Russian phonology

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Main article: Russian language

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 [ˈtvʲo.rdɨj]) and soft (мягкий [ˈmʲæ.xʲkʲɪj]) or plain and palatalized.

Contents 1 Vowels 1.1 Front vowels 1.2 Back vowels 1.3 Vowel reduction 1.4 Diphthongs 2 Consonants 3 Phonological processes 3.1 Voicing 3.2 Palatalization 3.3 Consonant Clusters 3.4 Supplementary notes 4 Historical sound changes 5 See also 6 References 7 Bibliography 8 Further reading

[edit] Vowels

Russian possesses five vowel phonemes which are subject to considerable allophony. A number of linguists^[1] consider [ɨ] to be a separate phoneme but the interpretation 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 palatalization of neighboring consonants:

[edit] Front vowels

When a preceding consonant is hard, /i/ is retracted to [ɨ]. While this is phonetically central, for phonological purposes it is considered back. When unstressed, /i/ becomes near-close; that is, [ɨ̞] following a hard consonant and [ɪ] in most other environments. Between soft consonants, both stressed and unstressed /i/ are raised,^[2] as in пить [pʲi̝tʲ] ('to drink') and маленький [ˈmalʲɪ̝nʲkʲɪj] ('small'). When preceded and followed by coronal or dorsal consonants, [ɨ] is fronted to [ɨ̟].^[3] After a labial + /l/ cluster, [ɨ] is retracted, as in плыть [plɨ̠tʲ] ('to float'); it is also slightly diphthongized to [ɯ̟ɨ̟].^[4]

In native words, /e/ only follows unpaired (i.e. the retroflexes and /t͡s/) 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).^[5] Preceding hard consonants retract /e/ to [ɛ̠] and [e̠]^[6] so that жест ('gesture') and цель ('target') are pronounced [ʐɛ̠st] and [t͡se̠lʲ] 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.^[7] For instance, шофёр (from French chauffeur) was pronounced [ʂoˈfɛr] in the early twentieth century but is now pronounced [ʂɐˈfʲor].^{[citation needed]} On the other hand, the pronunciations of words such as отель [ɐˈtɛlʲ] ('hotel') retain the hard consonants despite a long presence in the language.

[edit] Back vowels

Between soft consonants, /a/ becomes [æ]^[8] as in пять [pʲætʲ] ('five'). When not following a palatalized consonant, /a/ is retracted to [ɑ̟] before /l/ as in палка [ˈpɑ̟lkə] ('stick').^[9]

For most speakers, /o/ is a mid vowel but it can be more open for some speakers.^[10] Between palatalized consonants^[11] or simply following a one,^[12] /o/ is centralized to [ɵ̞] as in тётя [ˈtʲɵ.tʲə] ('aunt').

As with the other back vowels, /u/ is centralized between palatalized consonants,^[13] as in чуть [t͡ɕʉtʲ] ('narrowly'). When unstressed, /u/ becomes near-close.

[edit] Vowel reduction

Main article: Vowel reduction in Russian

Unstressed vowels tend to merge together. /o/ and /a/ generally have the same unstressed allophones and unstressed /e/ becomes /i/ (picking up its unstressed allophones).^[14] Russian orthography (as opposed to that of linguistically similar Belarusian) does not reflect vowel reduction.

The realization of unstressed /o/ and /a/ goes as follows:

• After hard consonants, both reduce to [ə] or [ɐ];^[15] [ɐ] appears in the syllable immediately before the stress^[16] and in and absolute word-initial position.^[17] Examples: паром [pɐˈrom] ('ferry'), облако [ˈobləkə] ('cloud'), трава [trɐˈva] ('grass').
  • When <аа>, <ао>, <оа>, or <оо> is written in a word, it indicates [ɐ.ɐ] so that соображать ('to consider'), is pronounced [sɐ.ɐ.brɐˈʐatʲ].^[18]
• Both /o/ and /a/ merge with /i/ after palatalized consonants and /j/ (/o/ is written as <е> in these positions). This occurs for /o/ after retroflex consonants as well.^[19] Examples: жена [ʐɨ̞ˈna] ('wife'), язык [jɪˈzɨk] ('tongue').
• These processes occur even across word boundaries as in под морем [pɐˈd‿morʲɪm] ('under the sea').

Across certain word-final suffixes, the reductions do not completely apply.^[20] In certain suffixes, after palatalized consonants and /j/, /a/ and /o/ (which is written as <е>) can be distinguished from /i/ and from each other: по́ле ('field' nom. sg. neut,)' is different from по́ля ('field' sg.gen), and these final sounds differ from the realization of /i/ in such position.^{[citation needed]}

There are a number of exceptions to the above comments on unstressed /о/ and /a/.

