The modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The phonetics of the modern Russian number determines 42 sounds. The sounds are vowels and consonants. The letters ь (soft sign) and ъ (hard sign) do not form sounds.
Vowel sounds
The Russian language has 10 vowel letters and 6 vowel sounds.
- Vowel letters: a, i, e, e, o, u, s, e, yu, i.
- Vowel sounds: [a], [o], [u], [e], [i], [s].
To remember, vowel letters are often written in pairs with similar sounds: a-ya, o-yo, e-e, i-y, u-yu.
Shocked and unstressed
The number of syllables in a word is equal to the number of vowels in the word: forest - 1 syllable, water - 2 syllables, road - 3 syllables, etc. The syllable that is pronounced with greater intonation is stressed. The vowel that forms such a syllable is stressed, the remaining vowels in the word are unstressed. The position under stress is called a strong position, without stress - a weak position.
Yotated vowels
A significant place is occupied by iotated vowels - the letters e, e, yu, i, which mean two sounds: e → [й'][е], е → [й'][о], yu → [й'][у], i → [th'][a]. Vowels are iotated if:
- stand at the beginning of a word (spruce, fir-tree, spinning top, anchor),
- stand after a vowel (what, sings, hare, cabin),
- stand after ь or ъ (stream, stream, stream, stream).
In other cases, the letters e, e, yu, i mean one sound, but there is no one-to-one correspondence, since different positions in the word and different combinations with the consonants of these letters give rise to different sounds.
Consonants
There are 21 consonant letters and 36 consonant sounds. The discrepancy in numbers means that some letters can represent different sounds in different words - soft and hard sounds.
Consonants: b, v, g, d, g, z, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, f, x, c, ch, sh, sch.
Consonant sounds: [b], [b'], [v], [v'], [g], [g'], [d], [d'], [zh], [z], [z' ], [th'], [k], [k'], [l], [l'], [m], [m'], [n], [n'], [p], [p' ], [p], [p'], [s], [s'], [t], [t'], [f], [f'], [x], [x'], [ts] , [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 hard. So, [b] - hard, [b’] - soft.
Voiced and voiceless consonants
There is a difference in the way we pronounce consonant sounds. Voiced consonants are formed in a combination of voice and noise, voiceless consonants are formed due to noise (the vocal cords do not vibrate). There are a total of 20 voiced consonants and 16 voiceless consonants.
| Voiced consonants | Voiceless consonants | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| unpaired | doubles | doubles | unpaired |
| th → [th"] | b → [b], [b"] | p → [p], [p"] | h → [h"] |
| l → [l], [l"] | in → [in], [in"] | f → [f], [f"] | š → [š"] |
| m → [m], [m"] | g → [g], [g"] | k → [k], [k"] | ts → [ts] |
| n → [n], [n"] | d → [d], [d"] | t → [t], [t"] | x → [x], [x"] |
| p → [p], [p"] | zh → [zh] | w → [w] | |
| z → [z], [z"] | s → [s], [s"] | ||
| 9 unpaired | 11 doubles | 11 doubles | 5 unpaired |
| 20 ringing sounds | 16 dull sounds | ||
According to pairing and unpairing, voiced and voiceless consonants are divided into:
b-p, v-f, g-k, d-t, w-sh, z-s- paired in terms of voicedness and deafness.
y, l, m, n, r - always voiced (unpaired).
x, ts, ch, shch - always voiceless (unpaired).
Unpaired voiced consonants are called sonorant.
Among the consonants, the following groups are also distinguished according to the level of “noisiness”:
zh, sh, h, sh - hissing.
b, c, d, e, g, h, j, p, s, t, f, x, c, h, w, sch- noisy.
Hard and soft consonants
| Hard consonants | Soft consonants | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| unpaired | doubles | doubles | unpaired |
| [and] | [b] | [b"] | [h"] |
| [w] | [V] | [V"] | [sch"] |
| [ts] | [G] | [G"] | [th"] |
| [d] | [d"] | ||
| [h] | [z"] | ||
| [To] | [To"] | ||
| [l] | [l"] | ||
| [m] | [m"] | ||
| [n] | [n"] | ||
| [P] | [P"] | ||
| [R] | [R"] | ||
| [With] | [With"] | ||
| [T] | [T"] | ||
| [f] | [f"] | ||
| [X] | [X"] | ||
| 3 unpaired | 15 doubles | 15 unpaired | 3 doubles |
| 18 hard sounds | 18 soft sounds | ||
What is the difference between vowels and consonants and letters and sounds? What rules do they obey? How are the hardness and softness of sounds and letters indicated? You will receive answers to all these questions in this article.
