- Affricate [слитный]
- An affricate ( or fused in the terms of M. V. Panov) is an obstruent consonant that shuts off airflow at the beginning of pronunciation and allows a restricted flow at the end of its pronunciation. Russian affricates: ц, ч.
- Consonant ( symbol = C ) [согласный]
- Letter representing non-syllable-bearing sounds and classified according to traditional linguistic categories.
See the Chart of Russian Consonants.
- Consonant Chart for Russian
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Russian consonants in this chart are classified according to the kinds of obstruction which affect the exhaled airflow and by the place where the air obstruction occurs ( point of articulation). The letter щ is not included in the chart of consonants, because it is considered to represent the combination шч. In this project the occurrence of щ by transformation is from either ст or ск.Chart of Russian Consonants Labial Dental Palatal Velar Obstruent Stop Voiceless п т к Voiced б д г Affricate Voiceless ц ч Fricative Voiceless ф с ш х Voiced в з ж Sonorant glide й Nasal м н Lateral л Trilled р - Cyrillic alphabet
- Alphabet attributed to St. Cyril in the 9th century based on the Greek alphabet. Note that at the time of the borrowing from Greek, the Greek beta already represented a "v" sound, since a new Cyrillic letter had to be created to represent the "b" sound. For the purposes of this presentation the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet are divided into two major classes: vowels which are defined as syllable-bearing sounds and consonants which are non-syllable-bearing sounds.
- Dental ( symbol = Cd ) [зубной]
- A dental consonant has its point of articulation where the tip of the tongue meets the back of the teeth. There are both obstruent ( т, д, с, and з )and sonorant ( н, л, and р ) dentals.
- Fricative [шелевой]
- A fricative is an obstruent consonant that allows airflow in a restricted manner at both the beginning and end of its pronunciation. Russian fricatives: ф, с, ш, х, в, з, ж.
See Chart of Russian Consonants.
- Glide [глайд]
- A glide is a sonorant consonant with a minimal obstruction at the point of articulation where the back-mid part of the tongue rises toward the palate.
- Labial ( symbol = Cl ) [губной]
- A labial consonant has its point of articulation where both lips make contact ( bilabial: п, б, м)or the bottom lip makes contact with the teeth ( labial-dental: ф, в). There are both obstruent and sonorant labials.
- Lateral [боковой]
- A lateral is a dental sonorant where the sound spills over the sides of the tongue during pronunciation.
- Loss of the jers
- By means of comparative phonology, what are now named the hard sign ъ and the soft sign ь we consider to have represented vowel segments designated as jers in the early development of the Slavic family of languages: the back jer ъ derived from a short "u" and the front jer ь derived from a short "i". Essentially, words were made up of open syllables, i.e., consonant + vowel / consonant + vowel / etc. The vowel system consisted of front and back vowels which affected some of the underlying phonetic characteristics of the preceding consonants. At some point in time the vowels represented by jers no longer were syllable bearing, i.e., they lost their primary vocalic characteristic. This process became known as the "loss of the jers" and produced several significant changes to the phonological structure of the language: a word could now end in a consonant (since the jers at the end of a word were lost); where the jers were lost, consonants themselves had to assume a distinction as to whether a front jer or a back jer had originally followed it, thus the categorization of consonants as palatalized (soft) or unpalatalized (hard).
- Nasal [носовой]
- A nasal is a sonoroant consonant where the oral cavity is completely blocked at the point of articulation and the sound comes through the nose during pronunciation.
- Non-palatalizing ( symbol = V ) [непалатализующий]
- Vowel letters that indicate that the preceding consonant is a hard or non-palatalized consonant.
- Obstruent [смычный]
- Consonants can be classified as obstruent or sonorant. A maximal degree of obstruction to the exhaled air is associated with obstruents. They may be either voiced or voiceless.
See Chart of Russian Consonants.
- Palatal ( symbol = Cp ) [палатальный]
- A palatal consonant has its point of articulation where the mid-back part of the tongue makes contact with the palate. There are both obtruent (ш, ж, ч) and sonorant ( й ) palatals.
- Palatalizing [палаталилзующий]
- Vowel letters that indicate that the preceding consonant is a soft or palatalized consonant.
- Point of articulation [Место образоваия]
- The place in the mouth where the upper and lower mouth parts form the obstruction for exhaled air during pronunciation.
- Sonorant [сонорный]
- Consonants can be classified as obstruent or sonorant. A minimal degree of obstruction to the exhaled air is associated with sonorants (also called resonants). Voicing is always present with sonorants.
- Stop [взрывой]
- A stop (or plosive, in the terms of M. V. Panov) is an obstruent consonant that completely blocks the airflow during pronunciation. Russian stops: п, т, к, б, д, г.
- Trilled [дрожаший]
- A trill is a dental sonoroant where the tip of the tongue flaps rapidly against the teeth or ridge behind the teeth during pronunciation.
- Voiced [звонкий]
- During the pronunciation of voiced consonants, the vocal chords are vibrating. Voiced Russian obstruent consonants: б, д, г, ф, з, ж.
- Voiceless [глухой]
- During the pronunciation of voiceless consonants, the vocal chords are not vibrating. Voiceless Russian obstruent consonants: п, т, к, ц, ч, ф, с, ш, х.
- Vowel ( symbol = V ) [гласный]
- Letters indicating vowels represent syllable-bearing sounds. In this presentation the significant class differention is between palatalizing vowels and non-palatalizing vowels.
See the Chart of Russian Vowels.
- Vowel Chart for Russian
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In this presentation the primary classification of Russian Cyrillic vowels is as [1] palatizing vowels (indicating that the preceding consonant is palatalized; at the beginning of a word indicating that "й" is the initial consonant) and [2] non-palatalizing vowels (indicating that the preceding consonant is not palatalized [a hard consonant]). The differention between "front" and "non-front" vowels is also used. The soft sign ь [мягкий энак] does not denote a syllable-bearing sound; however, it does indicate that the preceding consonant is palatalized, just as the palatalizing vowels. For the purposes of this presentation it might be considered a "silent" vowel.Chart of Russian Vowels Front Non-Front Unrounded Rounded Non-Palatalizing High ы у Mid э о Low а ъ Palatalizing ь High и ю Mid е ë Low я