• Firstly, /o/ is not always reduced in foreign borrowings,^[21] eg радио, [ˈra.dʲɪ.o] ('radio').
• Secondly, some speakers pronounce /a/ as [ɨ] after retroflex consonants (/ʐ/ and /ʂ/. This pronunciation generally only applies to жалеть [ʐɨˈlʲetʲ] ('to regret'), к сожалению [ksə.ʐɨˈlʲe.nʲɪ.ju] ('unfortunately'), and oblique cases of лошадь ('horse'), such as лошадей, [lə.ʂɨˈdʲej].
• Thirdly, /i/ replaces /a/ after /t͡s/ in the oblique cases of some numerals, eg. двадцати, [dvə.t͡sɨˈtʲi] ('twenty').

In addition to this, the unstressed high vowels /i/ and /u/ become lax (or near-close) as in ютиться [jʉ̞ˈtʲit͡sə]^[22] ('to huddle'), этап [ɪˈtap] ('stage'), дышать [dɨ̞ˈʂatʲ] ('to breathe'), and мужчина [mʊˈɕɕinə] ('man').

In weakly stressed positions, vowels may become voiceless between two voiceless consonants: выставка [ˈvɨstə̥fkə] ('exhibition'), потому что [pə̥tɐˈmu ʂtə] ('because'). This may also happen in cases where only the following consonant is voiceless: череп [t͡ɕerʲɪ̥p] ('skull').

[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 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: яйцо [jɪjˈt͡so] ('egg'), ей [jej] ('her' instr), действенный [ˈdʲejstvʲɛnnɨj] ('effective'). /ij/ (written <ий> or <ый>) is a common adjectival affix where it is often unstressed; at normal conversational speed, such unstressed endings may be monophthongized to [ɪ̟].^[23]

[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			/t͡s/
	soft				/t͡ɕ/
Fricative	hard		/f/   /v/	/s/   /z/	/ʂ/   /ʐ/		/x/
	soft		/fʲ/   /vʲ/	/sʲ/   /zʲ/	/ɕɕ/**   /ʑʑ/**		[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 /t͡s/, /ʂ/, and /ʐ/; and consonants that are always soft /t͡ɕ/, /ɕɕ/, /ʑʑ/, 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.^[24] For more, see retroflex consonant.
• ^ ^  /ɕɕ/ and /ʑʑ/ are also marginal phonemes. Some speakers have /ɕt͡ɕ/ instead of /ɕɕ/, which is likely to be two underlying phonemes: |ʂt͡ɕ|. The status of /ʑʑ/ as a phoneme is also marginal^[25] since it may derive from an underlying |zʐ| or |sʐ| and its use is becoming more archaic compared to a geminated hard [ʐʐ] (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 [t̻ʲ^sʲ] [d̻ʲ^zʲ] [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 dental (or dento-alveolar) while /t͡s/ is alveolar and apical.
• Plain /r/ is postalveolar: [r̠].^[26]

[edit] Phonological processes

Voiced consonants (/b/, /bʲ/, /d/, /dʲ/ /g/, /v/, /vʲ/, /z/, /zʲ/, /ʐ/, and /ʑʑ/) are devoiced word-finally unless the next word begins with a voiced obstruent.^[27] /g/, in addition becoming voiceless, also lenites to [x].

Russian features a general retrograde assimilation of voicing and palatalization.^[28]

[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:^[29] просьба [ˈprozʲbə] ('request'), водка [ˈvo.tkə] ('vodka'). In foreign borrowings, this isn't always the case for |f|, as in Адольф Гитлер [ɐˈdolʲfˈgʲitlʲɪr] ('Adolf Hitler').

/t͡s/, /t͡ɕ/, and /x/ have voiced allophones before voiced obstruents,^[30] as in плацдарм [plɐd͡zˈdarm] ('bridge-head').

Other than /mʲ/ and /nʲ/, nasals and liquids devoice between voiceless consonants or a voiceless consonant and a pause: контрфорс [ˌkontr̥ˈfors] ('buttress').^[31]

[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. Paired consonants preceding /e/ are also palatalized; although there are exceptions from loanwords, alternations across morpheme boundaries are the norm:^[32]

• дом [dom] ('house' nominative)
• доме [ˈdomʲɪ] ('house' prepositional)

Because velar consonants are unpaired, palatalization contrasts do not exist, especially before front vowels. Allophonically, they become palatalized as in короткий [kɐˈrotkʲɪj] ('short') unless there is a word boundary, in which case they are plain (e.g. к Ивану [k ‿ɨvanu] 'to Ivan').^[33]

Before plain dental consonants, /r/, /rʲ/, labial and dental consonants are plain: орла [ɐrˈla] ('eagle' gen. sg).

