What are phonemes for in plain language. What is a phoneme? The concept, features and functions of the phoneme

29.09.2019

A phoneme in linguistics is understood as the smallest meaningful unit of speech. The question of the existence of each individual phoneme is resolved positively if it participates in the semantic opposition of the words of the language. In other words, a given sound is a phoneme if there are words that differ only in this sound. For example, the phonemes /m/ and /v/ exist because the words MOL and VOL exist.

There are 42 phonemes in Russian. Each phoneme has certain acoustic properties, which are determined by the articulatory features of its formation.

A schematic representation of the human articulatory apparatus is given in fig. 1.1. There are active and passive organs of articulation.

To active organs relate:

- tip, back, sides and body of the tongue,
- lips,
- palatine curtain,
- lower jaw,
- vocal cords.

The passive organs are:

- teeth,
- alveoli,
- soft sky
- solid sky,
- nasal cavity
- pharynx and larynx.

Each phoneme is characterized by a certain "method" and "place" of its formation. According to the method of formation, Russian phonemes are divided into two main groups: vowels /u, o, a, e, s, and / and consonants (the remaining 36 phonemes). The formation of vowel phonemes is characterized by the absence of barriers in the vocal tract, while the formation of consonants in oral cavity there is necessarily a complete or incomplete closure (gap) created by the tongue or lips.

According to the method of formation, consonant phonemes are divided into groups of sonorants, fricatives, plosives and affricates.

The group of sonorant consonants /m, m", n, n", l, l", p, p", d "/ is characterized by the presence of a relatively wide gap. This gap is formed as follows:

- when lowering the palatine curtain in nasal sonorants /m, m", n, n" /,
- when lowering the sides of the tongue at the lateral sonorants /l, l "/,
- between the oscillating tip of the tongue and the alveoli in trembling /p, p "/,
- between the back of the tongue and the hard palate in a smooth sonorant /th "/.

Rice. 1.1. The structure of the speech tract

The group of slotted consonants /v, v', z, z", f, f, f", s, s", w, w", x, x"/ is characterized by the presence of a rather narrow noise-generating gap that occurs when the articulatory organs are not fully closed, The fricative consonants are further divided into voiced /v, v', z, z", w/ and deaf /f, f", s, s", w, w", x, x "/ depending on whether they participate or not vocal cords participate in their formation.

The explosive group is characterized by the presence of a complete occlusion in the articulatory tract, followed by its sharp opening. As well as fricative consonants, plosives are divided into voiced /b, b", d, d", g, g"/ and voiceless /p, p", t, t", k, k"/.

And finally, phonemes from the group of voiceless affricates /ts, h’/ are characterized by the fact that in the process of their formation, the phase of the stop changes to the phase of the noise-producing gap.

Let us further consider the classification of Russian phonemes according to the "place" of formation. The "place" of formation in phonetics is understood as the position of constrictions in the articulatory tract, which determines its configuration and, ultimately, its resonant properties.

The place of formation of vowel phonemes is determined by the position of the body of the language (high / low rise; forward / backward movement) and the degree
rapprochement of the lips (rounding).

The place of formation of consonant phonemes is determined by the position in the articulatory tract of the bow or gap, as well as the position of the body of the language (soft or hard consonants). According to the place of formation, consonant phonemes are divided into groups of labial, dental, alveolar and palatal,
each of which may include solid /m, n, l, r, c, h, f, f, s, w, x, b, e, g, n, t, k, c/ or soft /m ', n ', l', p', d', c', s', f', s', w', x', b', e', r', n', t', k', h'/ consonants.

The group of labial consonants includes /m, m’, v, v’, f, f’, p, p’/. In this case, the labial site of formation corresponds to the contact lower lip with upper teeth or upper lip.

The dental group includes /n, l, s, s, d, t, c, n’, l’, s’, s’, d’, t’/. In this case, the tooth site of formation corresponds to the contact of the tip of the tongue with
upper teeth.

The alveolar group includes /r, f, w, p’, w’, h’/. The alveolar site of formation corresponds to the contact of the tip of the tongue
with alveoli.

The palatine group includes /x, g, k, x’, g’, k’, d’/. The palatal site of formation corresponds to the contact of the back of the tongue with the hard palate.

Soft (palatal) consonants of the corresponding place of formation are characterized by an additional rise in the back of the tongue to the soft palate.

Table 1.1 presents the phonemes of the Russian language (in Russian and Latin transcriptions), presented in the coordinates "place" -
"way" of education, in accordance with their classification described above.

For comparison, in Table 1.2, phonemes of the Russian language (in the upper rows) and Belarusian (in the lower rows) are presented in the same coordinates, while the letters of the national alphabets are used for transcription.

Distinctive features phonetic systems Belarusian and Russian languages are as follows.
The Belarusian language lacks the following phonemes:
- soft consonants T, D, W, H, R;
- soft and hard G.

The Belarusian language has a number of specific phonemes,
missing in Russian:
– smooth Ў;
- soft C and hard H;
- soft affricate Dz and hard J;
- soft and hard slotted Gx.

Calculating the degree of similarity of the phonetic systems of the Russian and Belarusian languages as the ratio of the number of phonemes identical for the two languages to total phonemes (see Table 2.2), we find that the phonetic systems of these languages coincide by 71%.

Table 1.1
The phoneme system of the Russian language in the coordinates "place of education" -
"way of education"

Table 1.2
Comparative table of phonetic systems of Russian and Belarusian
languages

Phoneme is an abstract unit of language, embodied in speech in sets of positionally alternating sounds. Angle brackets are used to designate a phoneme -<>.

Modifications of a phoneme depending on its position in a word are called it allophones(from Greek allos "another", phone "sound") or phoneme variants.

Relationship between phoneme and sound (allophone) - it is the relationship between the general (phoneme) and the particular (allophone). The phoneme is related to the allophone as invariant to option.(Option - from lat. variants- changing; invariant - from lat. invariants- unchanging. Invariant - it is an abstract linguistic entity, a unit abstracted from its concrete realizations, incarnations.) All actually pronounced sounds are allophones. Allophones are combined into a relatively small number of phonemes. In this way, phoneme- this is the general, existing in many private manifestations - allophones.

A phoneme is thus always represented by one of its allophones, and in this sense is not itself a particular sound. Each of the obligatory allophones is an “equal” representative of the phoneme, even if it is not the main one. This circumstance is often overlooked due to the fact that a phoneme is usually called the "name" of its main allophone. For example, we say "phoneme<a>", pronouncing at the same time one specific allophone, but implying all possible ones. The properties of allophones are predictable, since we know the rules for the interaction of sounds and their changes in different positions.

