What is a consonant sound. Do students need phonetics? §7. The designation of the softness of consonants in writing

What is sound? This is the minimum component of human speech. Shown in letters. In writing, sounds differ from letters by the presence of first square brackets used in phonetic transcription. The letter is o, the sound is [o]. Transcription shows differences in spelling and pronunciation. Apostrophe [ ‘ ] indicates softness of pronunciation.

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The sounds are divided into:

• Vowels. They can be easily pulled. When they are created, the language does not accept active participation fixed in one position. The sound is created due to changes in the position of the tongue, lips, various vibrations of the vocal cords and the force of the air supply. vowel length - basis of vocal art(singing, "singing smooth").
• The consonants a are pronounced with the participation of the tongue, which, occupying a certain position and shape, creates an obstacle to the movement of air from the lungs. This leads to the appearance of noise in the oral cavity. At the output, they are converted into sound. Also, the lips, which close and open during speech, prevent the free passage of air.

The consonants are divided into:

• deaf and voiced. The deafness and sonority of the sound depends on the operation of the speech apparatus;
• hard and soft. The sound is determined by the position of the letter in the word.

Letters representing consonants

Deaf

Deaf in Russian: [k], [p], [s], [t], [f], [x], [ts], [sh]. The easiest way to remember the phrase, and not a set of letters, “Stepka, do you want a cabbage? Phi!” containing them all.

An example in which all consonants are deaf: rooster, honeycomb, pin.

voiced

When they are formed, the form of the tongue is close to the form that produces deaf, but vibrations are added. Voiced consonants create active vibrations of the ligaments. vibrations deform sound wave , and not a clean stream of air enters the oral cavity, but sound. In the future, it is additionally transformed by the tongue and lips.

To voiced consonants belong: b, c, d, e, g, h, d, l, m, n, p.

When they are pronounced, tension is clearly felt in the larynx. In addition, it is almost impossible to speak them clearly in a whisper.

A word in which all consonants are voiced: Rome, pride, ash, estuary.

Summary table of consonants (voiced and voiced).

It is due to the change in sound that Russian speech is enriched different words close in spelling and pronunciation, but completely different in meaning. For example: house - volume, court - itching, code - year.

Paired consonants

What does parity mean? Two letters that are close in sound, in the pronunciation of which the tongue occupies similar positions, are called paired consonant sounds. The pronunciation of consonants can be conditionally divided into one-stage (lips and tongues are involved in their creation) and two-stage - the ligaments are connected first, then the mouth. Those cases when, when pronouncing, the movements of the mouth coincide, and create pairs.

Summary table of paired consonants, taking into account hardness and softness

In speech, it is common not to pronounce each letter, but to “eat” it. This is not an exception only to Russian speech. This is found in almost all languages ​​of the world and is especially noticeable in English. In Russian, this effect is subject to the rule: paired consonants replace (by ear) each other during speech. For example: love - [l 'u b about f '].

But not everyone has their own pair. There are not similar in pronunciation to any others - this is unpaired consonants. The reproduction technique differs from the pronunciation of other sounds and combines them into groups.

Paired consonants

Unpaired consonants

The first group can be pronounced with softness. The second has no analogues in pronunciation.

Unpaired consonants are divided into:

• sonoras - [th '], [l], [l '], [m], [m '], [n], [n '], [p], [p ']. When they are pronounced, the air current hits the upper sky like a dome;
• hissing - [x], [x '], [c], [h '], [u '].

The Russian language contains letters that are difficult to understand in the context. Are the sounds [h], [th], [c], [n] voiced or deaf? Learn these 4 letters!

Important![h] - deaf! [th] - sonorous! [c] is deaf! [n] - sonorous!

Unpaired consonants

Hard and soft

They are spelled the same but sound different. Voiceless and voiced consonants, with the exception of hissing, can be pronounced hard or soft. For example: [b] was - [b`] beat; [t] current - [t`] current.

