The Russian language has 21 consonants and 36 consonant sounds. Consonant letters and their corresponding consonant sounds:
b - [b], c - [c], g - [g], d - [d], g - [g], j - [th], z - [z], k - [k], l - [l], m - [m], n - [n], p - [p], p - [p], s - [s], t - [t], f - [f], x - [x ], c - [c], ch - [ch], sh - [sh], shch - [sch].
Consonant sounds are divided into voiced and voiceless, hard and soft. They are paired and unpaired. There are a total of 36 different combinations of consonants by pairing and unpairing, hard and soft, voiceless and voiced: voiceless - 16 (8 soft and 8 hard), voiced - 20 (10 soft and 10 hard).
Scheme 1. Consonants and consonant sounds of the Russian language.
Hard and soft consonants
Consonants are hard and soft. They are divided into paired and unpaired. Paired hard and paired soft consonants help us distinguish between words. Compare: horse [kon’] - kon [kon], bow [bow] - hatch [l’uk].
For understanding, let’s explain it “on the fingers”. If the consonant is in in different words means either a soft or hard sound, then the sound refers to pairs. For example, in the word cat the letter k denotes a hard sound [k], in the word whale the letter k denotes a soft sound [k’]. We get: [k] - [k’] form a pair according to hardness and softness. Sounds for different consonants cannot be classified as a pair, for example [v] and [k’] do not form a pair in terms of hardness-softness, but they do form a pair [v]-[v’]. If a consonant sound is always hard or always soft, then it belongs to unpaired consonants. For example, the sound [zh] is always hard. There are no words in the Russian language where it would be soft [zh’]. Since there is no pair [zh]-[zh’], it is classified as unpaired.
Voiced and voiceless consonants
Consonant sounds are voiced and unvoiced. Thanks to voiced and voiceless consonants, we distinguish words. Compare: ball - heat, count - goal, house - volume. Voiceless consonants are pronounced with the mouth almost closed; when pronouncing them, the vocal cords do not work. Voiced consonants require more air, the vocal cords work.
Some consonant sounds have a similar sound in the way they are pronounced, but are pronounced with different tonality - dull or voiced. Such sounds are combined in pairs and form a group of paired consonants. Accordingly, paired consonants are a pair of a voiceless and a voiced consonant.
- paired consonants: b-p, v-f, g-k, d-t, z-s, zh-sh.
- unpaired consonants: l, m, n, r, y, c, x, h, shch.
Sonorant, noisy and sibilant consonants
Sonorants are voiced unpaired consonant sounds. There are 9 sonorant sounds: [y’], [l], [l’], [m], [m’], [n], [n’], [r], [r’].
Noisy consonant sounds are voiced and unvoiced:
- Noisy voiceless consonants (16): [k], [k"], [p], [p"], [s], [s"], [t], [t"], [f], [f "], [x], [x'], [ts], [h'], [w], [w'];
- Noisy voiced consonant sounds (11): [b], [b'], [v], [v'], [g], [g'], [d], [d'], [g], [z ], [z'].
Hissing consonant sounds (4): [zh], [ch’], [sh], [sch’].
Paired and unpaired consonants
Consonant sounds (soft and hard, voiceless and voiced) are divided into paired and unpaired. The tables above show the division. Let's summarize everything with a diagram:
Scheme 2. Paired and unpaired consonant sounds. To be able to do phonetic analysis, in addition to consonant sounds, you need to know
The speech of a person, especially a native speaker, must not only be correct, but also beautiful, emotional, and expressive. Voice, diction, and consistent spelling standards are important here.
The ability to pronounce sounds correctly consists of practical classes(voice training: volume, timbre, flexibility, diction, etc.) and knowledge of in what cases a particular pronunciation of sound is appropriate (orthoepic norms).
Before talking about the letters that represent soft consonant phonemes, you should remember the basic phonetic concepts and terms.
Phonetics: sounds and letters
Let's start with the fact that there are no soft consonants in Russian words. Since sound is what we hear and pronounce, it is elusive, it is an indivisible part of speech, which is obtained as a result of human articulation. A letter is only a graphic symbol denoting a particular sound. We see them and write them.
There is no complete correspondence between them. The number of letters and sounds in one word may not match. The Russian alphabet consists of thirty-three letters, and speech has forty-seven sounds.
Accurate in the word through letters - transcription. The letters in this case are written in square brackets. When analyzing phonetically, each sound must be written with a separate letter, emphasized and indicated softness, if necessary ["], for example, milk - [malako], mole - [mol"] - in in this case the letter l with an apostrophe indicates a soft sound [l"].
Phonetics: vowels and consonants
When a stream of air flies out of the throat without encountering obstacles on its way, it turns out (singing). There are six of them in the Russian language. They are shock and unstressed.
If the air leaving the larynx does not pass freely, then a consonant sound is obtained. They are formed from noise or noise and voice. There are thirty-seven consonant phonemes in our Russian language.
- sonorous (the voice is much stronger than the noise);
- noisy - voiced and unvoiced.