What is the difference between sound and phoneme?

1) Phoneme - a unit of language characterized by a high degree abstraction, and sound is the unit of speech. In speech, in a particular word, the same phoneme can be realized in different ways. (sound is the realization of a phoneme in speech).

2) The number of uttered sounds is actually infinite. As evidenced by the data of experimental phonetics, it is impossible to reproduce the same sound in such a way that it completely, in all nuances, corresponds to its prototype. Therefore, the number of sounds pronounced in speech can be determined in different ways, depending on the degree of accuracy with which the sound is determined - by ear or with the help of precise instruments.

The number of phonemes is finite. In Russian, 5 vowel phonemes are distinguished (or 6 according to P(L)FSH), and the number of consonant phonemes ranges from 32 to 37, depending on the phonological position of the scientist.

Controversial issues in the phoneme system of the Russian language.

Isolation of 5 vowel phonemes<а, о, и, э, у>and 32 consonant phonemes<п – п’, б – б’, в – в’, ф – ф’, м – м’, т – т’, д – д’, с – с’, з – з’, ц, н – н’, л – л’, ш, ж, ч’, р – р’, к, г, х, j>does not cause controversy between phonological trends.

When establishing a system of phonemes of the Russian language, the issue of phonemic independence raises a discussion. s and soft posterior lingual g', k', x'. There is an opinion that s is a shade and, and soft posterior lingual - shades of hard. Let's consider these questions in more detail.

1. Phonemic independence s. Notable parallelism in use and and s was noted long ago (as early as Lomonosov) in connection with the opposition of letters, before which hard consonants are used, to letters, before which only soft ones are used. With such opposition and turned out to be on a par with "soft vowels" i, yo, yu, e and opposed s, included in one row with "hard vowels" a, oh, uh, uh.

The thought that and and s make up one phoneme, was first expressed by Baudouin de Courtenay. He developed the doctrine of i mutable"(i.e. and variable) and in transcription instead of and and s, used badge i m(letter t- abbreviation "mutable"). When pronouncing i m“there is no single norm, there is no single type of a given phoneme or a given phonetic representation, and the performance is doubled in accordance with what is thought or imagined before the beginning of the bifurcated phoneme i m: the approach of the middle part of the tongue to the palate is thought - i m pronounced more forward and gives the impression i(associated with the Russian grapheme and or i); imagining before i m lack of approach of the middle part of the tongue to the palate, we perform i m as a back vowel, the acoustic impression of which is associated with the Russian grapheme s"(Baudouin de Courtenay I.A. Introduction to linguistics. St. Petersburg, 1917, pp. 85 - 86). Baudouin acknowledged that Old Russian and and s were independent phonemes, but later, after the transformation of soft consonants into special phonemes, they merged into one phoneme - i m . In light of this, it is clear that for Baudouin the difference and and s as varieties i m associated with the softness and hardness of the preceding consonant.

L. V. Shcherba also considered the issue of and and s, but came to different conclusions: “Certainly, independent vowel phonemes of the Russian language are a, uh, and, oh, w. Concerning s, then it is largely an independent phoneme, located in intimate relationships With and, of which it is, as it were, a shade "(L.V. Shcherba. Russian vowels in quality and quantitatively. SPb., 1912 p.50). Shcherba pointed out signs indicating lack of independence s: 1)s not used as a separate word; 2) not at the beginning of a word; 3) possible only after solid consonants, where it replaces and:<играт">-<сыграт">; 4) is used in the solid declension in parallel with and soft version:<вады> - <з"имл"и>. However, Shcherba still considered it possible to recognize s"an independent phoneme, although perhaps not to the extent a, uh, and, oh, u"(L.V. Shcherba. Russian vowels in qualitative and quantitative terms. St. Petersburg, 1912 p. 50), since and and s do not alternate in the roots under the influence of subsequent consonants, while the shades of other phonemes alternate, for example: [heat] - [heat"].

In the future, some linguists (R. I. Avanesov, A. A. Reformatsky and others), based mainly on the above considerations of Shcherba, tended to recognize s shade and a point of view that affirms phonemic independence s, defended by L. R. Zinder, M. I. Matusevich, A. N. Gvozdev, Ya. V. Loya and others.

Without going into the details of the dispute on this issue, we note that there is no sufficient grounds refuse s in phonemic independence. The following arguments can be presented in support of this.

a) Phonemes s, like all other phonemes, forming and identifying functions are characteristic. The latter also manifests itself in the fact that the presence of a given phoneme in the sound shell of a word can destroy the connection between sound and meaning; thereby destroying the linguistic unit. So, the sound shell of the word silt collapses when put in place and other vowels (al, ol, el, al, st), because there are meaningless sound combinations. It is clear that in this case s reveals the above functions along with other phonemes.

b) Phonemes and and s can act in identical phonetic conditions, namely, at the beginning of a word. There are even several pairs of words that differ only in the initial and- s: hiccup(speak in and)- hiccup, hiccup- hiccup, hiccup - yap. These words are formed from the names of the corresponding letters, which are indeclinable neuter nouns (cf. capital and, lowercase s). Also at the beginning is s in some foreign geographical names: Yyson, Yndin, Ym-Chon, Yntaly, Ytyk-Kyuyol, Ynykchansky. Finally, at the beginning of a word s also found in the title of the film "Operation Y and other adventures of Shurik".

in) S cannot be considered a shade and, since shades always occur under certain phonetic conditions and outside these conditions can only be pronounced after special training. So, native Russian speakers easily pronounce the closed front at in the word [pl "un"], but they are unlikely to be able to pronounce it in isolation, not between soft consonants, and, of course, they do not single it out in their minds as a special unit that does not coincide with the "usual" at in the word [here]. A completely different situation with s. It is easily isolated, pronounced in an independent, phonetically unconditioned position, and is perceived by native speakers as a special linguistic unit. The vowel [s] can be pulled as much as you like, and o e turns into [and], which happens in other allophones of phonemes, for example, when pulling the sound [ä] from the word five[p'ät '] it goes into [a].

d) sounds [s] and [and] have various origins, since [s] historically goes back to, and not to [i]. The facts of the history of the language are not direct evidence of the differences between [s] and [and], but together with others they play a certain role.

