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Russian phonology
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For assistance in making phonetic transcriptions of Russian for Wikipedia articles, see
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 (??????? ) and soft (?????? ) or plain and palatalized.
VowelsRussian possesses five vowel phonemes which are subject to considerable allophony. A number of linguists consider to be a separate phoneme but the interpretation taken by this article is that it is an allophone of :
Vowel allophony is largely dependent on stress and the palatalization of neighboring consonants:
Front vowelsWhen a preceding consonant is hard, is retracted to . While this is phonetically central, for phonological purposes it is considered back. When unstressed, becomes near-close; that is, following a hard consonant and in most other environments. Between soft consonants, both stressed and unstressed are raised, as in ???? ('to drink') and ????????? ('small'). When preceded and followed by coronal or dorsal consonants, is fronted to . After a labial + cluster, is retracted, as in ????? ('to float'); it is also slightly diphthongized to .
In native words, only follows unpaired (i.e. the retroflexes and ) and palatalized consonants. After palatalized consonants (but not before), it is a mid vowel ( or ), while a following palatalized consonant raises it to . Another allophone, an open-mid occurs word-initially and never before or after palatalized consonants (hereafter is represented without the diacritic for simplicity). Preceding hard consonants retract to and so that ???? ('gesture') and ???? ('target') are pronounced and respectively.
In words borrowed from other languages, it is often the case that does not follow a palatalized consonant until the word has been fully adopted into Russian. For instance, ????? (from French chauffeur) was pronounced in the early twentieth century but is now pronounced . On the other hand, the pronunciations of words such as ????? ('hotel') retain the hard consonants despite a long presence in the language.
Back vowelsBetween soft consonants, becomes as in ???? ('five'). When not following a palatalized consonant, is retracted to before as in ????? ('stick').
For most speakers, is a mid vowel but it can be more open for some speakers. Between palatalized consonants or simply following a one, is centralized to as in ???? ('aunt').
As with the other back vowels, is centralized between palatalized consonants, as in ???? ('narrowly'). When unstressed, becomes near-close.
Vowel reductionUnstressed vowels tend to merge together. and generally have the same unstressed allophones and unstressed becomes (picking up its unstressed allophones). Russian orthography (as opposed to that of linguistically similar Belarusian) does not reflect vowel reduction.
The realization of unstressed and goes as follows:
- After hard consonants, both reduce to or ; appears in the syllable immediately before the stress and in and absolute word-initial position. Examples: ????? ('ferry'), ?????? ('cloud'), ????? ('grass').
- When , , , or is written in a word, it indicates so that ?????????? ('to consider'), is pronounced .
- Both and merge with after palatalized consonants and ( is written as in these positions). This occurs for after retroflex consonants as well. Examples: ???? ('wife'), ???? ('tongue').
- These processes occur even across word boundaries as in ??? ????? ('under the sea').
Across certain word-final suffixes, the reductions do not completely apply. In certain suffixes, after palatalized consonants and , and (which is written as ) can be distinguished from and from each other: ??´?? ('field' nom. sg. neut,)' is different from ??´?? ('field' sg.gen), and these final sounds differ from the realization of in such position.
There are a number of exceptions to the above comments on unstressed and .
- Firstly, is not always reduced in foreign borrowings, eg ?????, ('radio').
- Secondly, some speakers pronounce as after retroflex consonants ( and . This pronunciation generally only applies to ?????? ('to regret'), ? ????????? ('unfortunately'), and oblique cases of ?????? ('horse'), such as ???????, .
- Thirdly, replaces after in the oblique cases of some numerals, eg. ????????, ('twenty').
In addition to this, the unstressed high vowels and become lax (or near-close) as in ??????? ('to huddle'), ???? ('stage'), ?????? ('to breathe'), and ??????? ('man').
In weakly stressed positions, vowels may become voiceless between two voiceless consonants: ???????? ('exhibition'), ?????? ??? ('because'). This may also happen in cases where only the following consonant is voiceless: ????? ('skull').
DiphthongsRussian diphthongs all end in a non-syllabic , which can be considered an allophone of , the only semivowel in Russian. In all contexts other than after a vowel, is considered an approximant consonant. Phonological descriptions of 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: ???? ('egg'), ?? ('her' instr), ??????????? ('effective'). (written or ) is a common adjectival affix where it is often unstressed; at normal conversational speed, such unstressed endings may be monophthongized to .
Phonological processes Voiced consonants (, and ) are devoiced word-finally unless the next word begins with a voiced obstruent. , in addition becoming voiceless, also lenites to .
Russian features a general retrograde assimilation of voicing and palatalization. In longer clusters, this means that multiple consonants may be palatalized despite their underlyingly (and orthographically) being unpalatalized. The process of voicing assimilation applies across word-boundaries when there's no pause between words.
