Which There is letters and sounds in Russian? Which letters represent which sounds? What is the difference between soft and hard consonants? When is a consonant hard and when is it soft? Why are soft (b) and hard signs (b) needed?

Want to find answers to all these questions? Then read on!

Letters and sounds

Below you will find an interactive Russian alphabet with audio. For each letter [in square brackets], the sounds that it can represent are indicated, as well as examples of words with this letter.

And here, for sure, you will immediately have two questions:

No. 1 Why do some letters have two sounds?

This is a feature of the Russian language. Some letters can represent two different sounds: a hard consonant and a soft consonant. To clearly demonstrate this principle, I specially selected two examples for each of these letters: one with a hard consonant, and the other with a soft consonant.

No. 2 Why are no sounds shown for “ь” and “ъ”?

These are soft and hard signs. By themselves they do not represent any sounds. They show us how to read the previous consonant: a consonant before a hard sign will be hard, and a consonant before a soft sign will be soft.

Also, sometimes we need to separate a consonant sound from a vowel, and to do this, we will write one of these signs between them. This is how we distinguish, for example, the words “seed” and “family”.

The soft sign and the hard sign do not represent sounds in Russian.

A soft sign indicates a softening of the preceding sound in a word.

A hard sign indicates a hard pronunciation of the preceding sound in a word.

At the same time they are ordinary letters.

Students in first grade study which letters do not have sounds.

They do not represent any sounds in the Russian language, only these two letters Ъ hard sign and ь soft sign.

All other letters of the alphabet represent sounds. Moreover, sometimes a letter denotes two sounds at once, which is why there are 42 sounds for 33 letters.

A hard sign prevents sounds from merging and separates a vowel and a consonant.

The soft sign performs the function of softening and separation. The same word, in the presence or absence of b, takes on different meanings. For example: Pierrot and Pero.

From a linguistic point of view, in modern Russian, six letters do not represent specific sounds. The soft sign serves to soften the last consonant, and the hard sign separates the consonants and vowels. There are also four vowels: e, ya, yu. In certain cases, they can split into two sounds at once.

For example: lka yolka, meat mistso

There are two letters in the Russian language that do not represent any sounds: Kommersant(hard sign) and b(soft sign).

The soft sign means softness previous consonant, hard performs disconnecting function to correctly read the next vowel letter (with ъ ate - sat down). This situation occurs when the prefix ends with a consonant, and the root begins with a vowel that can be read twofold- as a combination of a consonant sound J + vowel or without him(letters E, Yu, I).

It would seem that everything is simple and there is not much to talk about the World Cup.

But that's not true. In the Old Russian language the letters b(err) and Kommersant(er) denoted very real sounds. b denoted a short sound AND, A Kommersant denoted a short sound ABOUT.

In very hoary ancient times, even before the adoption of Christianity and writing, in the Old Russian language there were vowels are full, short And nasal. By the time Rus' was baptized, nasal vowels we have disappeared, But there were letters for them(because this process occurred unevenly in different Slavic languages, and the written language was created the same for all), but vowels of different duration sounded in real speech.

However, gradually the phonetic system of the Old Russian language began to free itself from this discrepancy in vowel duration. The fact that over time in the Russian language also played its role has changed And quality of stress: stressed, pre-stressed and post-stressed vowels began to last differently, regardless of their original, ancient length. Phenomena of vowel reduction depending on the position regarding the relationship to the stressed syllable not found in other literary Slavic languages. It is not present in the Ukrainian language either, so a person who begins to speak Ukrainian, having switched from Russian, can be easily recognized not by the incorrect G, but by the pronunciation of the overwhelming majority of vowels. But this is so, by the way, it had to be.

What happened to the short vowels b and b? Some of them turned out to be in strong positions(under stress, before a cluster of several consonants, in adjacent syllables with other short vowels, or away from stressed syllables with any vowels) and cleared into full vowels ABOUT And E. Others turned out to be in weak positions(at the absolute end of a word, in adjacent syllables with stressed vowels) and simply disappeared.

That's why we talk to Kommersant There is ( Kommersant ended up in front of a stressed vowel, weak position), but with ABOUT unite ( Kommersant turned out to be far from the stressed vowel, a strong position). In the word d b n b first b found himself in a strong position (under stress), and the second b- in the weak (at the absolute end of the word), but with declination the stress falls on the ending, so the former is strong b from a root it turned into a weak one and disappeared. In modern Russian language this phenomenon is called fluent vowels.