2. Phonemic independence k", g', x". The phonemic independence of soft back-linguals is questioned on the basis of the following considerations:

1) k", g", x" can only be in a phonetically dependent position - before front vowels and and e. Therefore, it is not possible to determine whether their softness is combinatorially conditioned (appearing under the influence of front vowels) or their softness is independent, for example ru [k] a, ru [k] y - ru [k '] and, ru [k '] e, but [g] a, but [g] y - but [g '] and, but [g '] e, co [x] a, co [x] y - co [x '] and, co [x '] e;

2) to", g", x" in native Russian words cannot be combined with non-front vowels a oh u, but only in front of them it is possible to establish whether the softness of the back-lingual consonants is positionally independent. The compatibility with these vowels in borrowed words cannot be taken into account when establishing the phoneme system of the Russian language;

3) to", g", x" do not occur in a position strong in hardness-softness - at the end of a word, where other soft consonants are possible.

Difficulties in establishing phonemic status in the IMF k', g', x' overcome in the following way. Sound [to"] before [a, o] appears in word forms weave:<тк"ош>, <тк"от>etc. This is only one old primordial Russian word, but belongs to the category of commonly used ones. Therefore, the sound [k '] implements the phoneme<к’>. from the fact that [k] and [k '] are opposed in one position, it follows that such a possibility exists for other back-lingual - [g] - [g '], [x] - [x '], in particular, it is realized in neologisms like Shvakhyatina from him. Schwach - ‘weak’ by model seryatina, sour meat, sour meat. Therefore, it is believed that [k’, g’, x’] embody phonemes<к’, г’, х’>.

In SPFS k', g', x' are considered independent phonemes on the basis that [k ', g ', x '] may be placed before non-front vowels [a, o, y] in loanwords, for example: cuvette, manicure, Guys, Cui, Kharms, Curacao, Cologne, Gyulsary, alarmist. Consequently, k", g", x" may relate to k, g, x as well as other soft consonants. This puts them in the rank of independent units of the system of phonemes. Matches of the same type to-to" in<рука> - <рук"э>are quite similar to the correspondences of the type d- d" in<вада> - <вад"э>.

Recognizing phonemic autonomy s towards and and k", g", x" towards k, g, x, At the same time, it should be noted that this independence has a somewhat flawed character, which is explained by the insufficient development of these oppositions, which are in the growth stage.

How to distinguish between a phoneme and a variant of a phoneme?

From a comparison of pairs such as house - that, ladies - there, volume - there, house - ladies, languid - dark we can conclude that d - t, o - a, t - t "are used to distinguish words by meaning. This means that these sounds are separate phonemes.

Ways to determine the function of sound ( whether it is a phoneme or an allophone of some phoneme):

1. It is necessary to choose at least one minimal pair, i.e. two such words that differ only in comparable sounds: bar - steam, mountain - bark, board - melancholy, heat - ball, etc.

2. To prove the independence of some phonemes, a large number of minimal pairs can be given, as, for example, for t-t ": descendants - darkness, skinny - mother-in-law, current - tech, life - to be, brother - to take, killed - to kill, washed - to wash etc. Opposed in hardness - softness d - d", s - z", s - s" are used in a relatively small number of minimal pairs. But to recognize two compared sounds as separate phonemes, it is enough to use these sounds in at least one minimal pair .

In the absence of minimum pairs (or difficulties arising in their selection), another criterion proposed by N.S. Trubetskoy: if the replacement of one sound in a word with another distorts the word beyond recognition, then this sound is an independent phoneme. So, when replacing /h "/ with /h/ or /ts/ with /ts"/ in words containing these sounds, the meaning of the words is not distorted beyond recognition, only the “words” formed in this way acquire an unnatural “foreign language accent” . Compare: /h "ac/ and /hour/, /circus/ and /c"irk/. Another result will be obtained if in words with solid /g/ and /k/, for example, year, cat these same sounds are replaced by the corresponding soft ones - the resulting "words" become incomprehensible. Therefore, we can conclude that /h"/ and /h/ are variants of the same phoneme, like /ts/ and /ts"/, - in contrast to /g/ and /g"/, /k/ and /k" /, which are separate phonemes.

Phoneme is an abstract unit of language, embodied in speech in sets of positionally alternating sounds. Angle brackets are used to designate a phoneme -<>.

Modifications of a phoneme depending on its position in a word are called it allophones(from Greek allos "another", phone "sound") or phoneme variants.

What is the difference between sound and phoneme?

1) A phoneme is a unit of language characterized by a high degree of abstraction, and sound is a unit of speech. In speech, in a particular word, the same phoneme can be realized in different ways. (sound is the realization of a phoneme in speech).

Controversial issues in the phoneme system of the Russian language.

The thought that and and s make up one phoneme, was first expressed by Baudouin de Courtenay. He developed the doctrine of i mutable"(i.e. and variable) and in transcription instead of and and s, used badge im(letter t- abbreviation "mutable"). When pronouncing im“there is no single norm, there is no single type of a given phoneme or a given phonetic representation, and the performance is doubled in accordance with what is thought or imagined before the beginning of the bifurcated phoneme im: the approach of the middle part of the tongue to the palate is thought - im pronounced more forward and gives the impression i(associated with the Russian grapheme and or i); imagining before im lack of approach of the middle part of the tongue to the palate, we perform im as a back vowel, the acoustic impression of which is associated with the Russian grapheme s"(Baudouin de Courtenay I.A. Introduction to linguistics. St. Petersburg, 1917, pp. 85 - 86). Baudouin admitted that in the Old Russian language and and s were independent phonemes, but later, after the transformation of soft consonants into special phonemes, they merged into one phoneme - i m. In light of this, it is clear that for Baudouin the difference and and s as varieties im associated with the softness and hardness of the preceding consonant.

L. V. Shcherba also considered the issue of and and s, but came to different conclusions: “Certainly, independent vowel phonemes of the Russian language are a, uh, and, oh, w. Concerning s, then it is a largely independent phoneme, which is in intimate relations with and, of which it is, as it were, a shade "(L.V. Shcherba. Russian vowels in qualitative and quantitative terms. SPb., 1912 p. 50). Shcherba indicated signs indicating a lack of independence s: 1)s not used as a separate word; 2) not at the beginning of a word; 3) possible only after solid consonants, where it replaces and:<играт">-<сыграт">; 4) is used in the solid declension in parallel with and soft version:<вады> - <з"имл"и>. However, Shcherba still considered it possible to recognize s"an independent phoneme, although perhaps not to the extent a, uh, and, oh, u"(L.V. Shcherba. Russian vowels in qualitative and quantitative terms. St. Petersburg, 1912 p. 50), since and and s do not alternate in the roots under the influence of subsequent consonants, while the shades of other phonemes alternate, for example: [heat] - [heat"].

