʲi ɡlʲɪˈdʲat]/ | pronounced as /[ə aˈnʲi ɣlʲaˈdʲætʲ]/ | and they look. |
That example also demonstrates other features of Southern dialects: palatalised final pronounced as //tʲ// in the third-person forms of verbs, pronounced as /[ɣ]/ for pronounced as /[ɡ]/ and pronounced as /[w]/ for pronounced as /[u]/ (in some places) and pronounced as /[v]/, clear unstressed pronounced as /[a]/ for pronounced as /[ɐ]/ or pronounced as /[ə]/.
Generally, vowel reduction is not reflected in the Russian spelling. However, in some words, the spelling has been changed based on vowel reduction and so some words are spelled despite their etymology:
Spelling those words with (а) was already common in the 18th century, but it co-existed with the spelling with (о), conforming to etymology of those words. Dictionaries often gave both spellings. In the second half of the 19th century, Yakov Grot recommended spelling those words with (о) (conforming to their etymology), but his recommendations were not followed by all editors. The Ushakov Dictionary (1935–1940) gives Russian: паро́м, Russian: корова́й and Russian: карава́й. Finally the spelling of those words with (а) was set by the 1956 orthographic codification (orthographic rules and spelling dictionary). That is, in cases of doubt, codifiers of 1956 based their choice not on etymological conformity but on the spread of usage.
That spelling has a long history and is based on a folk etymology basing the word on Russian: ви́деть (to see,) instead of Russian: ве́дать (to know).
In the closely related Belarusian, the original pronounced as //o// has merged with pronounced as //a//, like in Standard Russian, but the reduced pronunciation is reflected in the spelling.