Brief sound Kommersant really preserved in Bulgarian language, but there they call him er golyam(i.e. big er). b(er malek - small er) disappeared in the same way as in Russian, and the letter serves to designate a soft consonant before the sound O.

In Russian, there are two letters, or rather two signs, namely -ь- (soft) and -ъ- (hard) signs, which, when used correctly in a word, soften or harden sounds, adding a certain emphasis to the sound of a particular word.

There are two letters in the Russian alphabet that do not have their own sounds, but affect the pronunciation of the previous consonant letter (consonant sound). Either soft or hard.

These two letters are located at the extreme part of the alphabet and they look like b (soft sign) and b (hard sign).

Of the 33 letters of the Russian alphabet, two letters do not denote an independent sound, but only modify the sound of the previous one: the hard sign Ъ and the soft sign ь.

In many other languages, these functions are assigned to diacritics. For example, in Czech there is a diacritic sign gachek (looks like a tick above a letter (or in some cases like an apostrophe), which plays the role of a soft sign.

Interestingly, the letter Ъ in the Bulgarian language is a common vowel, denoting a sound intermediate between e and a.

There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet. Each of them plays one of the following roles in speech:

1 .Indicates one of the sounds.

2 .Indicates two sounds.

3 .Denotes one sound and characterizes the previous consonant sound in the category of hardness-softness.

4 .Does not denote any sound, but characterizes the hardness or softness of the previous consonant sound.

We are interested in the 4th group. Only two letters are not included. They don't have any sponsored sounds. This Kommersant And b. It is characteristic that only these letters are officially called signs - hard and soft. They don't have any physical sound. No matter how we try to portray them with our voices, we will not succeed. These signs do not represent sounds.

Many of us know that when analyzing words phonetically, it often turns out that there are more letters in a word than sounds.

Why is this happening?

Letters always do not represent sounds Kommersant And b.

Not always -

and in some cases we are dealing with unpronounceable consonants - this happens when we write a letter but do not pronounce it (do not read it).

As you can see, there are several such consonants and these are letters D, L, T, V

There are many examples of such words, and here are some of them:

heart, sun, passionate, late, hello and others.

Of course, there are exceptions, so you always need to be careful and it’s better to take note of such owls.

There are only two letters in the Russian language that do not represent sounds: Kommersant And b. They have separation function: Kommersant-- after Russians prefixes ending in consonant sound, and before the root of a word starting with letters E, Yu, I(pre-anniversary, disheveled, otm, sarcastic); b-- in the middle of a word, that is, in the root or suffix

(convolvulus, monkey, broth, bird, frog).

**b** also has the function of softening consonant sounds: sing, before, lion, seven.

In writing some parts of speech b has its own morphological function, denoting, for example, nouns female gender as opposed to nouns male: thing and horsetail, speech and hoop, mouse and crumb.

Hard and soft signs do not indicate any sounds. The hard sign performs a dividing function and is used after prefixes ending in

consonants, as well as before the root of a word starting with e, e, yu or i (pre-anniversary, disheveled, weaning, sarcastic). For example, it helps us distinguish between the words “sat” and “ate.” The soft sign indicates the softness of the previous consonant: bindweed, monkey,

earlier, seven. Sometimes a soft sign helps to distinguish a masculine noun from a feminine one: for example, the word “thing” is feminine, and “horsetail” is masculine. In addition, it often contributes to the creation of different forms of the same verb: meet and meet.

But in the Old Russian language, soft and hard signs (er and er) meant very real sounds. The first meant the short sound “i”, and the second meant the same short “o”. Even before Russia adopted Christianity and the development of writing, the language had full, short and nasal vowels, and they all performed different functions. By the time of the baptism of Rus', nasal vowels had disappeared from the Russian language, but the letters to denote them remained. The former short vowels ь and ъ in some words found themselves in strong positions (for example, under stress, before a cluster of several consonants, in adjacent syllables with other short

vowels or far from stressed syllables with any vowels) and thus turned into full vowels o or e, and in others - in weak positions (at the absolute end of a word,

in adjacent syllables with stressed vowels) and gradually simply disappeared from use. Previously, the hard sign was in the word “connect” instead of “o”, the soft sign in the word “day” instead of “e”. In modern Russian there is such a thing as “fluent vowels.” This is the legacy of Old Russian. This is why texts in Old Russian are so difficult to read.

