Russian phonology
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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 typically come in pairs of hard (твёрдый ['tvʲo.rdɨj]) and soft (мягкий ['mʲæ.xʲkʲɪj]) or plain and palatalized.
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[edit] Vowels
Russian possesses five vowel phonemes which are subject to considerable allophony. Some linguists consider [ɨ] to be a separate phoneme but the general consensus (and that taken by this article) is that it is an allophone of /i/:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | (ɨ) | u |
| Mid | e | (ə) | o |
| Open | a |
Vowel allophony is largely dependent on stress and the palatalizaton of neighboring consonants:
[edit] /i/
When a preceding consonant is hard, /i/ is retracted to [ɨ]. While this is phonetically central, for phonological purposes it is considered back. Between soft consonants, both stressed and unstressed /i/ are raised as in пить [pʲi̝tʲ] (to drink) and маленький [ˈmalʲɪ̝nʲkʲɪj] (small). When preceded and followed by coronal or dorsal consonants, [ɨ] is fronted to [ɨ̟]. After a labial+/l/ cluster, [ɨ] is retracted, as in плыть [plɨ̠tʲ] (to float); it is also slightly dipthongized to [ɯ̟ɨ̟].
[edit] /a/
Phonetically, /a/ is a front vowel, but phonologically it is back. Between soft consonants, it becomes [æ] as in пять [pʲætʲ] (five). When not following a palatalized consonant, /a/ is retracted to [ɑ̟] before /l/ as in палка ['pɑlkə] (stick)
[edit] /e/
In native words, /e/ only follows unpaired (i.e. the retroflexes and /ts/) and palatalized consonants. After palatalized consonants (but not before), it is a mid vowel ([e̞] or [ɛ̝]), while a following palatalized consonant raises it to [e]. Another allophone, an open-mid [ɛ] occurs word-initially and never before or after palatalized consonants (hereafter [ɛ̝] is represented without the diacritic for simplicity). Preceding hard consonants retract /e/ to [ɛ̠] and [e̠]. So жест (gesture) and цели (ambition) are pronounced [ʐɛ̠st] and [tse̠lʲ] respectively.
In words borrowed from other languages, it is often the case that /e/ does not follow a palatalized consonant until the word has been fully adopted into Russian. For instance, шофер (from French chauffeur) was pronounced [ʂoˈfɛr] in the early twentieth century but is now pronounced [ʂʌˈfʲor]. On the other hand, the pronunciations of words such as отель [ʌˈtɛlʲ] (hotel) retain the hard consonants despite a long presence in the language.
[edit] /o/
Like /e/, this is a mid vowel. Between palatalized consonants it is centralized to [ɵ̞] as in тётя [ˈtʲɵ.tʲə] (aunt).
[edit] /u/
As with other back vowels, /u/ is centralized between palatalized consonants, as in чуять [ˈʨʉ.jɪtʲ] (to sense).
Non-open back vowels velarize preceding hard consonants: ты [tˠɨ] (you). /o/ and /u/ labialize the same consonants: мок [mʷok] (side).
[edit] Vowel reduction
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.
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 addition to this, the unstressed high vowels /i/ and /u/ become lax (or near-close) as in ютиться [jʉ̞ˈtʲitʲsə] (to huddle), этап [ɪˈtap] (stage), дышать [dɨ̞ˈʂatʲ] (to breathe), and мужчина [mʊˈɕːinə] (man).
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.dʲɪo] (radio). Secondly, some speakers pronounce /a/ as [ɪ] after retroflex consonants (/ʐ/ and /ʂ/. This pronunciation generally only applies to жалеть, [ʐɪˈlʲetʲ] (to regret), к сожалению, [ksə.ʐɪˈlʲe.nʲɪ.u] (unfortunately), and oblique cases of лошадь (horse), such as лошадей, [lə.ʂɪˈdʲej]. In addition, /i/ replaces /a/ after /ts/ in the oblique cases of some numerals, eg двадцати, [dvə.tsɨˈtʲi] (twenty). Thirdly, when the perfectivizing prefix /vi/ 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).