When pronouncing hard, the tip of the tongue is pressed against the palate. Soft are formed by pressing to the upper palate of the middle part of the tongue.

In speech, the sound is determined by the letter following the consonant.

Vowels form pairs: a-i, u-u, e-e, s-i, o-e.

Two-vowel vowels (i, ё, u, e) are pronounced in one of two combinations: the sound [th] and a paired vowel from E, O, U, A, or soft sign and a double vowel. For example, the word jung. It is pronounced as [th] [y] [n] [g] [a]. Or the word mint. It is pronounced as: [m '] [a] [t] [a]. The vowels A, O, U, E, S do not have a double sound, therefore do not affect the pronunciation of the leading consonant.

Difference example:

A spoon is a hatch, honey is a sea, a house is a woodpecker.

Phonetic transcription:

[Spoon a] - [L 'u k], [m 'o d] - [m o r 'e], [d o m] - [d' a tel].

Pronunciation rules:

• hard ones are pronounced before A, O, U, E, Y. Abscess, side, beech, bentley, former;
• soft are pronounced before I, Yo, Yu, E, I. Revenge, honey, whale, mashed potatoes, mint;
• hard ones are pronounced if they are followed by another consonant: death. After the consonant [s], there is a consonant [m]. Regardless of whether the M is soft, voiced or hard, C is pronounced firmly;
• solid are pronounced if the letter is the last in the word: class, house;
• consonants before the vowel [e] in borrowed words are pronounced firmly, as before [e]. For example: scarf - [k] [a] [w] [n] [e];
• always soft before b: elk, pulp.
• exceptions to the rules:
  • always solid F, W, C: life, thorns, cyanide;
  • always soft J, Ch, W: white, black, pike.

General rule. Paired voiceless consonants p, f, t, s(and corresponding soft), k, sh at the end of a word and before voiceless consonants can be transmitted respectively by letters P or b , f or in , t or d , With or h , to or G , w or and . The same letters can convey paired voiced consonants b, c, e, h(and corresponding soft), g, w before paired voiced consonants (except in). In order to correctly write a consonant letter in these cases, you need to choose a different form of the same word or another word where in the same significant part of the word (the same root, prefix, suffix) the consonant being checked is before the vowel or before the consonants r, l, m, n, v(and corresponding soft), as well as before j(on the letter - before the separating b and b , see § 27–28). Examples:

Consonants in roots and suffixes:

1) at the end of a word: dub (cf. oak, oak), deepP (stupid, stupid), grab (rob), sypi (pour), butWith (noses), inh (carts),thd (of the year), crot (mole), wifet (married), handin (sleeves), crovy (blood, blood), shtraf (fines, penalty, penal), vymoto (get wet, get wet, wet), blueto (bruises), moG (can, could), smallw (baby, baby),montaand (mounting, mounting), drawzh (tremble, tremble); cf. izmorosz (frost, frost, freeze) and izmorocamping (drizzle, drizzle);

2) before consonants:

a) before the deaf dub ki(cf. oaks, oak), tryaP ka (rag, rag, rag, rag), kuP ca (merchant), aboutin ca (sheep),loin cue (dexterous), handin chik (sleeves), scalef chik (cabinets), neitherh cue (low), miWith ka (bowls), Wacamping ka (Vasya), Kusz ka (Kuzya, Kuzma), kad ka (tub), met cue (marks), toG ti (claw), loto ti (elbow), beG stvo (running, fugitive), loand ka (spoon, spoon), roomw ka (small rooms), wingsw to (wings); cf. togetherand ku (intersperse) and togetherw ku(mix), suP chik (soups) and sub chik (subject);

b) before paired voiced (except in): molobe ba (thresh), swad ba (weddings, wedding; do not check with a word woo), hod ba (walk), aboutcamping ba (ask), resz ba (cut), oxw ba (magic), boand ba (swear), vraand Yes(hostile), and gu (burn, burn), and to give (wait).

