All speech sounds are divided into vowels and consonants. In turn, consonants can be divided into hard and soft. This is one of the main characteristics of a consonant sound.
Most schoolchildren have no doubt whether a sound is soft or hard. Usually we distinguish them simply by ear. Indeed, these sounds are heard differently than solid ones. When pronouncing them, the tongue moves slightly forward towards the teeth and are localized in the area of the hard palate. That is why after soft consonants, vowels are most often pronounced, which are also formed in front, next to the teeth.
Solid and soft sounds often form pairs. For example, the hard sound [B] corresponds to the soft [B’]. In transcription, softness is indicated by an apostrophe.
We see that in the Russian language there are several unpaired hard sounds and several unpaired soft sounds.
Hard and soft paired consonants can perform a meaningful function. For example, MAL and MYAL, CHALK and MEL. There are many linguistic mysteries based on this.
As a rule, soft consonant sounds in writing can be indicated in different ways.
With a soft sign. However, we must remember that the soft sign only indicates the softness of the paired consonant. If we have a hissing one in front of us, its softness cannot be identified. soft sign. Hissing ones are either always hard (in which case they cannot be softened) or always soft (in which case a soft sign is unnecessary in this situation). After sibilants, the soft sign performs a grammatical function, that is, with its help, nouns of the 2nd and 3rd declension are distinguished.
Studying the Russian language already in the 2nd grade, children learn about the dual role of the letters E, E, Yu, Ya. If these letters stand in the field of a paired consonant, they are read E, O, U, A and at the same time indicate the softness of the previous consonant: [L'E ], [L'O], [L'U], [L'A].
Similar to the first case, after sibilants E, Yo, Yu, Ya cannot indicate the softness of the previous consonant, therefore spelling E and Yo after sibilants is difficult and is also learned as a rule and also performs the grammatical function of distinguishing parts of speech. For example, the word “arson” is a noun, and the word “arson” is a verb.
Some soft consonant sounds and combinations are not friendly with a soft sign.
This is an unpaired soft sound [Y’]. A soft sign is never placed in its field.
In the combinations CHK, CHN-NCH, CHV, CHT, SHCHN-NSCH, RSHch, a soft sign is not needed.
It is also not required in combinations ST, CH, ZD, ZN and some others, in which S or Z are softened when pronounced before a soft consonant: verses [S’T’], difference [Z’N’], etc.
After a sibilant, a soft sign usually performs a grammatical function, but can also be dividing: “sews”, “whose”, etc.
Consonants in in different words sound different. Somewhere it’s hard, and somewhere it’s soft. In this lesson we will learn to distinguish between soft and hard consonant sounds and to indicate the softness of consonant sounds in writing with the letters I, E, E, Yu, I and b. Let's find out which consonants form hard-soft pairs, and which are only hard or only soft.
If you ask what can be soft, probably everyone will immediately say: bread, sofa, scarf, pillow. But stone, ice, wood are hard. Yes, but it turns out that the sounds of Russian speech, consonants, can be hard and soft.
Say the words several times in turn: CAT - WHALE.
Compare the first consonants. When pronouncing the sound in the word KIT, the middle part of the tongue rises to the palate, the passage through which air flows narrows, and a sound is obtained, which scientists conventionally call soft. And the opposite sound was called - solid.
It is important to listen to the sounds of spoken words. If you say the word NOS otherwise - with solid first sound, we get a completely different word - NOSE.
Let's listen and watch the movement of our tongue:
row - sound [p’] - rad - sound [p]
hatch - sound [l’] - bow - sound [l]
crumpled - sound [m’] - small - sound [m]
Sounds can be written (conventionally) using icons. Musical sounds are written in notes, and speech sounds are written in letters, but in special square brackets - in transcription. In order not to confuse hard and soft sounds when reading the transcription, scientists agreed to show the softness of the sound with an icon very similar to a comma, only they put it on top.
Most consonant sounds form pairs based on softness and hardness:
[b] | [b’] |
[V] | [V'] |
[G] | [G'] |
[d] | [d’] |
[h] | [z’] |
[To] | [To'] |
[l] | [l’] |
[m] | [m’] |
[n] | [n’] |
[P] | [P'] |
[R] | [R'] |
[With] | [With'] |
[T] | [T'] |
[f] | [f’] |
[X] | [X'] |
Some consonants are only hard or only soft. They do not form pairs in terms of hardness/softness:
— Only hard consonants: [zh], [w], [ts];
— Only soft consonants: [th’], [h’], [w’].