Do we need hard and soft signs? Hard to tell. In the Czech language, for example, they have long been replaced by diacritics. Language is subject to change, and it is possible that sooner or later ъ and ь will cease to exist as letters of the alphabet.

Although graphics were originally created to reinforce speech in writing, there is no direct (one-to-one) correspondence between letters and sounds. Several types of relationships between letters and sounds are possible.

1. One letter can represent only one sound. For example, the letter th represents only the sound “yot”, the letter u – only the sound [u].

2. One letter can represent different sounds appearing in different positions. For example, the letter o in the word policeman [gyardavo:j] denotes 3 different sounds - unstressed vowels [ъ], [а] and a stressed vowel; the letter b in the word fish denotes a voiced sound [b], and in the form R. p. plural. h. fish - dull sound [n]: [ryp]. The letter e is often used in printed texts not only in its basic sound meaning, but also replaces the letter e, i.e., in such use it denotes the stressed sound [o] (brought, ice, led), and after a vowel or dividing letter ъ and b - combination (reception, rise, curls).

3. One letter can represent a combination of two sounds. For example, iotated letters, as mentioned above, often denote a combination of a consonant sound [j] and a vowel sound: I sing [pajy].

4. A letter may not denote a single sound, that is, it may not have a sound meaning. This applies not only to the silent letters ъ and ь (entrance, notebook), but also, for example, to the so-called unpronounceable consonants: feeling [chust'], heart [s'erts], sun [sonts].

5. The combination of two letters in a word can mean one sound. For example, in the word count, the first two consonants indicate one long soft consonant sound: [sh`itat`]. The combination of a consonant letter with a soft sign denotes one consonant sound: day [d`en`], mouse [mouse].

6. Different letters can represent the same sound. Thus, the letters t and d can denote the same sound [t]: that [that], year [goth].

Despite the peculiarities of the relationship between letters and sounds, modern Russian graphics are convenient for everyday practice, which does not require precise recording of all the features of the sound structure of our speech. It allows you to fairly accurately represent in writing the relationship between the sounds of Russian speech and is a good basis for Russian spelling.

Modern Russian literary language / Ed. P. A. Lekanta - M., 2009

Hard and soft signs do not indicate any sounds. The hard sign performs a dividing function and is used after prefixes ending in

consonants, as well as before the root of a word starting with e, e, yu or i (pre-anniversary, disheveled, weaning, sarcastic). For example, it helps us distinguish between the words “sat” and “ate.” The soft sign indicates the softness of the previous consonant: bindweed, monkey,

earlier, seven. Sometimes a soft sign helps to distinguish a masculine noun from a feminine one: for example, the word “thing” is feminine, and “horsetail” is masculine. In addition, it often contributes to the creation of different forms of the same verb: meet and meet.

But in the Old Russian language, soft and hard signs (er and er) meant very real sounds. The first meant the short sound “i”, and the second meant the same short “o”. Even before Russia adopted Christianity and the development of writing, the language had full, short and nasal vowels, and they all performed different functions. By the time of the baptism of Rus', nasal vowels had disappeared from the Russian language, but the letters to denote them remained. The former short vowels ь and ъ in some words found themselves in strong positions (for example, under stress, before a cluster of several consonants, in adjacent syllables with other short

vowels or far from stressed syllables with any vowels) and thus turned into full vowels o or e, and in others - in weak positions (at the absolute end of a word,

in adjacent syllables with stressed vowels) and gradually simply disappeared from use. Previously, the hard sign was in the word “connect” instead of “o”, the soft sign in the word “day” instead of “e”. In modern Russian there is such a thing as “fluent vowels.” This is the legacy of Old Russian. This is why texts in Old Russian are so difficult to read.

Do we need hard and soft signs? Hard to tell. In the Czech language, for example, they have long been replaced by diacritics. Language is subject to change, and it is possible that sooner or later ъ and ь will cease to exist as letters of the alphabet.