Consonants in prefixes (before a voiceless or paired voiced consonant, except in): in walk,in beat(cf. enter, enter), on thed prick (cut, tear), aboutb thrash, ohb fry (cut off, cut off, go around), aboutt talk aboutt call, oht advise (wean), ond throw, byd throw, byd send (bring, send), With do,With cunning(be able to, be able to, fail), Pred carpathian (Cis-Urals).

As you know, speech sounds can be divided into vowels (pronounced only by voice) and consonants (noise is involved in their pronunciation). Many consonants can be paired according to their characteristics, but not all.

Paired and unpaired consonants according to deafness-voicedness

We must immediately make a reservation that there are only four such sounds that are unpaired in all respects. We will talk about them at the end of the article. The majority, on one basis, is included in the pair, but on the other - not. Therefore, it makes no sense to write about the consonant "unpaired" - it is necessary to indicate on what basis.

Consonants differ in voicelessness-voicedness. This means that when pronouncing some of them, more voice is used (sonorous, voiced), while others use more noise (deaf) or even one noise at all (hissing).

Sonorants are very voiced consonants, they have a lot of voices, but little noise.

Two sonorous consonants - [L] and [P] - can even form a syllable under some circumstances, that is, behave like vowels. Surely you have met the erroneous spelling "teator". It is explained precisely by the fact that [P] in this word is syllable-forming. Other examples are the words "Alexander", "meaning".

Unpaired voiced consonants are just sonorants. There are five of them:

Sometimes [Y] is not classified as sonorant, but it still remains voiced unpaired. Let's look at the table.

It shows that, in addition to voiced unpaired, there are also sounds that are unpaired deaf. Most of them are hissing; only the deaf unpaired consonant sound [Ts] does not belong to hissing ones.

In this article, we consider only Russian speech sounds. In other languages, the distribution in pairs may be different. For example, in Tibetan there is a voiceless pair to the voiced [L].

Pairs of hardness-softness

In addition to deafness-voicedness, Russian consonants form pairs according to hardness-softness.

This means that some of them are perceived as softer by ear. Then we usually somehow denote it in writing: for example, we write a soft sign or one of the vowels E, Yo, Yu, Ya.

Oral speech is primary (it is clear to anyone that it appeared before written language), so it is wrong to say: “The sound [H ’] in the word HORSE is soft, because it is followed by b.” On the contrary, we write b because H' is soft.

By hardness-softness, consonants also make up pairs. But in this case, not all. In Russian, there are unpaired soft and unpaired hard consonants.

Unpaired solid consonants are mainly hissing ([Ж], [Ш]) and [Ц]. They always form in the distant palate.

But in the ancestor of our language, Old Slavonic, on the contrary, [Ж] and [Ш] were always soft and did not have a hard pair. Then [K], [G] and [X] were not soft. Currently, you can meet the (once the only possible) pronunciation with a soft [F '] [DRODZH'ZH'I] or [DOZH '] (rain), but this is now optional.

Unpaired soft ones are [Y '] and again hissing [H '] and [Sch '].

That is, all sibilants are either always hard or always soft. The letter b after them does not indicate softness, it performs a grammatical function (for example, without even knowing what “bald” is, anyone will immediately say that this is a feminine word, because in masculine after hissing b is not put). Solid unpaired hissing consonants in a word can have b with them, but this does not mean that they should be softened. This means that we have a noun of 3 declensions, an adverb or a verb.

Unpaired soft consonants in a word make you want to put b after them, which is often not required. Therefore, it makes sense to remember that in combinations of CHK, CHN, etc. b after h is not needed.

Sounds "completely unpaired"

In Russian, the majority of consonants are either paired on both grounds, or paired on one ground and unpaired on another. For example, in the word [P'EN '] (stump) the sound [P '] is paired both in deafness-voicedness (P '- B '), and in hardness-softness (P '- P), and the sound [N '] is paired in hardness-softness (H' - H), but unpaired in deafness-voicedness.