In writing, the hardness of consonant sounds is indicated by the vowels A, O, U, Y, E, and the softness of consonant sounds is indicated by the vowels E, Yo, I, Yu, Ya.
There are words with soft consonant sounds at the end of words or in the middle of words before other consonant sounds. Listen to the words: salt, horse, notebook, coat, ring, letter. Then a soft sign will come to the rescue. Even his name suggests - a sign soft, for soft consonants.
How to act when writing words:
- I hear a hard consonant sound - I write after it in place of the vowel sound the letters: A, O, U, Y, E.
- I hear a soft consonant sound before a vowel sound - I denote its softness with vowels: E, Yo, I, Yu, Ya.
- I hear a soft sound at the end of a word or before a consonant sound - I show softness b.
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Letter "y": hard or soft? This question is very often asked by students who need to parse a word according to all the rules of phonetics. You will get the answer to this a little further.
Before we talk about what kind of letter “th” is (soft or hard), you should find out why the letters of the Russian alphabet are generally divided according to such criteria.
The fact is that each word has its own sound shell, which consists of individual sounds. It should be noted that the sound of a particular expression is completely correlated with its meaning. At the same time, different words and their forms have completely different sound design. Moreover, the sounds themselves have no meaning. However, they play a vital role in the Russian language. After all, thanks to them we can easily distinguish words. Here's an example:
Why do we need information about what type of letter “th” is (hard or soft)? When pronouncing a word, it is very important to correctly display the transcription that describes its sound. In such a system it is customary to use the following symbols:
This designation is called They must be used to indicate transcription.
[´] is the accent. It is placed if the word has more than one syllable.
[b’] - a kind of comma is placed next to the consonant letter and denotes its softness.
By the way, during phonetic analysis of words the following symbol is often used - [j]. As a rule, it denotes the sound of the letter “th” (sometimes a symbol such as [th] is used).
As you know, in the Russian language all sounds are divided into consonants and vowels. They are perceived and pronounced completely differently.
In addition to the above consonants, the Russian language also has the following: [m], [y], [v], [f], [g], [l], [r], [ch], [ts], [x] . As you can see, there are many more of them than vowels.
By the way, many consonant sounds form pairs of deafness and voicedness: [k] - [g], [b] - [p], [z] - [c], [d] - [t], [f] - [v], etc. In total, there are 11 such pairs in the Russian language. However, there are sounds that do not have pairs on this basis. These include: [y], [p], [n], [l], [m] are unpaired voiced ones, and [ch] and [ts] are unpaired voiceless ones.
As you know, consonant letters differ not only in sonority or, conversely, deafness, but also in softness and hardness. This property is the second most important feature of sounds.
So, is the letter “th” hard or soft? To answer this question, you should consider each sign separately:
It should be especially noted that many consonant letters form pairs with each other based on characteristics such as softness and hardness: [d] - [d’], [p] - [p’], etc. There are 15 such pairs in total. However, there are also sounds that do not have pairs on this basis. Which letters of hard consonant sounds are unpaired? These include the following - [w], [f] and [c]. As for the unpaired soft ones, these are [sch’], [h’] and [th’].
Now you know the information about whether the letter “th” is hard or soft. But here it arises new question: “How is the softness of such sounds indicated in writing?” Completely different methods are used for this:
As you can see, the softness of consonant sounds in writing is conveyed not by individual letters, but by their combinations with the vowels “e”, “yu”, “e”, “ya”, as well as a soft sign. That is why experts recommend paying attention to adjacent symbols.
As for the vowel letter “th”, it is always soft. In this regard, in transcription it is usually denoted as follows: [th’]. That is, the comma symbol, indicating the softness of the sound, must always be inserted. [ш'], [ч'] also obey the same rule.
As you can see, there is nothing difficult about doing any word correctly. To do this, you just need to know what vowels and consonants are, unvoiced and voiced, as well as soft and hard. For a better understanding of how transcription should be formatted, we will provide several detailed examples.