In the future, some linguists (R. I. Avanesov, A. A. Reformatsky and others), based mainly on the above considerations of Shcherba, tended to recognize s shade and; point of view that affirms phonemic independence s, defended by L. R. Zinder, M. I. Matusevich, A. N. Gvozdev, Ya. V. Loya and others.

Without going into the details of the dispute on this issue, we note that there are no sufficient grounds to refuse s in phonemic independence. The following arguments can be presented in support of this.

in) S cannot be considered a shade and, since shades always arise under certain phonetic conditions and outside these conditions can only be pronounced after special training. So, native Russian speakers easily pronounce the closed front at in the word [pl "un"], but they are unlikely to be able to pronounce it in isolation, not between soft consonants, and, of course, they do not single it out in their minds as a special unit that does not coincide with the "usual" at in the word [here]. A completely different situation with s. It is easily isolated, pronounced in an independent, phonetically unconditioned position and perceived by native speakers as a special language unit. The vowel [s] can be pulled as much as you like, and o e turns into [and], which happens in other allophones of phonemes, for example, when pulling the sound [ä] from the word five[p'ät '] it goes into [a].

d) the sounds [s] and [and] have a different origin, since [s] historically goes back to, and not to [i]. The facts of the history of the language are not direct evidence of the differences between [s] and [and], but together with others they play a certain role.

2. Phonemic independence k", g', x". The phonemic independence of soft back-linguals is questioned on the basis of the following considerations:

3) to", g", x" do not occur in a position strong in hardness-softness - at the end of a word, where other soft consonants are possible.

Difficulties in establishing phonemic status in the IMF k', g', x' overcome in the following way. Sound [to"] before [a, o] appears in word forms weave:<тк"ош>, <тк"от>etc. This is only one old native Russian word, but it belongs to the category of commonly used ones. Therefore, the sound [k '] implements the phoneme<к’>. from the fact that [k] and [k '] are opposed in one position, it follows that such a possibility exists for other back-lingual - [g] - [g '], [x] - [x '], in particular, it is realized in neologisms like Shvakhyatina from him. Schwach - ‘weak’ by model seryatina, sour meat, sour meat. Therefore, it is believed that [k’, g’, x’] embody phonemes<к’, г’, х’>.

How to distinguish between a phoneme and a variant of a phoneme?

Ways to determine the function of sound ( whether it is a phoneme or an allophone of some phoneme):

1. It is necessary to choose at least one minimal pair, i.e. two such words that differ only in comparable sounds: bar - steam, mountain - bark, board - melancholy, heat - ball, etc.

The key concept of functional phonetics, or phonology, is the concept of a phoneme. The term phoneme in linguistics denotes the shortest linear unit of the sound structure of a language.

From these shortest sound units, language units endowed with meaning are built. Consequently, although phonemes as such are not units of a language, since in themselves they are devoid of meaning, the existence of language units - morphemes, words and their forms - is fundamentally impossible without phonemes from which their signifiers are built.

2. On the relationship between phoneme and sound

Phonemes cannot be directly identified with sounds heard and pronounced by people in the process of verbal communication. Phonemes are units of the sound structure of the language, while the specific sounds heard and pronounced by people are phenomena of individual speech. At the same time, it is the sounds that turn out to be a reality directly given to a person in perception. And these sounds heard and pronounced by people in the process of speech communication are a way of detecting and existing phonemes. Phonemes, as abstract units of the sound structure of a language, do not have independent existence, but exist only in the sounds of speech.

3. Functions performed by phonemes

1) Constitutive, or tectonic. In this function, phonemes act as building material from which the sound shell of linguistic units endowed with meaning (morphemes, words and their forms) is created.
2) Distinctive, or distinctive. Phonemes can act as a word-distinctive function, for example. bark - hole, or in form-distinctive, for example. hand - hand.

4. Signs of phonemes, differential and non-differential

A phoneme is the smallest unit of a language, which means that it cannot be further divided. Nevertheless, the phoneme is a complex phenomenon, since it consists of a number of features that cannot exist outside the phoneme. So, for example. in the phoneme d in Russian. lang. we can distinguish signs of sonority (as opposed to deafness t - house - tom), hardness (as opposed to softness d: house - Dyoma), explosiveness (as opposed to fricative s: dal - hall; lack of nasality (unlike n: dam-us), the presence of anterior language (in contrast to the posterior language g: dam-gam).
Not all features in the composition of phonemes play the same role, some of them are distinctive, or differential (phonologically significant features of phonemes). The replacement of even one differential feature leads to a change in the phoneme. For example, replacing the sign of voicedness in the phoneme d with deafness, we get, while maintaining all other features characteristic of the phoneme d, the phoneme t. Replacing the sign of explosiveness with fricative, we get, while maintaining all other features. Characteristic of phoneme d, phoneme h. All other features of the phoneme q listed above also turn out to be distinctive (differential). Other signs turn out to be indistinguishable if there is no other phoneme that is directly and unequivocally opposed on this basis.

5. Variants of phonemes, basic, combinatorial, positional

There are differences in the realizations of individual phonemes, which are of a regular nature and therefore are characteristic of the speech of all native speakers. An example of such regular differences in the implementation of the same phoneme can be the different pronunciation of the root vowel in Russian words water - water - water. From the point of view of the IPF, the vowels o, which differ significantly from each other in the above words are representatives of the same phoneme o, since these vowels occupy the same position in the sound structure of the root morpheme of waters and alternate with each other due to the modern Russian phonetic patterns. Such regular realizations of the same phoneme varying within certain limits will be called variants of the given phoneme or its allophones. Among the variants of a phoneme, the so-called main variant stands out, in which the qualities of a given phoneme are manifested to the greatest extent.
In addition to the main variants, combinatorial and positional variants are also distinguished. Combinatorial variants arise under the influence of the nearest phonetic environment. Eg. dream. At the beginning of this word, a soft dental consonant s is presented, which is a combinatorial variant of the Russian phoneme s in combination with any soft dental, in this case soft dental n.
Positional variants occur in phonemes in certain positions in a word. So the vowel is a positional variant of the Russian phoneme o in the second pre-stressed syllable (water). In contrast to the main variant o, the positional variant has lost the qualities of roundness and belonging to the back row.