General information about vowels and consonants
Vowels and consonants represent the basis of the entire Russian language. After all, with the help of their combinations, syllables are formed that form words, expressions, sentences, texts, etc. That is why quite a lot of hours are devoted to this topic in high school.
and sounds in Russian
A person learns what vowels and consonants are in the Russian alphabet already from the first grade. And despite the apparent simplicity of this topic, it is considered one of the most difficult for students.
So, in the Russian language there are ten vowel letters, namely: o, i, a, y, yu, ya, e, e, u, e. During their immediate pronunciation, you can feel how air passes freely through the oral cavity. At the same time, we hear our own voice quite clearly. It should also be noted that vowel sounds can be drawn out (a-a-a-a, uh-uh-uh, i-i-i-i-i, u-u-u-u-u and so on ).
Features and letters
Vowels are the basis of a syllable, that is, they are the ones who organize it. As a rule, Russian words have as many syllables as vowels themselves. Let's give a clear example: u-che-ni-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 (A!, Oh!, Oooh!) and conjunctions (and, a, etc.).
Endings, suffixes and prefixes are very important topics in the Russian Language discipline. After all, without knowing how such letters are written in a particular word, it is quite problematic to compose a literate letter.
Consonants and sounds in Russian
Vowels and consonants letters and sounds vary significantly. And if the first ones can be easily pulled out, then the latter ones are pronounced as briefly as possible (except for hissing ones, since they can be pulled out).
It should be noted that in the Russian alphabet the number of consonant letters is 21, namely: b, v, g, d, zh, z, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, f, x, ts, h, w, shch. The sounds they denote are usually divided into dull 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!, r!, etc.). As for the deaf, there is no way to pronounce them loudly or, for example, shout. They only create a kind of noise (sh-sh-sh-sh-sh, s-s-s-s-s, etc.).
Thus, almost everything is divided into two different categories:
- voiced - b, c, d, d, g, z, j, l, m, n, r;
- deaf - k, p, s, t, f, x, c, ch, sh.
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 voicedness and voicelessness).
A distinctive feature of soft consonants is that during their pronunciation the human tongue takes a special position. As a rule, it moves slightly forward, and its entire middle part rises slightly. As for when pronouncing them, the tongue is pulled back. You can compare the position of your speech organ yourself: [n] - [n’], [t] - [t’]. It should also be noted that voiced and soft sounds sound slightly higher than hard ones.
In the Russian language, almost all consonants have pairs based on softness and hardness. However, there are also those who simply do not have them. These include hard ones - [zh], [sh] and [ts] and soft ones - [th"], [h"] and [sh"].
Softness and hardness of vowel sounds
Surely few people have heard that the Russian language has soft vowels. Soft consonants are sounds quite familiar to us, which cannot be said about the above-mentioned ones. This is partly due to the fact that in secondary school practically no time is devoted to 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, those letters that are capable of softening the consonants preceding them are called soft. These include the following: i, e, i, e, yu. As for letters such as a, y, y, e, o, they are considered hard because they do not soften the consonants in front. To see this, here are a few examples:
Indication of the softness of consonant letters during phonetic analysis of a word
Phonetics studies the sounds and letters of the Russian language. Surely, in high school you were asked more than once to make a word. During such an analysis, it is imperative to indicate whether it is separately considered or not. If yes, then it must be designated as follows: [n’], [t’], [d’], [v’], [m’], [p’]. That is, at the top right next to the consonant letter before the soft vowel, you need to put a kind of dash. The following soft sounds are marked with a similar icon - [th"], [h"] and [w"].
Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy said that there is nothing sedimentary or crystalline in the Russian language; everything excites, breathes, lives. Such “liveness” of our native language is the merit of the words that make up it. But before you learn to use them, you need to learn the letters and sounds. They will be discussed in this article.
When learning a language with your child, you need to clearly make him understand the differences between spoken and written language. To do this, it is important to give him the concept of what a sound is and what a letter is.
Sounds are what we perceive with our hearing. Our brain easily separates what relates to speech from other sounds and interprets them into images. We can write down the sounds of speech in letters, forming words from them.
A letter is a graphic symbol of the alphabet, thanks to which we can display on paper what we hear by ear. But here lies a very big difficulty for the child. After all, the number of sounds and letters that reproduce them on paper in different words may differ in one direction or the other.
How many letters and sounds are there in the Russian language and alphabet and their relationship
IMPORTANT: We hear and can produce sounds with our speech apparatus. We can see and write letters! Sounds exist in all languages. Even in those where there is no written language.
In a word like "chair" letters correspond to sounds. But, in the word "sun", the letter "L" not pronounced. Letters are also not pronounced "Kommersant" And "b". They only slightly change the pronunciation of the words in which they are used.