1. The word "hero". Consists of two syllables, with the 2nd being stressed. Let's do the analysis:
g - [g’] - voiced, consonant and soft.
e - [i] is an unstressed vowel.
p - [p] - voiced, consonant, unpaired and hard.
o - [o] - stressed vowel.
th - [th’] - voiced, consonant, unpaired and soft.
Total: 5 letters and 5 sounds.
2. The word "trees". Consists of three syllables, with the 2nd being stressed. Let's do the analysis:
d - [d’] - voiced, consonant and soft.
e - [i] is an unstressed vowel.
p - [p’] - voiced, consonant, unpaired and soft.
e - [e´] - stressed vowel.
in - [v’] - voiced, consonant and soft
e - [th’] - voiced, consonant, unpaired and soft and [e] - vowel, unstressed;
v - [f] - dull and hard.
Total: 8 letters and 8 sounds.
The Russian language has 21 consonants and 36 consonant sounds. Consonant letters and their corresponding consonant sounds:
b - [b], c - [c], g - [g], d - [d], g - [g], j - [th], z - [z], k - [k], l - [l], m - [m], n - [n], p - [p], p - [p], s - [s], t - [t], f - [f], x - [x ], c - [c], ch - [ch], sh - [sh], shch - [sch].
Consonant sounds are divided into voiced and voiceless, hard and soft. They are paired and unpaired. There are a total of 36 different combinations of consonants by pairing and unpairing, hard and soft, voiceless and voiced: voiceless - 16 (8 soft and 8 hard), voiced - 20 (10 soft and 10 hard).
Scheme 1. Consonants and consonant sounds of the Russian language.
Consonants are hard and soft. They are divided into paired and unpaired. Paired hard and paired soft consonants help us distinguish between words. Compare: horse [kon’] - kon [kon], bow [bow] - hatch [l’uk].
For understanding, let’s explain it “on the fingers”. If a consonant letter in different words means either a soft or hard sound, then the sound belongs to the pair. For example, in the word cat the letter k denotes a hard sound [k], in the word whale the letter k denotes a soft sound [k’]. We get: [k] - [k’] form a pair according to hardness and softness. Sounds for different consonants cannot be classified as a pair, for example [v] and [k’] do not form a pair in terms of hardness-softness, but they do form a pair [v]-[v’]. If a consonant sound is always hard or always soft, then it belongs to unpaired consonants. For example, the sound [zh] is always hard. There are no words in the Russian language where it would be soft [zh’]. Since there is no pair [zh]-[zh’], it is classified as unpaired.
Consonant sounds are voiced and unvoiced. Thanks to voiced and voiceless consonants, we distinguish words. Compare: ball - heat, count - goal, house - volume. Voiceless consonants are pronounced with the mouth almost closed; when pronouncing them, the vocal cords do not work. Voiced consonants require more air, the vocal cords work.
Some consonant sounds have a similar sound in the way they are pronounced, but are pronounced with different tonality - dull or voiced. Such sounds are combined in pairs and form a group of paired consonants. Accordingly, paired consonants are a pair of a voiceless and a voiced consonant.
Sonorants are voiced unpaired consonant sounds. There are 9 sonorant sounds: [y’], [l], [l’], [m], [m’], [n], [n’], [r], [r’].
Noisy consonant sounds are voiced and unvoiced:
Hissing consonant sounds (4): [zh], [ch’], [sh], [sch’].
Consonant sounds (soft and hard, voiceless and voiced) are divided into paired and unpaired. The tables above show the division. Let's summarize everything with a diagram:
Scheme 2. Paired and unpaired consonant sounds. To be able to do phonetic analysis, in addition to consonant sounds, you need to know
The speech of a person, especially a native speaker, must not only be correct, but also beautiful, emotional, and expressive. Voice, diction, and consistent spelling standards are important here.
The ability to correctly pronounce sounds consists of practical exercises (voice training: volume, timbre, flexibility, diction, etc.) and knowledge of in what cases a particular pronunciation of a sound is appropriate (orthoepic norms).
Before talking about the letters that represent soft consonant phonemes, you should remember the basic phonetic concepts and terms.