[edit] Diphthongs
Russian diphthongs all end in a non-syllabic [i̯], 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 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 [jɪjˈtso] (egg), ей [jɛj] (her instr), действенный [ˈdʲejstvʲɛnːɨj] (effective). /ij/ (written <ий> or <ый>) is a common adjectival affix where it is often unstressed; at normal conversational speed, such endings are frequently monophthongized to [ɪ] or [ɨ̞].
[edit] Consonants
<ʲ> denotes palatalization, meaning the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant.
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental & Alveolar |
Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | hard | /m/ | /n/ | ||||
| soft | /mʲ/ | /nʲ/ | |||||
| Plosive | hard | /p/ /b/ | /t/ /d/ | /k/ /g/ | |||
| soft | /pʲ/ /bʲ/ | /tʲ/ /dʲ/ | /kʲ/* [gʲ] | ||||
| Affricate | hard | /ʦ/ | |||||
| soft | /tɕ/ | ||||||
| Fricative | hard | /f/ /v/ | /s/ /z/ | /ʂ/ /ʐ/ | /x/ | ||
| soft | /fʲ/ /vʲ/ | /sʲ/ /zʲ/ | /ɕː/* /ʑː/* | [xʲ] | |||
| Trill | hard | /r/ | |||||
| soft | /rʲ/ | ||||||
| Approximant | hard | /l/ | |||||
| soft | /lʲ/ | /j/ | |||||
Phonetic details:
- Almost all consonants come in hard/soft pairs. Exceptions are consonants that are always hard /ʦ/, /ʂ/, and /ʐ/; and consonants that are always soft /tɕ/, /ɕː/, /ʑː/, and /j/. The soft/hard distinction for velar consonants is typically allophonic; /kʲ/ might be considered a marginal phoneme, although its occurrence before non-front vowels is mostly in words of foreign origin.
- /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.
- /ɕː/ and /ʑː/ are also marginal phonemes. Some speakers have /ɕtɕ/ instead of /ɕː/, which is likely to be two underlying phonemes: |ʂtɕ|; this pronunciation is falling into disuse[citation needed]. The status of /ʑː/ as a phoneme is similar since it may derive from an underlying |zʐ| or |sʐ| and its use is becoming more archaic compared to a geminated hard [ʐː] (although the former continues to be standard in media and government). For more information, see Alveolo-palatal consonant.
- Plain /t/ /d/ /n/ /l/ and palatalized /rʲ/ are both dental [t̪] [d̪] [n̪] [l̪] [r̪ʲ] and apical [t̺] [d̺] [n̺] [l̺] [r̺ʲ] while palatalized /tʲ/ /dʲ/ /nʲ/ and /lʲ/ are alveolar and laminal [t̻ʲsʲ] [d̻ʲzʲ] [nʲ̻] [lʲ̻]. Note that, for /tʲ/ and /dʲ/, the tongue is raised enough to produce slight frication. Plain /l/ is typically pharyngealized ("dark" [ɫ]).
- /s/ and /z/ are laminal and alveolar while /ʦ/ is apical.
- Plain /r/ is postalveolar: [r̠].
[edit] Phonology
Voiced consonants (/b/, /bʲ/, /d/, /dʲ/ /g/, /v/, /vʲ/, /z/, /zʲ/, /ʐ/, and /ʑː/ are devoiced word-finally unless the next word begins with a voiced obstruent.
Russian features a general retrograde assimilation of voicing and palatalization.
[edit] Voicing
Within a morpheme, voicing is not distinctive before obstruents (except for /v/ and /vʲ/). The voicing or devoicing is determined by that of the final obstruent in the sequence: просьба [ˈprozʲbə] (request), водка [ˈvo.tkə] (vodka).
/ʦ/, /tɕ/, and /x/ have voiced allophones before voiced obstruents, as in плацдарм [plʌʣˈdarm] (bridge-head).
Other than /mʲ/ and /nʲ/, nasals and liquids devoice between voiceless consonants or a voiceless consonant and a pause: контрфорс [ˌkontr ̥ˈfors] (buttress).
In foreign borrowings, this isn't always the case for |f|, as in Адольф Гитлер [aˈdolʲfˈgʲi.tlʲɛr] (Adolf Hitler).