There is also such a “school” word as "Compass". In which instead of sound [AND] sound is pronounced [s].
There are still a lot of words in the Russian language that are pronounced differently from how they are written in letters. Therefore, it is very important for a child to learn to correctly understand this difference.
Alphabet
Language is the main invention of mankind. Moreover, for every nation that has created its own language, it is distinguished by the characteristics peculiar to this people. At a certain stage in the development of a community that a particular people uses, there appears a need to record speech sounds combined into words and sentences. This is how writing appeared, and at the same time the alphabet. That is, a set of all the letters used in writing, standing in strict order.
The alphabet of the Russian language contains 33 letters and looks like this:
The alphabet is the basis of any language that everyone who studies it needs to know. Is it possible to learn to speak without knowing the alphabet? Certainly. But, in addition to the ability to express your thoughts, you need to learn to write and read. And this is impossible to do without knowing the alphabet.
Today, children have a lot of different aids for learning the alphabet. You can buy special flash cards, magnets, and a small primer that your child can take with him on walks or trips.
In our computerized era, electronic gadgets can also be called upon to help in learning the alphabet. Type letters in text apps and name the sounds that teach them. You can use your imagination and use graphic editors, change fonts and add fills. Create your own alphabet that will be interesting to your child. Then learning will go faster and more efficiently.
INTERESTING: Teachers have come up with a very interesting and exciting way to learn the alphabet. Dedicate each new day in your family to one of the letters of the alphabet. Of course, we shouldn’t forget about the rest. Bake buns in the shape of letters, make letters from plasticine with your child, draw them, assemble them from counting sticks. Be sure to tell about the letter the day is dedicated to and give examples of its use.
Vowel sounds and letters
Introducing your child to the alphabet is a very exciting activity. But this is only one of the first steps in mastering the language. To continue studying its elementary units, you need to learn how to divide them according to their characteristics.
Those letters that are pronounced drawlingly are called vowels.
- There are 10 vowels in Russian “A”, “E”, “Y”, “I”, “O”, “U”, “Y”, “E”, “Yu”, “I”
- 6 vowel sounds [a], [o], [y], [e], [i], [s]. Typically, vowel sounds in the school curriculum should be highlighted in red.
We have already clarified the difference between the elementary particles of language.
Letters I, Yo, Yu, E - iotized. They involve one or two sounds.
From this table, this difference can be seen again:
INTERESTING: By the way, about the letter “Y”. Today it is mistakenly believed that Karamzin introduced it into our alphabet. But that's not true. This was done by the director of the St. Petersburg Academy, Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, on November 18, 1783 at a meeting on the occasion of the creation of the first explanatory dictionary in Russia. She suggested changing the letters “IO” to one “E”.
Stressed and unstressed vowel sounds
- Stressed vowel sound pronounced with great force and does not undergo changes.
For example: sn e g, st ý l, shk A f
- Unstressed vowel sound pronounced with little force and undergoes changes.
For example: To ABOUT rzina (heard instead of ABOUT, sound A), m E dva d (In the first unstressed vowel sound instead E, can be heard AND), pl E cho (vowel sound AND is heard instead E).
IMPORTANT: Stress is not placed in words with one syllable and in words with a letter Yo.
Vowels Yotated letters Ya, Yu, E, Yo soften the consonant sound in front of them and create one sound: e → [e] or [i], е → [o], yu → [u], i → [a ].
For example:
- At the beginning of the word: hedgehog [y’ozhik]
- In the middle of a word: shelter [pri y’ut]
- At the end of the word: gun [roug y'o]
Hard and soft vowels have a direct effect on consonants. For example, a consonant "P", maybe as solid (in the word "plastic bag"), and soft (in the word "cookie").
Consonants and letters
Consonant letters are called such because they contain consonant sounds. There are 36 consonant sounds in the Russian language:
An apostrophe marks soft sounds.
And 21 consonants:
Consonant letters and sounds, soft and hard: table
Consonants, like vowels, can be either hard or soft. For example, in the word "River", beech "R" soft, but in a word "Hand"– hard. In general, several factors influence the softness and hardness of sounds in a word. For example, the location of a sound in a word. The sounds are softened by iota vowels ( "E", "Yo", "YU" And "I") and diphthongs that come after consonants. For example:
- "White"
- "Love"
- "Friday"
The letter also softens sounds "AND", and its antipode "Y", on the contrary, makes the sound hard. The presence of a soft sign at the end of a word plays an important role:
- "Linen" And "laziness"
A soft sign can soften the sound, even if it is inside a word:
- "Skates"
Voiceless and voiced consonants in Russian: table
Consonants can be voiced or unvoiced. Voiced sounds are obtained with the participation of the voice in the formation of sound. Whereas in the formation of a dull sound, the voice practically does not play its creative role.