Let's start with the fact that there are no soft consonants in Russian words. Since sound is what we hear and pronounce, it is elusive, it is an indivisible part of speech, which is obtained as a result of human articulation. A letter is only a graphic symbol denoting a particular sound. We see them and write them.
There is no complete correspondence between them. The number of letters and sounds in one word may not match. The Russian alphabet consists of thirty-three letters, and speech has forty-seven sounds.
Accurate in the word through letters - transcription. The letters in this case are written in square brackets. At phonetic analysis each sound must be written with a separate letter, put an emphasis and indicate softness, if necessary ["], for example, milk - [malako], mole - [mol"] - in in this case the letter l with an apostrophe indicates a soft sound [l"].
When a stream of air flies out of the throat without encountering obstacles on its way, it turns out (singing). There are six of them in the Russian language. They are shock and unstressed.
If the air leaving the larynx does not pass freely, then a consonant sound is obtained. They are formed from noise or noise and voice. There are thirty-seven consonant phonemes in our Russian language.
Also, according to pronunciation, there are soft consonants (the letters that represent them are written with an apostrophe) and hard sounds. They differ in pronunciation - when speaking a soft consonant, a person raises the middle back of the tongue high to the palate.
So, letters are the designations of sounds in writing. The science that studies them is graphics. The alphabet is graphic images sounds of the language, arranged in a certain order. The ten letters of the Russian alphabet are vowel letters that represent vowel sounds. It also includes twenty-one consonants and two letters that do not represent sounds at all. Each letter in the alphabet has its own unique name. Modern alphabet was created in 1918 and officially approved in 1942. Now these graphic signs are used in more than fifty different languages peace.
In the Russian language, the composition of speech sounds and letters differs due to the specifics of the letter - the letters of soft consonant sounds and hard ones are identical - ate [y "el", el [y "el"]; and six vowels are indicated in writing by ten letters. This is how it turns out that there are fourteen more sounds in speech than letters in the alphabet.
Consonant phonemes form pairs: voiced - voiceless, soft - hard. But there are those that will always sound firm - these are w, sh, ts. Even in the words parachute, brochure and cognates w will remain solid. In some foreign words, they are pronounced differently.
There is also a trio of sounds that are always soft, consonant letters denoting them - h, sch, th. There are no exceptions to these rules in Russian.
Consonants are mostly paired, that is, each hard sound corresponds to its softer pronunciation. The letters denoting soft ones will be identical. In the transcription, the sign ["] will be added to them.
How to determine where soft consonants will appear? Letters do not immediately form words; they first form syllables. The softness or hardness of the pronunciation of a consonant depends on what the sound is coming behind him in a syllable.
A syllable is a sound or several sounds that are pronounced in one breath, with one push of air.
Vowels are syllable-forming sounds, consonants are adjacent to them - the syllable is obtained: mo-lo-ko, let-ta-yu-sha-ya fish. The number of syllables in a word is equal to the number of vowels in it.
Open syllables end with vowel sounds: picture - car- Tina, lawful - right-dimensional.
If a syllable ends with a consonant, it is a closed syllable: car-ti-na, legitimate - right-in measured.
In the middle of a word there are often open syllables, and the consonants adjacent to them are transferred to the next syllable: po-ddat, di-ktor. The sounds that can close a syllable within a word are voiced, unpaired, hard consonants and soft. Letters for writing them - y, r, l, m, n. For example: kitty - ki-sony-ka.
There are divisions of words into syllables and parts for transfer, as well as into morphemes. This is the syllabic, or syllabic, principle of graphics. It also applies to consonants.
It manifests itself in relation to consonants in that it determines the unit of reading and writing:
So, in order to understand whether the sound defined in a word is soft or hard, you need to pay attention to what comes after it in the syllable.
If any consonant follows the one we are interested in, then the sound being identified is hard. For example: chatter - chatter, T- solid.
If the next one is a vowel, then you need to remember that before a, o, u, e, s stand For example: mother, fetters, vine.
And, e, yu, I, e- letters denoting a soft consonant sound. For example, a song is a song, p, n- soft, while With- solid.