6. Strong and weak positions of phonemes

Distinguish positions of phonemes strong and weak. Those positions in which the phoneme can most clearly show its signs are called strong positions. The strong position for vowel phonemes is the position under stress. A weak position is the position of the phoneme of a word in which the signs of this phoneme are neutralized (for example, the position of the end of a word for voiced and voiceless consonants in Russian and German - in English and French this position is strong for the same opposition.).

7. System of phonemes

System - a set of phonemes of a given language, interconnected by constant relationships. The system of phonemes reveals a certain internal articulation. It is divided into two subsystems: the subsystem of vowel phonemes - vocalism, and the subsystem of consonant phonemes - consonantism.

8. The difference between the phonemic systems of different languages

1. The total number of phonemes, the ratio of vowels and consonants. So in Russian there are 43 phonemes (37 consonants and 6 vowels), in French - 35 (20 consonants and 15 vowels), in German 33 (18 consonants and 15 vowels).
2. The quality of phonemes, their acoustic-articulatory properties.
3. Differences can appear in the positions of phonemes. If the position of the end of a word in Russian and German for voiced and voiceless consonants is weak, then in French it is strong.
4. They differ in the organization of phonemic groups (oppositions), for example, hardness-softness, deafness-voicedness, closure-cleftness. Opposition - the opposition of phonemes based on their differential features, can be of two types: correlative (phonemes differ in only one differential feature, for example, b-p on the basis of voicedness - deafness) and non-correlative (phonemes differ in two or more differential features a-t.)

9. Interaction of sounds in a speech stream.

1. Basic phonetic processes:
-accommodation;
-assimilation and its types;
-dessimilation and its types;
2. Other phonetic processes:
- epentheses;
-prostheses;
- diarrhoea.
3. Phonetic and traditional (historical) alternations.

The most typical cases of interaction of sounds in a speech stream are accommodation, assimilation and dissimilation. These are the basic phonetic processes.
Accommodations(devices) occur between consonants and vowels, usually standing side by side. In this case, so-called glides may occur, for example, if you carefully listen to the pronunciation of the word will, you can hear a very short y between in and o.
Assimilation is the articulatory and acoustic convergence (similarity) of sounds(consonants with consonants, vowels with vowels). When we write otdat, but pronounce addat, then the subsequent sound d, likening to itself the previous t, creates assimilation. Assimilation can be complete, when one of the sounds completely likens itself to another (add), or partial when one of the sounds only partially brings the other closer to itself, but does not completely merge with it. In Russian, the word spoon is pronounced like a loshka, since the deaf consonant k, acting on the voiced w that precedes it, turns this latter into a deaf w. Here, not a complete, but only a partial assimilation of sounds is formed, that is, not their complete assimilation to each other, but only a partial rapprochement (the sounds k and sh are different, but at the same time are connected with each other by a common sign of deafness). Consequently, according to the degree of assimilation, assimilation can be complete and partial.
Assimilation can be progressive or regressive. Progressive assimilation occurs when the preceding sound affects the next. Regressive assimilation occurs when the subsequent sound affects the previous sound. In the above examples of "add" and "loshka" we are dealing with regressive assimilation. Progressive assimilation is much less common than regressive assimilation. So, the German noun Zimmer was formed from the old word Zimber: the previous m likened the following b to itself, forming two identical sounds.
A peculiar kind of progressive assimilation is presented in the Turkic languages. This is the so-called vowel harmony (vowel harmony). Synharmonism leads to the assimilation of vowels throughout the word. Here are a few examples from the Oirot language: karagai (pine), where the first vowel a determines the presence of all other vowels a, egemen (woman) - the first vowel e determines the appearance of subsequent e. As you can see, not only neighboring sounds are assimilated, but also those which are separated from each other in the word by other sounds. That is, we are dealing with non-contiguous assimilation.
When the modern now formed from the ancient Russian form, the regressive assimilation captured no longer adjacent, not adjacent sounds (e likened itself to o). Assimilation with the harmony of vowels in the Turkic languages has a non-adjacent character.
Thus, assimilation is complete and partial, progressive and regressive, adjacent and non-adjacent. So in the word "addat" we are dealing with complete, adjacent, regressive assimilation.
The causes of assimilation are explained by the interaction of sounds in the speech stream.
Dissimilation - these are cases of dissimilarity of sounds. Again, as in the case of assimilation, we are talking about the interaction of consonants with consonants, and vowels with vowels. When in some Russian dialects lessora is spoken instead of spring, then two identical non-adjacent sounds r are distinguished here, forming l and r. The subsequent p, as it were, repels the previous one from itself, as a result, non-adjacent regressive dissimilation is obtained. When in colloquial speech one can sometimes hear a tranvay instead of a tram, then dissimilation occurs here, but adjacent: two labial-labial sounds (m v) are dissimilar, forming anterior lingual n and labial-labial v. Consequently, both completely identical sounds (for example, p and p in the example of a spring) and similar in articulation, but still unequal sounds (for example, m in the word tram) can be dissimilated.
Like assimilation, dissimilation is distinguished progressive and regressive, adjacent and non-adjacent. Dissimilation is sometimes reflected in the literary language, in the written form of speech. The modern camel was formed from the old form of the camel as a result of the regressive dissimilation of two horses. Modern February arose as a result of progressive dissimilation from the old February (lat. Februarius). On the basis of assimilation / dissimilation, various phonetic phenomena occur.

Other phonetic processes.