Voiced consonants
are formed by the passage of an air stream through the mouth and vibration of the vocal cords. Thanks to this, consonants such as:
When forming voiceless consonants
To make it easy to remember voiceless consonants, remember the expression: STYOPKA DO YOU WANT CHEEK? - FI! All consonants in these words are voiceless.
If you delete all the vowels from this expression, only voiceless consonants will remain.
Paired and unpaired hard and soft consonants: table
In terms of hardness and softness, most sounds form pairs:
Paired and unpaired voiced and voiceless consonants: table
In the Russian language, it is customary to distinguish pairs of voiceless-voiced consonants:
The remaining consonants are unpaired:
Sometimes there is “forced” deafness or sonority of a consonant sound. This occurs due to the position of the sound in the word. A frequent example of such a forced state is the words: pond [rod] And booth [booth].
Sonorous- voiced unpaired consonant sounds. There are only 9 of them: [th’], [l], [l’], [m], [m’], [n], [n’], [r], [r’]
Noisy consonant sounds - there are voiced and voiceless:
- Noisy voiceless consonants(16): [k], [k'], [p], [p'], [s], [s'], [t], [t'], [f], [f'], [ x], [x'], [ts], [h'], [w], [w'];
- Noisy voiced consonants(11): [b], [b'], [c], [c'], [g], [g'], [d], [d'], [g], [z], [z '].
Summary table of commonly used soft and hard letters and sounds in the Russian language:
Sibilant consonants
Consonants "AND", "SH", "H" And "SCH" called sizzling. These letters add some zest to our language. At the same time, they make it very difficult. Even while learning these letters, the child should know the rules:
- "ZHI" — "SHI" write from "AND"
- "CHA" — "SHA" with a letter "A"
- "CHU" — "SHU" with a letter "U"
Letter "AND" voiced, and the other three ( "H", "SH" And "SCH") deaf. An important feature of these sounds is that they cannot be pronounced without opening the mouth. Compare their pronunciation with the pronunciation "M" or "N". To pronounce sibilant consonants, there must be a gap between the lips through which air will escape, creating an acoustic accompaniment for these sounds.
The letter “and short” denotes the consonant sound th
Letter "Y" or "And short" found in almost all Slavic alphabets, as well as in those non-Slavic alphabets that use the Cyrillic alphabet. In the Russian alphabet this letter occupies 11th place. It was formed from the vowel "AND" and a voiced consonant "J".
It is interesting that in the 18th century, when the civil script was introduced (as opposed to the church script), all superscript characters disappeared from it. And the letter "Y" an important part of her was missing. At the same time, the sound denoted by this letter “did not suffer” from such reforms. Return "Y" writing succeeded under Peter I. However, it was not returned to the alphabet. This was done only in the 20th century.
Today, more and more philologists attribute sound "Y" to sonorant consonants. That is, those sounds that are located between vowels and consonants, but still relate to a consonant. In addition, it is always considered soft.
Which letters have multiple sounds?
Letters and sounds tape for elementary school
Various manuals help very well in learning the Russian language. One of these benefits is "Summer of Letters". It helps to understand the difference between letters, quickly develop reading skills in children and facilitate phonetic analysis of words.
At least at first glance "Ribbon of Letters" carries a minimum of information, this is far from true. This manual can be used not only at school, but also at home. Parents can independently teach their child literacy using this tool.
"Ribbon of letters" You can buy it at an office supply store or make it yourself. For example, you can use this diagram.
Video. Native language lessons 1st grade
Introduction
In the Russian language, all letters, both vowels and consonants, are its basis. After all, thanks to letters, syllables are formed, and with the help of syllables we make words, from words expressions, sentences, and so on.
But we will start today's lesson by studying the consonants of the Russian language.
Consonants
There are consonant letters and sounds. What kind of letters are these that are called consonants? To understand what consonants are, let's learn about the origin of the word "consonants". And they are called that because they always go next to vowels or together with vowels.
There is a fundamental difference between consonants and vowels. If we remember that all vowels can be easily drawn out or even sung, then consonant letters should be pronounced as briefly as possible. The only exceptions are sibilant consonant letters, since they can also be drawn.
There are twenty-one consonant letters and 37 consonant sounds in the Russian alphabet.
Consonants
Voiced and unvoiced sounds
Consonants are divided into voiced and unvoiced sounds. Pay attention to the letters that are written in pairs. If you look closely, each pair contains one letter that has a voiceless sound, and the other has a voiced sound.