[edit] Palatalization
Before /j/, paired consonants are normally palatalized as in пью [pʲju] (I drink) and пьеса [ˈpʲjɛ.sə] (theatrical play). съездить [ˈsje.zʲdʲɪtʲ] (to go/ travel) is an exception to this for many speakers.
Before plain dental consonants, /r/, /rʲ/, labial and dental consonants are plain: орла [ʌrˈla] (eagle gen. sg).
Before palatalized labial and dental consonants or /lʲ/, dental consonants (other than /ʦ/) are palatalized.
/x/ assimilates the palatalization of the following velar consonant легких [ˈlʲɵxʲkʲɪx] (lungs gen. pl).
Palatalization assimilation of labial consonants before labial consonants is in free variation with nonassimilation, that is бомбить (to bomb) is either [bʌmˈbʲitʲ] or [bʌmʲˈbʲitʲ] depending on the individual speaker.
When plain /n/ precedes its palatalized cognate, it is also palatalized (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 [ˈɕːasʲtʲu] (with a part). In careful speech, this does not occur across word boundaries
Russian is rare in the fact that nasals do not typically have place assimilation. For example, both /n/ and /nʲ/ appear before retroflex consonants: деньжонки [ˈdʲenʲʐənkʲɪ] (money) and ханжой [xʌnˈʐoj] (hypocrite instr.). In the same context, other coronal consonants are always plain. Russian only has a velar nasal as a rare allophone before velar consonants: функция [ˈfuŋk.ʦɨjə] (function), but not in most other words like банк [bank].
[edit] Consonant Clusters
Russian allows consonant clusters. Some, such as in встретить [ˈfstrʲetʲɪtʲ] (to encounter), can have as much as four segments. Other cluster types are also attested. Some of which would be difficult for English speakers.
| 3 Segments | Russian | IPA | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| CCL | скрип | [skrʲip] | squeak |
| CCC* | ствол | [stvol] | gun barrel |
| LCL | верблюд | [vʲɛrˈblʲut] | camel |
| LCC | толстый | [ˈtolstɨj] | fat |
For speakers who pronounce [ɕtɕ] instead of [ɕː], words like общий (common) also constitute clusters of this type.
| 2 Segments | Russian | IPA | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| CC | кость | [kosʲtʲ] | bone |
| LC | ртуть | [rtutʲ] | mercury |
| CL | слепой | [sʲlʲɛˈpoj] | blind |
| LL* | горло | [ˈgorlə] | throat |
| CJ | дьяк | [dʲjak] | dyak |
| LJ | рьяный | [ˈrʲjanɨj] | zealous |
- *|lr| is not an accepted cluster in Russian.
If /j/ is considered a consonant in the coda position, then words like айва (quince) contain semivowel+consonant clusters.
Some potential clusters are deleted, though. For example, dental plosives are dropped between a dental continuant and a dental nasal: лестный [ˈlʲɛsnɨj] (flattering).
[edit] Supplementary notes
/n/ and /nʲ/ are the only consonants that can be geminated.
The historic transformation of /g/ 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 [jɪˈvo] (his/him), белого [ˈbʲɛ.lə.və] (white gen. sg.), синего [ˈsʲi.nʲɪ.və] (blue gen. sg.). Orthographic г also represents /x/ when it precedes other velar sounds.
Between any vowel and /i/ (excluding instances across affix boundaries but including unstressed vowels that have merged with /i/), /j/ is dropped: аист [ʌˈist] (stork) and делает [ˈdʲɛləɪt] (does) but заезжать [zəjɪˈʑːatʲ] (to pick up). This may be related to the historic de-iotification of initial и that occured around the nineteenth century.
Russian stress is similar to English in how it determines accentuation. The stress may fall on any syllable, and may shift within an inflexional paradigm: до́ма [ˈdo.mə] (house gen. sg.) vs дома́ [dʌˈma] (houses). A number of morphemes have underlying stress and are, therefore, always stressed. However, other than some complex words, only one syllable is stressed in a word. Russian also has an intonation pattern similar to that of English.
[edit] Historical sound changes
- See also: History of the Russian language
The modern phonological system of Russian is inherited from Common Slavonic, but underwent considerable modification in the early historical period, before being largely settled by about 1400.