In order to speak well and correctly read soft consonants and sounds, you need to develop your understanding and discrimination of speech sounds. A well-developed ability to clearly identify what sounds are in a word, even if you hear it for the first time, will allow you to better remember and understand the speech of others. And the main thing is to speak more beautifully and correctly yourself.
The syllabic principle is convenient because it allows you to reduce the number of letters in the alphabet. After all, in order to designate soft and hard consonant phonemes, it would be necessary to invent, create, and users would have to learn fifteen new graphic elements. This is exactly what is contained in our speech. In practice, it turned out to be enough to determine the vowels indicating which letters have soft consonants.
The softness of sound is indicated by ["] only when writing a transcription - sound analysis of a word.
When reading or writing, there are two ways to represent soft consonants.
Even when applying the syllabic principle, problems arise with e before a consonant, they are so deep that they turn into orthoepy. Some scientists believe that a necessary condition euphony is a ban on writing e after hard consonants, because this grapheme defines soft consonants and interferes correct pronunciation solid. There is a suggestion to replace e to single digit uh. Before the introduction, unified spelling of syllables e-e in 1956, paired spelling of such words (adequate - adequate) was actively and legally practiced. But unification did not solve the main problem. Replacing e with uh after hard consonants, obviously, it won’t either ideal solution, new words appear more and more often in the Russian language, and in what case to write one or another letter remains controversial.
Let's return to where we started - our speech - it is determined by orthoepy. On the one hand, these are developed norms for correct pronunciation, and on the other, this is a science that studies, justifies and establishes these norms.
Orthoepy serves the Russian language, blurring the lines between adverbs to make it easier for people to understand each other. So that, when communicating with each other, representatives different regions they thought about what they were saying, and not about how this or that word sounded from the interlocutor.
The foundation of the Russian language and, therefore, pronunciation is the Moscow dialect. It was in the capital of Russia that science began to develop, including orthoepy, so the norms require us to speak - to pronounce sounds like Muscovites.
Orthoepy gives one The right way pronunciations, rejecting all others, but at the same time sometimes allowing options that are considered correct.
Despite clear, understandable and simple rules, orthoepy notes many features, nuances and exceptions in how letters are pronounced, denoting a soft consonant sound and a hard one...
Which letters have soft consonants? Ch, sch, th- Under no circumstances should you pronounce hard sounds instead of soft sounds. But this rule is violated, falling under the influence of the Belarusian language and even Russian dialects and reprimands. Remember how in this Slavic group the word sounds more, For example.
L- this is a paired consonant sound, respectively, standing immediately before the consonant or at the end of the word it should sound firm. Before oh, a, y, uh, s too (tent, corner, skier), but in some words that came to us more often from foreign languages, whose speakers live mainly in Europe, and which are proper names, l pronounced almost softly (La Scala, La Rochelle, La Fleur).
The last consonants in the prefix before the hard sign, even if followed by letters denoting a soft consonant sound, are pronounced firmly (entrance, announcement). But for consonants With And h this rule does not have full force. Sounds With And h in this case they can be pronounced in two ways (congress - [s"]ezd - [s]ezd).
The rules of orthoepy state that the final consonant in a word cannot be softened, even if it merges with the next word starting with e (in this, to the equator, with emu). If such a consonant is softened in speech, this indicates that the person communicates through a colloquial style.
"b" also belongs to the list of "soft consonant letters" and the sounds before it should be pronounced softly, even the sounds m, b, p, c, f in words such as seven, eight, ice hole, shipyard, etc. Pronounce soft sounds firmly in front of " b" is unacceptable. Only in the words eight hundred and seven hundred m may not have a soft, but a hard sound.
Which letters represent soft consonants, you need to remember clearly - e, yu, yo, i, and.
So, in many foreign words before e the consonant sound is not softened. This often happens with labial m, f, c, b, p. P- Chopin, coupe; b- Bernard Show; V- Solveig; f- auto-da-fe; m- reputation, consommé.
Much more often than these consonants, firmly before e dental consonants sound r, n, z, s, d, t. R- Reichswehr, Roerich; n- pince-nez, tour; h- chimpanzee, Bizet; With- highway, Musset; d- dumping, masterpiece; T- pantheon, aesthetics.
Thus, the letters of soft consonants have a fairly definite composition, but fall under a number of exceptions.