Diaereses(or throwaways) have an assimilative basis, for example, the elimination of an iota between vowels that tend to become like each other and merge into one sound: for example, in a word it happens - the stem is by, with the transition in some Russian dialects to byvaat; or throwing out instant consonants t and d, for example, in words like honest, happy; or the elimination of the same t and d in the groups stk, zdk, for example, in the words trip, agenda, what is called unpronounceable consonants in school grammars.
But there are diaeresis on a dissimilative basis, which is especially pronounced in haplology when one of two identical or similar syllables is thrown out, for example, tragi / co / comedy - tragicomedy, minera / lo / logy - mineralogy.
epentheses(or inserts) most often have a dissimilative basis, most often we are talking about inserting sounds into or th between vowels, for example, colloquially they say Larivon instead of Larion or Rodivon instead of Rodion, as well as radivo, kakavo. Iot epenthesis is also typical of common speech. So they say: scorpion, spy, violet, baboon and so on. In the field of consonants, a frequent case is the insertion of an instantaneous sound between two consonants. For example, ndrav, stram instead of temper and shame.
Prostheses(or extensions) are actually a kind of epentheses, only prostheses do not occur in the middle of a word, but are attached in front, to the beginning of the word. Again, they act as prosthetic consonants in й, which cover the initial vowels, for example, eastern, instead of this. It can also act as prosthetic vowels in Russian, for example, in South Russian dialects they say "ishla" instead of "shla". Here the purpose of and is to unload a group of initial consonants.
Closely related to dissimilation are cases of the so-called metatheses(permutations) of adjacent and non-adjacent sounds within a word. The modern Russian plate was formed from the old form of talerka by metathesis l and r: r took the place of l, and l accordingly moved to the place of r. So in the Belarusian language, the old sequence of sounds l and r in the word talerka is preserved. The same should be said about the Polish talerz and the German Teller (plate).
In the language, there are also alternations of sounds, that is, their mutual replacement in the same places, in the same morphemes. It is important to distinguish between the types of alternations, since some of them belong to the field of phonetics, while others to the field of morphonology, and should, therefore, be studied by the corresponding sections of linguistics.
Phonetic (live) alternations are changes in sounds in the flow of speech that are caused by modern phonetic processes. These alternations are determined by position. With phonetic (live) alternations, variants or variations of the same phoneme alternate without changing the composition of phonemes in morphemes. Such are the alternations of stressed and unstressed vowels in Russian, for example, water - water - water carrier, where the variants of the phoneme o. Or the alternation of voiced and deaf consonants: each - the other, where k is a variant of the phoneme r.
Phonetic alternations are mandatory in this language. So, in Russian, all vowels in unstressed syllables are reduced, and all voiced consonants at the end of a word are stunned. These alternations have nothing to do with the expression of meaning. They are determined by the position in the word and are studied in phonetics.
Phonetic (live) alternations usually remain unexpressed in written speech.
From live (phonetic) alternations, non-phonetic alternations, which are not the subject of the study of phonetics, should be distinguished. With non-phonetic alternations, the change in sound does not depend on the position of the sound in the word. At the same time, different phonemes alternate, due to which the same morpheme receives a different phonemic composition, for example, friend - friends - friendly.
Among non-phonetic alternations, morphological and grammatical alternations are distinguished.
1) Morphological (or historical, traditional). Such alternation is not due to phonetic position, and is not in itself an exponent of grammatical meaning. Such alternations are called historical because they are explained only historically, and not from modern language. They are called traditional because these alternations are not subject to both semantic necessity and phonetic compulsion, but are preserved by virtue of tradition.
With morphological alternations alternate:
a) a vowel phoneme with zero, for example, sleep-sleep, stump-stump. (so-called fluent vowel)
b) one consonant phoneme with another consonant phoneme: k-ch Mrs x-sh, for example, hand - pen, leg - leg, fly - fly;
c) two consonant phonemes with one consonant phoneme: sk-sch st-sch zg-zh zd-zh, for example, plane - area, simple - simplification, grumble - grumble, belated - later.
2) Grammatical alternations are very similar to morphological ones. Often they are combined together. However, the essential difference between grammatical alternations and morphological (traditional, historical) alternations is that grammatical alternations do not just accompany various word forms, but independently express grammatical meanings. So, for example, alternations of paired l and l of soft, n and n of soft, as well as alternations of k-ch x-sh can distinguish between a short masculine adjective and a noun of the category of collectiveness, for example, goal - goal, rn - tear, wild - game, dry - dry. The alternation of Mrs. can distinguish between the imperfective and the perfective form of verbs, e.g. avoid, resort, run away and avoid, run, run away.
Summing up what has been said about alternations, we emphasize once again that of all types of alternations, only phonetic (live) alternations are considered in phonetics. All phenomena of non-phonetic alternations are studied by morphonology, although the study of their functions, the expression of certain grammatical meanings, belongs to grammar.

10. Syllable and syllable division.

1) The concept of a syllable.
2) Types of syllables.
3) Various theories of the syllable.
4) On the relationship between syllable and morpheme in different languages.

The concept of a syllable

A syllable is the minimum phonetic unit of division of a speech flow, which includes, as a rule, one vowel with consonants adjacent to it. There are languages in which the type of syllables consisting only of consonants can be represented. Such, for example, is the Czech language, in which there are quite a few monosyllabic words that do not contain vowels in their sound, for example: vlk - wolf, krk - neck. The core or top of the syllable in these words is formed by sonorant consonants l r. Depending on the number of syllables in a word, words are single-syllable, two-syllable, three-syllable, and so on.

Types of syllables

Depending on what sound, vowel or consonant, the syllable ends with, syllables are open, closed and conditionally closed.
open syllables end in a vowel sound, for example, in Russian. in-ro-ta, re-ka, in it. Du, Ra-be, Leh-re. A feature of German open syllables is the presence of only long vowels in them.
Closed syllables end in a consonant and cannot be opened, for example: ruble, fruit drink, Nacht, Berg. German closed syllables overwhelmingly contain short vowels, see examples above. However, some closed syllables may also have long vowels, such as Arzt, nun, Mond, wust.
Conditionally closed syllable can be opened with inflection, for example: pond - ponds, cat - cats, Tag - Ta-ge, schwul - schwu-le. The last type of syllables is interesting as evidence that the sound structure of the syllables included in the structure of modified words is not a constant value.
Depending on what sound, vowel or consonant, a syllable begins, syllables are covered and uncovered.
Covered syllables- these are syllables that begin with a consonant sound, for example: re-ka, mo-lo-ko, Tal, Raum.
Bare syllables are syllables that begin with a vowel sound, for example: tin, arena, Ei, aus, Uhr.
Various theories of the syllable.
There are several theories that seek to explain the nature of the syllable.
1. Sonor theory. According to this theory, a syllable is a combination of a more sonorous (or more sonorous) element with a less sonorous (less sonorous) element. (Otto Jespersen).
2. The expiratory theory, according to which a syllable is a sound combination that corresponds to one expiratory push. (Stetson).
3. The theory of muscular tension considers a syllable as the minimum segment of the speech flow, pronounced by one impulse of muscular tension. (Shcherba)

11. On the relationship between syllable and morpheme.

Between the syllable and the morpheme, as the shortest meaningful unit of the language, there are no correspondences in languages such as Russian, German, French, English. For example, in the Russian word form dom, the root morpheme coincides with the syllable, and in the word form doma (genus), the first syllable includes only part of the root morpheme.
However, there are languages in which the syllable is a stable sound formation. It does not change its composition or boundaries in the flow of speech. Such languages are called syllabic, or syllabic languages, where a syllable is equal to a single morpheme and is never broken. Syllabary languages include Chinese, Vietnamese, Burmese and some other languages.