VoicingWithin a morpheme, voicing is not distinctive before obstruents (except for , and when followed by a vowel or sonorant). The voicing or devoicing is determined by that of the final obstruent in the sequence: ??????? ('request'), ????? ('vodka'). In foreign borrowings, this isn't always the case for , as in ?????? ?????? ('Adolf Hitler') and ???? ?????? ('the count is ill'). and are unusual in that they seem transparent to voicing assimilation; in the syllable onset, both voiced and voiceless consonants may appear before :
- ????? ('the creature')
- ??? ('two')
- ???????? ('luminous')
- ?????? ('star')
When precedes and follows obstruents, the voicing of the cluster is goverened by that of the final segment (per the rule above) so that voiceless obstruents that precede are voiced if is followed by a voiced obstruent (e.g. ? ????? 'to the widow') while a voiceless obstruent will devoice all segments (e.g. ??? ?????? 'without an admission').
, , and have voiced allophones before voiced obstruents, as in ???? ?? ('the daughter') and ???????? ('bridge-head').
Other than and , nasals and liquids devoice between voiceless consonants or a voiceless consonant and a pause: ????????? ('buttress').
PalatalizationBefore , paired consonants are normally palatalized as in ??? ('I drink') and ????? ('theatrical play'). ???????? ('to go/ travel') is an exception to this for many speakers. Paired consonants preceding are also palatalized; although there are exceptions from loanwords, alternations across morpheme boundaries are the norm. The Following examples show the different types of alternations:
- ??? ('house' nominative) vs. ???? ('house' prepositional)
- ?????? ('rusty') vs. ??????? ('to rust')
- ????? ('answer') vs. ???????? ('to answer')
- ???? ('I carry') vs. ????? ('carries')
- ????? ('hunger') vs. ??????? ('hungry' masc.)
- ???? ('daring') vs. ?????? ('daring man')
- ???? ('wife') vs. ????? ('wife's')
- ?????? ('cow') vs. ??????? ('bovine')
- ????? ('round') vs. ??????????? ('roundish')
- ????? ('wide') vs. ?????? ('width')
- ???? ('straight') vs. ???????? ('straightness')
- ?????? ('abducted') vs. ???????? ('abduction')
- ??? ('thief') vs. ??????? ('thief' pejorative)
- ??????? ('he wrote') vs. ???????? ('they wrote')
- ?????? ('hunchback') vs. ???????? ('hunchback' agentive)
- ????? ('angel') vs. ?????????? ('angelic')
- ???? ('height') vs. ????? ('high')
Because velar consonants are unpaired, palatalization contrasts do not exist, especially before front vowels. Allophonically, they become palatalized as in ???????? ('short') unless there is a word boundary, in which case they are plain (e.g. ? ????? 'to Ivan').
Before plain dental consonants, , , labial and dental consonants are plain: ???? ('eagle' gen. sg).
Before palatalized labial and dental consonants or , dental consonants (other than ) are palatalized.
Velar consonants are palatalized when preceding ; within words, this means that velar consonants are never followed by .
assimilates the palatalization of the following velar consonant ?????? ('lungs' gen. pl).
Palatalization assimilation of labial consonants before labial consonants is in free variation with nonassimilation, that is ??????? ('to bomb') is either or depending on the individual speaker.
When plain 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: ? ?????? ('with a part'). In careful speech, this does not occur across word boundaries
Russian has the rare features of nasals not typically assimilating place of articulation. For example, both and appear before retroflex consonants: ????????? ('money' (scornful)) and ?????? ('hypocrite' instr.). In the same context, other coronal consonants are always plain. The velar nasal is an allophone before velar consonants in some words (??????? 'function'), but not in most other words like ???? ('bank').
Consonant ClustersRussian allows consonant clusters. Some, such as in ????????? ('to encounter'), can have as much as four segments.
Other cluster types are also attested, some of which would be difficult for English speakers.
For speakers who pronounce instead of , words like ????? ('common') also constitute clusters of this type.
If is considered a consonant in the coda position, then words like ???? ('quince') contain semivowel+consonant clusters.
Clusters of four consonants are possible, but not very common, especially within a morpheme. Some potential clusters are deleted as well. For example, dental plosives are dropped between a dental continuant and a dental nasal: ??????? ('flattering').
Historical sound changes
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, 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:
- PIE: *h1sónti
- Lat: sunt
- ComSl:
- OCS:
- Russian: ???? ('they are').
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 Slavic *-dl-/-tl- to -l-:
- ComSl:
- Polish: mydlo
- Russian: ???? ('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 ????
- Russian: ???? ('legs').
Pleophony or "full-voicing", that is, the addition of vowels on either side of and between two consonants. Church Slavonic influence has made it less common in Russian than in modern Ukrainian and Belarusian:
- OCS:
- Russian: ??????? ('sparrow')
- Uk: ?????????
- Russian: ???????? ('Vladimir') (although the nickname form in Russian is still ?????? ).
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: > R: ??? ??? ('about me')
- OR: ???? > R: ??? ('sleep' nom. sg.), cognate with Lat. somnus;
- OR: ???? > R: ??? ('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:
Consonant clusters thus created were often simplified:
- ???????????? ('hello'), not , although such a pronunciation could be affected in the archaic meaning be healthy
- ?????? ('heart'), not
- ?????? ('sun'), not .