Unvoiced letters mean a dull sound, and when we pronounce them we hear only noise, while when pronouncing voiced letters, we can hear not only noise, but also a voice.
B – P, G – S, D – T, G – K
But at the moment we see letters that have a pair. There are eleven of these pairs in the Russian language. But not all letters got pairs, so in the Russian alphabet there are also unpaired voiced ones, as well as unpaired voiceless ones.
Exercise: Come up with words for paired voiced and unvoiced sounds.
Soft and hard sounds
In addition to voiced and unvoiced letters of the alphabet, they can have soft and hard consonant sounds.
During the pronunciation of sounds, the position of our tongue changes according to the sound we pronounce. When pronouncing soft consonants, our tongue takes one position, and when pronouncing hard consonants, it takes a completely different position.
Now let's try to pronounce soft sounds first, and then hard ones. If you noticed, when pronouncing soft consonants, we move the tongue slightly forward and at the same time its middle part rises slightly. But when we pronounce hard consonants, our tongue is slightly pulled back.
Vowels and sounds in Russian
Now we invite you to remember what vowel sounds and letters there are in the Russian language. There are only ten of these letters:
When pronouncing vowel sounds, unlike consonants, during pronunciation we can draw out or sing them, and at the same time we feel how air passes through the entire oral cavity, and we clearly hear our voice.
Exercise 1.
Write the word rose
1. Change the letter z in this word to s.
2. What word did you get?
3. What has now changed in the third sound, and how does it sound?
4. Name all the vowels in this word?
5. What consonants are in this word?
Exercise 2.
Cat, juice, mal, feast, bow, ball
1. Replace the vowels in these words with other vowels.
2. What words did you receive?
3. Write down the new words that you come up with.
4. How are vowel sounds in previous words read?
5. How should you read sounds, hard or soft, in newly formed words?
Homework
1. Vowels and consonants - what is their difference?
2. What is the difference between letters and sounds?
3. Does the number of letters of the Russian alphabet coincide with the number of sounds?
4. Why are there fewer vowel sounds in the Russian language than vowel letters?
5. How can you explain why there are more sounds than letters?
6. What types of consonants are divided into?
In the Russian language there are 10 vowel letters, 6 vowel sounds. Vowel letters: a, i, e, ё, o, u, ы, e, yu, ya. Vowel sounds: [a], [o], [u], [e], [i], [s]. In the school curriculum, vowel sounds are indicated in red on the diagrams. In the elementary grades they explain: vowel letters are called that because they “voice”, are pronounced “vocally,” while consonant letters received this name because they “agree” with the vowels.
Scheme 1. Vowels and vowel sounds of the Russian language.
Stressed and unstressed vowel sounds
Vowel sounds are:
- percussive: juice [o] - ice ['o], forest ['e] - mayor [e], drill [u] - hatch ['u],
- unstressed: in O yes [a], s at dak [u], l e juice [and].
Note. It is correct to say “stressed syllable” and “unstressed syllable”. Instead of “the stress falls on the vowel,” say “the stress falls on the syllable with the vowel.” However, in the literature there are formulations “stressed vowel” and “unstressed vowel”.
Stressed vowels are in a strong position and are pronounced with greater force and intonation. Unstressed vowels are in a weak position, they are pronounced with less force and can be subject to change.
Note. The designation of the letter e in weak position differs in different school programs. Above we showed the sound [and], in other school programs the designation [e] is found, in the institute program - [e and ] (e with the overtone and).
Scheme 2. Division of vowels into stressed and unstressed. In the Russian language there are compound words with primary and secondary stress. In them, we highlight the main stress with strong intonation, and the secondary stress with weak intonation. For example, in the word foam blocks, the main stress falls on the syllable with the letter o, the secondary stress on the syllable with the letter e. In phonetic analysis, the vowel with the main stress is stressed, the vowel with the secondary stress is unstressed. For example: tricuspid, three-year-old.
Yotated vowel sounds
The letters i, yu, e, e are called iotized and mean two sounds in the following positions of the word:
- at the beginning of the word: fir tree [y "olka], Yana [y "ana], raccoon [y "inot];
- after a vowel: hare [zai"its], bayan [bai"an];
- after ь or ъ: streams [ruch "y", rise [fall "om].
For ё and stressed vowels I, yu, e, a replacement is made: I → [y’a], yu → [y’u], e → [y’e], ё → [y’o]. For unstressed vowels, a replacement is used: i → [th"i], e → [th"i]. In some school programs, when compiling a transcription of a word and during phonetic analysis, the Latin j is written instead of th.