12. Word stress.

1. Definition of word stress
2. Types of stress.
- Reduction as a consequence of dynamic stress.
- Qualitative and quantitative reduction.
- Functions of word stress.
- Stress in a phonetic word.

Under verbal stress is understood the allocation of one or two syllables in the composition of a polysyllabic word with the help of strength, height and duration of sounds. Accordingly, dynamic (power, or expiratory), musical (tonal, or melodic) and quantitative (quantitative, or longitudinal) stress are distinguished. Purely dynamic stress is represented in Czech. Purely musical stress is presented in Chinese, Korean, Japanese. Languages with purely quantitative stress are rare. Modern Greek is an example of languages with such an accent. In most languages, all these types of stress are usually used in combination with each other. So, in the Russian literary language, the stressed syllable is always the strongest and the longest, and, moreover, only on stressed syllables can tone movement occur. According to M. V. Raevsky, the German verbal stress is dynamic. However, other linguists, such as Budagov, believe that the German language has elements of power and elements of musical stress.
Each language has its own rules governing the place of stress in a word. There are languages with free (non-local) and associated stress. In languages with free stress, word stress can fall on any syllable of a word, as is the case, for example, in Russian. (city, gate, hammer). In languages with associated stress, word stress emphasizes only a certain syllable of a word: in Czech it is the first syllable from the beginning, for example, jazyk, strana, in Polish it is the second from the end: polak, smaragdowy, in French the stress in a word always falls to the last syllable in a word.
German word stress should be considered free, since it can fall on different syllables of a word, for example Laufen, verlaufen, Lauferei.
Distinguish between moving and fixed stress. A fixed stress is one that always falls on the same syllable, regardless of the word form in which it appears. So the Czech language is a language with a fixed accent. If we change the word jeden (singular), then in any of the resulting forms, the stress will fall on the first syllable jedneho (genus, singular). In Russian, stress is mobile. There are pairs of words that differ only in emphasis: castle - castle. Sometimes the meaning of the word does not change, for example: cottage cheese - cottage cheese, butt - butt, poured - poured, otherwise - otherwise. That is, in this case we are talking about coexisting normative variants of the pronunciation of the same word in the absence of a semantic or stylistic difference.

Reduction.

Dynamic or dynamic-complex stress can be the cause of reduction. Reduction is the weakening and change in the sound of unstressed syllables.
Distinguish between quantitative and qualitative reduction. With quantitative reduction, the vowels of unstressed syllables lose their length and strength, but the characteristic timbre is preserved in any syllable.
With qualitative reduction, the syllabic vowels of unstressed syllables are not only made weaker and shorter, as with quantitative reduction, but they also lose certain signs of their timbre and quality. For example, in the word water - o is under stress and represents a full vowel, which can be characterized as a back vowel, middle rise, labialized.

Functions of word stress.

Three functions are usually attributed to verbal stress: culminative (unifying), delimitative (delimiting), and differentiating (word-distinguishing).
The essence of the culminative function lies in the fact that the stressed syllable, subordinating neighboring unstressed syllables, connects the sound of the word into one whole.
By linking the sound of a word into a separate whole, stress helps the listener to simultaneously distinguish one significant word from another. This is the delimitative function of word stress.
The differentiating function can be illustrated by the following examples: arms - arms, legs - legs, ubersetzen - ubersetzen, August - August, alle - Allee.

The word stress was discussed above.
Consider now the stress in the phonetic word. A phonetic word is understood as a combination of an independent significant word with a service word, which has one common stress. In a phonetic word, the auxiliary word is usually unstressed, it is adjacent to an independent word, on which the stress usually falls. Depending on where the unstressed word is located within the phonetic word, one speaks of proclitic and enclitic. If an unstressed functional word comes before a stressed independent word, then this is a proclitic, for example, with a sister. If an unstressed functional word comes after a stressed independent word, then this is an enclitic. For example, I would look. But significant words are not always stressed in a phonetic word, sometimes monosyllabic prepositions in Russian take on stress and then the next word form turns out to be unstressed, for example, on the house, on the shore, on the water, two. With one word form, there can be both enclitics and proclitics, for example, for a day, in a forest.

13. Intonation.

1. Definition.
2. Two main types of stress.
3. On the interaction of intonation with the lexical and grammatical factors of the language.

Intonation is a rhythmic-melodic pattern of speech. Intonation is a complex phenomenon, which includes the following components: 1) the frequency of the fundamental tone of the voice (melodic component); 2) intensity (dynamic component)
3) duration, or tempo (temporal component) 4) timbre.
From a purely linguistic point of view, two main types of intonation should be distinguished in languages.
1. With intonation of the first type, the very meaning of the word, its original and main meaning, changes. This kind of intonation is characteristic of such languages as Chinese, Japanese and others. So in Japanese the word "su" can mean a nest or vinegar, depending on the nature of the intonation, the word hi - "day" or "fire". In these cases, intonation more or less dramatically changes the meaning of the word and acts as the most important factor in the language system.
2. The intonation of the second type has less independent significance than the intonation of the first type. The intonation of the second type only gives the word an additional meaning, usually not dramatically changing its meaning, as well as the meaning of the whole sentence. This intonation is characteristic of the Indo-European languages.
Intonation interacts with other language factors - lexical and grammatical. As A. M. Peshkovsky noted in his book "Russian Syntax in Scientific Illumination", the interrogative intonation rises more and more, becomes stronger and more intense, as we compare the following three sentences with each other:

Have you read the book?
Have you read the book?
Have you read the book?

In the first case, the question is conveyed not only intonation, but also with the help of a particle whether, as well as word order (the verb comes first). In the second sentence, the interrogative intonation should be somewhat strengthened, since there is no longer an interrogative particle li, which helps convey the question in the first sentence, although the second intonation assistant is preserved - the word order when the verb continues to remain in the first place. Finally, in the third sentence, the intonation of the question rises even more, since in this sentence she no longer has a second assistant - word order. And the question is conveyed only by intonation. Thus, the more helpers - lexical (li particle) and grammatical - word order - the intonation has, the weaker the intonation itself: the shades of meaning are conveyed by several means at once.