However, there are several sounds that are unpaired in both ways. These are the sounds [Y '] (unpaired voiced, unpaired soft), [H '] (unpaired soft, unpaired deaf), [Щ '] (unpaired soft, unpaired deaf) and [C] (unpaired hard, unpaired deaf). Such sounds are often made in Russian language olympiads. For example,"Guess the sound according to the characteristic: unpaired solid, unpaired deaf." We already see that it is [C].

What have we learned?

From the article about paired and unpaired consonants, we learned that in Russian there are both paired and unpaired consonants. Paired consonants differ in deafness-voicedness and in hardness-softness.

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The modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The phonetics of the modern Russian number defines 42 sounds. Sounds are vowels and consonants. The letters ь (soft sign) and ъ (hard sign) do not form sounds.

Vowel sounds

There are 10 vowels and 6 vowels in Russian.

• Vowels: a, i, e, e, o, u, s, e, u, i.
• Vowel sounds: [a], [o], [y], [e], [i], [s].

For memorization, vowels are often written in pairs according to a similar sound: a-z, o-e, ee, u-s, u-yu.

percussion and unstressed

The number of syllables in a word is equal to the number of vowels in a word: forest - 1 syllable, water - 2 syllables, road - 3 syllables, etc. A syllable that is pronounced with more intonation is stressed. The vowel forming such a syllable is stressed, the rest of the vowels in the word are unstressed. The position under stress is called strong position, without stress - a weak position.

Iotated vowels

A significant place is occupied by iotated vowels - the letters e, e, u, i, which mean two sounds: e → [y'] [e], e → [y'] [o], yu → [y'] [y], i → [d'][a]. Vowels are iotated if:

1. stand at the beginning of the word (spruce, tree, spinning top, anchor),
2. stand after a vowel (what, sings, hare, cabin),
3. stand after b or b (stream, stream, stream, stream).

In other cases, the letters e, e, u, i mean one sound, but there is no one-to-one correspondence, since various positions in a word and various combinations with consonants of these letters give rise to different sounds.

Consonants

There are 21 consonants and 36 consonants in total. The discrepancy in number means that some letters may mean different sounds in different words- soft and hard sounds.

Consonants: b, c, d, e, g, s, d, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, f, x, c, h, w, u.
Consonants: [b], [b '], [c], [c '], [g], [g '], [d], [d '], [g], [h], [h ' ], [d'], [k], [k'], [l], [l'], [m], [m'], [n], [n'], [n], [n' ], [p], [p'], [s], [s'], [t], [t'], [f], [f'], [x], [x'], [c] , [h'], [w], [w'].

The ‘ sign means a soft sound, that is, the letter is pronounced softly. The absence of a sign indicates that the sound is solid. So, [b] is hard, [b ’] is soft.

Voiced and voiceless consonants

There is a difference in how we pronounce consonants. Voiced consonants - are formed in a combination of voice and noise, deaf consonants - are formed due to noise ( vocal cords do not vibrate). There are 20 voiced consonants and 16 voiceless consonants.

According to pairing-unpairness, voiced and deaf consonants are divided into:
b-p, v-f, g-k, d-t, w-w, s-s- paired by sonority-deafness.
d, l, m, n, p - always voiced (unpaired).
x, c, h, u - always deaf (unpaired).

Unpaired voiced consonants are called sonorants.

Among the consonants, according to the level of "noisiness", there are also groups:
f, w, h, u - hissing.
b, c, d, e, g, h, k, p, s, t, f, x, c, h, w, u- noisy.

Hard and soft consonants

What is the difference between vowels and consonants and sounds? What rules do they follow? How is the hardness and softness of sounds and letters indicated? You will get answers to all these questions in the presented article.