Like all Slavic languages, Russian was originally a language of open syllables. All syllables ended in vowels (as in Fijian and Hawaiian), and consonant clusters, in far lesser variety than today, existed only at the start of a syllable.
By the time of the earliest records, Old Russian already showed characteristic divergences from Common Slavonic. Major features of this stage include:
The loss of the nasal vowels (the yuses of ancient Cyrillic), which had themselves developed from Indo-European [-en-]/[-an-]/[-on-] before a consonant—usually dental or labial—and at word boundaries. Non-nasalized vowels took their place, possibly iotated or with softening of the preceding consonant:
Borrowings in the Finno-Ugric 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 Slavonic [-dl-/-tl-] to [-l-]:
- ComSl: *[mydlo]
- Polish: mydło
- Russian: мыло ['mɨ.lə] (soap).
A tendency for greater maintenance of intermediate ancient [-s-], [-k-], etc. before frontal vowels, than in other Slavic languages, the so-called incomplete second and third palatalizations:
- Uk нозі /nozʲi/
- Russian: ноги [ˈno.gʲɪ] (legs).
Pleophony or "full-voicing" (полногласие [pə.lnʌˈgla.sʲjə]), 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:
- OCS: врабіи [ˈvra.bii]
- Russian: воробей [və.rʌˈbʲej] (sparrow)
- Uk: Володимір /volodɪmʲir/
- Russian: Владимир [vlʌˈdʲi.mʲɪr] (Vladimir) (although the * nickname form in Russian is still Володя [vʌˈlodʲə]).
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):
- OR: объ мьнѣ /o.bŭ mĭˈnĕ/ > R: обо мне [ə.bʌ ˈmnʲe] (about me)
- OR: сънъ /ˈsŭ.nŭ/ > R: сон [son] (sleep nom. sg.), cognate with Lat. somnus;
- OR: съна /sŭˈna/ > R: сна [sna] (of sleep) (gen. sg.).
The loss of the yers has led to a much greater variety of consonant clusters, with attendant voicing and/or devoicing in the assimilation:
- OR: къдѣ /kŭˈdĕ/ > R: где [gdʲɛ] (where).
Consonant clusters thus created were often simplified:
- здравствуйте [ˈzdra.stvuj.tʲə] (hello), not *[ˈzdra.fstvuj.tʲə], although such a pronunciation could be affected in the archaic meaning be healthy
- сердце [ˈsʲɛ.rʦə] (heart), not *[ˈsʲɛ.rdʦə]
- солнце [ˈso.nʦə] (sun), not *[ˈso.lnʦə].
The development of OR ѣ /ĕ/ (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 /ĕ/ into /e/ or /je/ has also been debated.
The development of /e/ into /o/ under stress:
- OR о чемъ /о ˈʧe.mŭ/ (about which loc. sg.) > R о чём [ʌ ˈʧom].
A greater variety of palatalized phonemes, and the systematic palatalization of consonants before /e/ and /i/.
The retroflexing of postalveolars: /ʒ/ became [ʐ] and /ʃ/ become [ʂ]. This is considered a "hardening" since retroflex sounds are difficult to palatalize. At some point, /ʦ/ 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 as /ɕʨ/ than it is today.
The adoption of /f/ as a non-foreign sound, stemming from the loss of the final yer and the devoicing of terminal /v/. Before a vowel, where the /f/ occurs only in borrowed words, it was considered difficult for uneducated speakers to pronounce until at least the end of the nineteenth century.
[edit] See also
- Russian alphabet, Russian alphabet: audio
- Russian orthography
- List of Russian language topics
- List of phonetics topics
[edit] References
- Jones, Daniel & Ward, Dennis (1969). The Phonetics of Russian. Cambridge University Press.
- Halle, Morris (1959). Sound Pattern of Russian. MIT Press.
[edit] Further reading
- Hamilton, William S. (1980). Introduction to Russian Phonology and Word Structure. Slavica Publishers.
- Sussex, Roland (1992), "Russian" in W. Bright, ed., International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (1st ed.), New York: Oxford University Press.