The development of OR (conventional transcription) into , as seen above. This development has caused by far the greatest of all Russian spelling controversies. The timeline of the development of into or has also been debated.
A greater variety of palatalized phonemes, and the systematic palatalization of consonants before and .
Sometime between the twelfth and fourteenth century, the allophone of before velar consonants changed from to with subsequent palatalization of the velars.
The retroflexing of postalveolars: became and become . This is considered a "hardening" since retroflex sounds are difficult to palatalize. At some point, resisted palatalization, which is why it is also "hard" although phonetically it is no different than before. The sound represented by was much more commonly pronounced as than it is today.
The development of stressed into when between a palatalized consonant and a plain one:
- OR ? ???? ('about which' loc. sg.) > R ? ??? .
This has led to a number of alternations:
| Word | Gloss | Word | Gloss |
|---|
???????´?????? | irreproachability | ????? | reproach | ????´?? | to protect | ????? | he protected | ????´???? | birch forest | ?????? | birch tree | ??´????? | conducting | ??? | he conducted | ??´?????? | fine, good | ????? | fine weather | ????´??? | merriment | ??????? | merry | ???´?? | to attract | ???? | he attracted | ???´??? | rowing | ???? | he rowed | ???´???? | to dream | ????? | a dream | ????´?? | distantly | ????? | distant | ??????´??? | bigamist | ??????????? | bigamy | ??´?? | day | ??????? | by day | ????´??? | cheaper | ??????? | cheap | ?´? | fir-tree | ???? | fir-tree | ????´???? | stallion (diminutive) | ??????? | with foal | ???? | to burn | ??? | he burned | ????? | yellow paint | ?????? | yellow | ??´??? | earth (acc. sg.) | ???????? | black earth | ??????´?????? | to pierce with holes | ?????? | sieves | ???´???? | he/she/it riviets | ???????? | riveted | ????´???? | wheel-wright | ?????? | wheels | ????´????? | boiler-room | ????? | boiler | ??´???? | refrigerator | ??? | ice | ???? | to lie down | ??? | he lay down | ????´???? | he/she/it will twist | ??????????? | to twist | ??´?? | stump | ??????? | dear, little stump | ????´???? | front (adj) | ????? | front (noun) | ???????´?????? | to cross | ??????????? | cross-road | ??´??? | feathers | ??????? | dear, little feather | ??´?????? | colored cotton cloth | ??????? | variegated | ??´?? | Pete | ???? | Peter | ??´?? | to bake | ??? | he baked | ???´?? | lash | ?????? | lash | ????´??? | brooms | ??? | he swept | ??????´?? | to foretell | ??????? | he foretold | ????????´?? | to neglect | ????????? | he neglected | ??????´??????? | to bore, drill | ?????? | borers, drills | ?????´??? | to read | ?????? | he read | ???´????? | apiary | ????? | bees | ????´?? | strap | ???????? | made of straps | ????´??????? | artisan | ??????? | trades | ????´???? | horn-player | ????´? | horn | ???????? | rural | ???? | villages | ???? | seven | ???-??? | with six others | ??´????? | sister's | ?????? | sisters | ?????? | death | ??????? | dead | ?????´??? | constellation | ?????? | stars | ????´??? | gossip | ??????? | gossip | ?????´?? | to guard | ?????? | he guarded | ???´??? | firm foundation | ??????? | hard, firm | ??´???? | darkness | ?????? | dark | ??´???? | to light | ?????? | warm | ??´???? | thorns | ???? | blackthorn | ????´???? | heath hen | ??????? | heath hen | ??´?? | to flow | ??? | it flowed | ???´???? | wears out | ???????? | worn out | ????´?? | heavier | ??????? | heavy | ??´?? | Ted | ????? | Theodore | ??´??? | niello | ?????? | black | ??´??? | devils | ???? | devil | ??´??? | honor | ????? | honor | ?????? | hair | ??????? | hair (diminutive) | ????? | six | ???-??´?? | with five others | ???? | chink | ????? | chink |
Loanwords from Church Slavonic reintroduced between a soft consonant and a hard one, including:
- ??? (from OCS ) vs ??? ('ice')
- ??? vs ??? ('lion')
- ???? vs ???? ('sky')
- ?????´? vs. ?????? ('spine')
A number of Russian's phonological features are attributable to the introduction of loanwords (especially from non-Slavic languages), including:
- Sequences of two vowels within a morpheme.
- ???? ('poet'). From French poète.
- ????? ('mourning').
- Most instances of of word-initial .
- Word-initial .
- ????? ('avenue').
- ????? ('swindle').
- The phoneme (see Ef (Cyrillic) for more information).
- ?????? ('phoneme'). From Greek f???µa.
- ???? ('ether'). From Greek ?????.
- ?????? ('fiasco'). From Italian fiasco.
- The occurrence of non-palatalized consonants before .
- The sequence within a morpheme.
- ???? ('gin') from English.
- ???? ('jazz) from English.
Many double consonants have become degeminated, though they are still written with two letters in the orthography.
See also
Bibliography
Further reading
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