General information about vowels and consonants

Vowels and consonants are the basis of the entire Russian language. Indeed, with the help of their combinations, syllables are formed that add up to words, expressions, sentences, texts, and so on. That is why quite a lot of hours are devoted to this topic in high school.

and sounds in Russian

A person will learn about what vowels and consonants are in the Russian alphabet from the first grade. And despite all the seeming simplicity of this topic, it is considered one of the most difficult for students.

So, in the Russian language there are ten vowels, namely: o, i, a, s, u, i, e, e, u, e. During their direct pronunciation, you can feel how the air passes freely through oral cavity. At the same time, we hear our own voice quite clearly. It should also be noted that vowels can be pulled (ah-ah-ah-ah, uh-uh-uh, i-i-i-i-i, u-u-u-u-u and so on ).

Features and letters

Vowels are the basis of the syllable, that is, they organize it. As a rule, there are as many syllables in Russian words as there are vowels themselves. Let's give a good example: u-che-no-ki - 5 syllables, re-bya-ta - 3 syllables, he - 1 syllable, o-no - 2 syllables, and so on. There are even words that consist of only one vowel sound. Usually these are interjections (Ah!, Oh!, Woo!) and unions (and, a, etc.).

Endings, suffixes and prefixes are very important topics in the Russian language discipline. Indeed, without knowing how such letters are written in a particular word, it is rather problematic to compose a competent letter.

Consonants and sounds in Russian

Vowel and consonant letters and sounds differ significantly. And if the former can be easily pulled, then the latter are pronounced as short as possible (except for hissing ones, since they can be pulled).

It should be noted that in the Russian alphabet the number of consonant letters is 21, namely: b, c, d, e, g, h, d, k, l, m, n, p, p, s, t, f, x, c, h, sh, sh. The sounds denoted by them are usually divided into deaf and voiced. What is the difference? The fact is that during the pronunciation of voiced consonants, a person can hear not only the characteristic noise, but also his own voice (b!, z!, p!, etc.). As for the deaf, they cannot be pronounced loudly or, for example, shouted. They create only a kind of noise (sh-sh-sh-sh-sh, s-s-s-s-s, etc.).

Thus, almost everything falls into two different categories:

• voiced - b, c, d, d, f, z, d, l, m, n, r;
• deaf - k, p, s, t, f, x, c, h, w.

Softness and hardness of consonants

Not everyone knows, but vowels and consonants can be hard and soft. This is the second most important feature in the Russian language (after voiced and deaf).

A distinctive feature of soft consonants is that during their pronunciation, the human language takes on a special position. As a rule, it shifts slightly forward, and its entire middle part rises slightly. As for when they are pronounced, the tongue is pulled back. You can compare your position speech organ independently: [n] - [n '], [t] - [t ']. It should also be noted that voiced and soft sounds sound somewhat higher than hard ones.

In Russian, almost all consonants have pairs on the basis of softness and hardness. However, there are those who simply do not have them. These include hard ones - [g], [w] and [c] and soft ones - [th "], [h"] and [w"].

Softness and hardness of vowels

Surely few people have heard that the Russian language has soft vowels. Soft consonants are sounds that are quite familiar to us, which cannot be said about the above. This is partly due to the fact that in high school there is practically no time for this topic. After all, it is already clear with the help of which vowels the consonants become soft. However, we still decided to dedicate you to this topic.

So, soft letters are those letters that are able to soften the consonants that come before them. These include the following: i, e, i, e, u. As for such letters as a, y, s, e, o, they are considered hard, since they do not soften the consonants going in front. To see this, here are a few examples:

The designation of the softness of consonants in the phonetic analysis of the word

The sounds and letters of the Russian language are studied by phonetics. Surely, in high school you were asked more than once to make a certain word. During such an analysis, it is imperative to indicate whether it is separately considered or not. If yes, then it must be denoted as follows: [n '], [t '], [d '], [in '], [m '], [p ']. That is, at the top right, next to the consonant letter in front of the soft vowel, you need to put a kind of dash. The following soft sounds are also marked with a similar icon - [th "], [h"] and [sh"].