In any doctrine of languages there is such a thing as a phoneme. It may seem strange and incomprehensible to a person far from linguistics. In fact, it is the most important element in the system of general philology.

The concept of a phoneme

You can understand this term using the example of abstract and concrete concepts. The abstract definition of the phoneme corresponds to the specific sound of human speech. The same person pronounces the same phoneme differently in different situations. Therefore, it can be argued that there are an unlimited number of sounds, while their abstract images are a certain finite set in each language.

Based on all this, scientists determine that the phoneme is the smallest semantic unit of speech that generalizes specific sounds.

It has an expression form and a value form. It is expressed by specific signs (graphemes) and the phoneme has no lexical meaning, but carries a grammatical meaning. For example, a horse-horse is a different form of a word, as indicated by the phoneme [a], expressed with the letter i.

History of study

At the end of the 19th century, the scientist F. de Sausure first introduced this term into scientific use. At that time he said that a phoneme is a mental image of a sound, pointing to its subjectivity.

A little later, B. de Courtenay filled this concept with a new meaning. He suggested that phonemes could be the elementary units of speech. This assumption was proved by L. Shcherba, pointing out the functions

Since that time, all linguists already know exactly what a phoneme is and how to distinguish it in the system of a particular language. Scientists began to study the so-called phonetic matrix. It consists of a certain set of phonemes that allow a native speaker to distinguish other people's words and create their own.

If people do not have the same phonetic matrices, they cannot communicate. Therefore, when learning foreign languages, it is very important to constantly listen to its native speakers. This allows you to form in your mind a system of phonemes adequate for oral communication.

Phonetics, phonology and orthoepy

In linguistics, it has traditionally developed so that the question "What is a phoneme?" respond immediately to its three sections. The main task of phonetics is the study of the system of abstract speech units of a particular language, their interaction and changes under the influence of different phonetic positions.

Phonology studies sounds, the ways in which they are formed, and the factors that make them change. The concept of a phoneme is used here to correlate the abstract and concrete manifestations of one and the same fact of reality. It is phonology that helps to determine what determines the formation of a particular phoneme in a language.

Orthoepy is a practical science. She matches phonemes and sounds and makes sure they match. The discrepancy between these concepts is fraught with a change in everything on a global scale, and a simple misunderstanding by speaking people of each other in particular.

Orthoepy develops a set of rules for how to pronounce phonemes in order to get the sounds they represent. As a rule, they are known to native speakers on an intuitive level, but sometimes it happens that people can "eat" sounds, blurring the boundaries between phonemes.

Definition method

Any unit must be allocated according to certain rules. The signs of a phoneme are quite simple: it is the smallest unit of speech, and it determines the meaning of a word without carrying such a meaning in itself.

The minimality of the phoneme can be proved by dividing the speech stream into the smallest components - sounds. Replacing one sound with another, we get new words. Since the phoneme is the generalized meaning of the sound, it can be argued that it is the smallest

Regarding her ability to distinguish words, it is worth referring to specific examples. Nose and knife differ only in one consonant phoneme. The replacement at the end radically changes the lexical meaning of the word from a part of the body of a living being to a kitchen utensil for cutting food.

The words sit and gray in speech have blurred phoneme boundaries [and-e]. Therefore, the exact lexical meaning of a word can be determined either in context or by putting the word in a form where the phoneme will be in a strong position and will give the conditions for a clear sound. It is in this way that the differential features of phonemes appear in any language.

Functions

Scientists distinguish only two functions of the phoneme. One exists to form the semantic shell of the word. It is from a constant set of phonemes that the same units that have lexical and grammatical meanings consist. Without this permanent system, no language in the world can function. The greater the correspondence between phonemes and sounds, the easier it is to master a foreign language. Esperanto was created according to this principle, where the complete identity between these concepts is maintained.

The second function is distinctive. What is a phoneme in its context, it becomes clear on specific examples. The lexical meaning of the dark time of the day of the word "night" changes dramatically to "female child" (daughter) when replacing only one initial phoneme.

Grammatical connections are perfectly visible on the example of the endings hand (singular) - hands (plural).

Thus, all phonemes are of great importance for the structure of the minimum semantic units of the language and their differentiation.

Types of phonemes

The phonemes of any language are divided according to several criteria. Behind the participation of noise and voice, vowels and consonants are distinguished. It is common for vowels to sometimes be stressed when the exhaled air flow is at the highest point of articulation.

According to the level of softness of pronunciation, consonants are divided into palatalized and non-palatalized. According to the method of formation, african and occlusive-slotted are distinguished. Voiced and deaf are distinguished by voice.

Consonant and vowel phonemes can be in both strong and weak positions. This makes it easy to differentiate them.

The role of position in a word

The same phoneme in a weak position may lose its distinctive function. It depends on the fact that it begins to be influenced by the minimal units of speech standing next to it. The mechanism of this process is quite simple. The speech apparatus of a person in the process of pronouncing a word in a fraction of a second must be rebuilt for each specific phoneme. If the word has units that are radically different in some way or this is an absolute end, then it is possible that the speech apparatus will not adjust correctly and blur the clarity of the phoneme in a particular sound.

An example is the word "carrot", where the final sound is heard as soft [f], but in the test word "carrots" a clear [v] is heard.

The situation is even more complicated with vowels [i-e]. In a weak position, they become similar to each other, forming an average sounding phoneme. In this case, it can be difficult to determine exactly what the lexical meaning of the word is. This causes speech incidents. Thus, the differential functions of a phoneme strongly depend on its strong or weak position in a word.

Phoneme-sound-letter ratio

In linguistics, the concepts of phoneme, sound and letter are strongly intertwined. All this because they are a reflection of the same fact of reality. The most primary concept in man is sound. Even prehistoric people published them, starting to form some rudiments of the language.

Only after human beings learned to communicate using sounds, the concept of phonemes was formed - some reproducible set of sounds that has a certain meaning. Of course, the term itself and the understanding of what a phoneme is came to mankind only at the end of the 19th century.

Letters also became necessary to create graphic symbols for sounds and words. With the development of civilization, people have learned to reflect the minimum unit of speech with the help of written signs. At the same time, there is still no designation of specific phonemes in hieroglyphic writing. But in the alphabetical system of many languages, there is a striking correspondence between letters and phonemes.