Before palatalized labial and dental consonants or /lʲ/, dental consonants (other than /t͡s/) are palatalized.^[34]

Velar consonants are palatalized when preceding /i/; within words, this means that velar consonants are never followed by [ɨ].^[35]

/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 [bɐmˈbʲitʲ] or [bɐmʲˈbʲitʲ] 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 [ˈɕɕasʲtʲju] ('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 /n/ and /nʲ/ appear before retroflex consonants: деньжонки [dʲɪnʲˈʐonkʲɪ] ('money' (scornful)) and ханжой [xɐnˈʐoj] ('hypocrite' instr.). In the same context, other coronal consonants are always plain. The velar nasal is an allophone before velar consonants in some words (функция [ˈfuŋk.t͡sɨjə] 'function'), but not in most other words like банк [bank] ('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]	(tree) trunk
LCL	верблюд	[vʲɪrˈblʲut]	camel
LCC	толстый	[ˈtolstɨj]	thick

For speakers who pronounce [ɕt͡ɕ] instead of [ɕɕ], 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	[sʲlʲɪˈpoj]	blind
LL	горло	[ˈgorlə]	throat
CJ	дьяк	[dʲjak]	dyak
LJ	рьяный	[ˈrʲjanɨj]	zealous

If /j/ is considered a consonant in the coda position, then words like айва ('quince') contain semivowel+consonant clusters.

Clusters of four consonants are possible, but not very common, especially within a morpheme^[36]. Some potential clusters are deleted as well. 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 [ˈa.ɪst] ('stork') and делает [ˈdʲɛləɪt] ('does') but заезжать [zəjɪˈʑʑætʲ] ('to pick up').

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 [dɐˈma] ('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.

Non-open back vowels velarize preceding hard consonants: ты [tˠɨ] ('you' sing.). /o/ and /u/ labialize all consonants: бок [bʷok] ('side'), нёс [nʲʷos] ('he carried'). ^[37]

[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:

• PIE: *’soⁿti
• Lat: sunt
• ComSl: *[sо̃tĭ]
• OCS: сѫть
• Russian: суть [sutʲ] ('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 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.lnɐˈgla.sʲɪ.jə]), 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.rɐˈbʲej] ('sparrow')

• Uk: Володимир /voloˈdɪmɪr/
• Russian: Владимир [vlɐˈdʲi.mʲɪr] ('Vladimir') (although the nickname form in Russian is still Володя [vɐˈlodʲə]).

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 mĭˈně/ > R: обо мне [ə.bɐ 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 /kŭˈdě/ > 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.rt͡sə] ('heart'), not *[ˈsʲɛ.rdt͡sə]
• солнце [ˈso.nt͡sə] ('sun'), not *[ˈso.lnt͡sə].

The development of OR ѣ /ě/ (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 /ě/ into /e/ or /je/ has also been debated.

The development of stressed /e/ into /o/ when between a palatalized consonant and a plain one:^[38]

• OR о чемъ /о ˈʧe.mŭ/ ('about which' loc. sg.) > R о чём [ɐ ˈt͡ɕom].

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, /t͡s/ 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 /ɕt͡ɕ/ 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. However, enough foreign borrowings containing /f/ have entered the language so as to minimize this problem. (See also: Ef (Cyrillic))

[edit] See also

• Russian alphabet, Russian alphabet: audio (help·info)
• Russian orthography
  • Reforms of Russian orthography
• List of Russian language topics
• List of phonetics topics

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Crosswhite, Katherine Margaret (2000), "Vowel Reduction in Russian: A Unified Accountof Standard, Dialectal, and 'Dissimilative' Patterns", University of Rochester Working Papers in the Language Sciences 1 (1): 107-172
• Jones, Daniel & Ward Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
• Halle, Morris (1959), Sound Pattern of Russian, MIT Press
• Hamann, Silke (2004), "Retroflex fricatives in Slavic languages", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 53-67
• Ladefoged, Peter & Ian Maddieson (1996), The Sounds of the World's Languages, Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 0-631-19815-6
• Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 21 (1): 39-87
• Padgett, Jaye & Marija Tabain (2005), "Adaptive Dispersion Theory and Phonological Vowel Reduction in Russian", Phonetica 62 (1): 14-54
• Rubach, Jerzy (2000), "Backness Switch in Russian", Phonology 17: 39-64
• Skalozub, Larisa (1963), Palatogrammy i Rentgenogrammy Soglasnyx Fonem Russkogo Literaturnogo Jazyka, Izdatelstvo Kievskogo Universiteta

[edit] Further reading

• Hamilton, William S. (1980). Introduction to Russian Phonology and Word Structure. Slavica Publishers. 
• Hamann, Silke (2002), "Postalveolar Fricatives in Slavic Languages as Retroflexes", written at Utrecht, in Baauw, S.; M. Huiskes & M. Schoorlemmer, OTS Yearbook 2002, Utrecht Institute of Linguistics, 105-127
• Sussex, Roland (1992), "Russian", written at New York, in W. Bright, International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (1 ed.), Oxford University Press

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