Also in pronunciation there are soft consonants (the letters that represent them are written with an apostrophe) and hard sounds. They differ in pronunciation - when speaking a soft consonant, a person raises the middle back of the tongue high to the palate.
Graphics: letters
So, letters are the designations of sounds in writing. The science that studies them is graphics. The alphabet is a graphic representation of the sounds of a language, arranged in in a certain order. The ten letters of the Russian alphabet are vowel letters that represent vowel sounds. It also includes twenty-one consonants and two letters that do not represent sounds at all. Each letter in the alphabet has its own unique name. The modern alphabet was created in 1918 and officially approved in 1942. Now these graphic signs are used in more than fifty different languages peace.
Letter-sound composition
In the Russian language, the composition of speech sounds and letters differs due to the specifics of the letter - the letters of soft consonant sounds and hard ones are identical - ate [y "el", el [y "el"]; and six vowels are indicated in writing by ten letters. This is how it turns out that there are fourteen more sounds in speech than letters in the alphabet.
Hard consonants
Consonant phonemes form pairs: voiced - voiceless, soft - hard. But there are those that will always sound firm - these are w, sh, ts. Even in the words parachute, brochure and cognates w will remain solid. In some foreign words, they are pronounced differently.
Soft consonants
There is also a trio of sounds that are always soft, consonant letters denoting them - h, sch, th. There are no exceptions to these rules in Russian.
Paired consonants
Consonants are mostly paired, that is, each hard sound corresponds to its softer pronunciation. The letters denoting soft ones will be identical. In the transcription, the sign ["] will be added to them.
How to determine where soft consonants will appear? Letters do not immediately form words; they first form syllables. The softness or hardness of the pronunciation of a consonant depends on which sound follows it in the syllable.
Syllables
A syllable is a sound or several sounds that are pronounced in one breath, with one push of air.
Vowels are syllable-forming sounds, consonants are adjacent to them - the syllable is obtained: mo-lo-ko, let-ta-yu-sha-ya fish. The number of syllables in a word is equal to the number of vowels in it.
Open syllables end with vowel sounds: picture - car- Tina, lawful - right-dimensional.
If a syllable ends with a consonant, it is a closed syllable: car-ti-na, legitimate - right-in measured.
In the middle of a word there are often open syllables, and the consonants adjacent to them are transferred to the next syllable: po-ddat, di-ktor. The sounds that can close a syllable within a word are voiced, unpaired, hard consonants and soft. Letters for writing them - y, r, l, m, n. For example: kitty - ki-sony-ka.
There are divisions of words into syllables and parts for transfer, as well as into morphemes. This is the syllabic, or syllabic, principle of graphics. It also applies to consonants.
Hard and soft consonants: letters (syllabic principle)
It manifests itself in relation to consonants in that it determines the unit of reading and writing:
- Like combining a consonant and the vowel that follows it.
- Combining a consonant and a soft sign.
- Grouping two consonants or a space at the end of a word.
So, in order to understand whether the sound defined in a word is soft or hard, you need to pay attention to what comes after it in the syllable.
If any consonant follows the one we are interested in, then the sound being identified is hard. For example: chatter - chatter, T- solid.
If the next one is a vowel, then you need to remember that before a, o, u, e, s stand For example: mother, fetters, vine.
And, e, yu, I, e- letters denoting a soft consonant sound. For example, a song is a song, p, n- soft, yet With- solid.
In order to speak well and correctly read soft consonants and sounds, you need to develop your understanding and discrimination of speech sounds. Fine developed ability clearly identifying what sounds are in a word, even if you are hearing it for the first time, will allow you to better remember and understand the speech of others. And the main thing is to speak more beautifully and correctly yourself.
The syllabic principle is convenient because it allows you to reduce the number of letters in the alphabet. After all, in order to designate soft and hard consonant phonemes, it would be necessary to invent, create, and teach users fifteen new graphic elements. This is exactly what is contained in our speech. In practice, it turned out to be enough to determine the vowels indicating which letters have soft consonants.
Letters representing soft consonants
The softness of sound is indicated by ["] only when writing a transcription - sound analysis of a word.
When reading or writing, there are two ways to represent soft consonants.
- If a soft consonant ends a word or comes before another consonant, then it is designated “ь”. For example: blizzard, stolnik, etc. Important: when writing, the softness of a consonant is determined by “b” only if it appears in words with the same root both before a soft and before a hard consonant in different cases (len - flax). Most often, when two soft consonants are next to each other, after the first “b” they are not used in writing.
- If a soft consonant is followed by a vowel, then it is determined by letters I, yu, i, yo, e. For example: drove, sat down, tulle, etc.
Even when applying the syllabic principle, problems arise with e before a consonant, they are so deep that they turn into orthoepy. Some scientists believe that a necessary condition euphony is a ban on writing e after hard consonants, because this grapheme defines soft consonants and interferes with the correct pronunciation of hard ones. There is a suggestion to replace e to single digit uh. Before the introduction, unified spelling of syllables e-e in 1956, paired spelling of such words (adequate - adequate) was actively and legally practiced. But unification did not solve the main problem. Replacing e with uh after hard consonants, obviously, it won’t either ideal solution, new words appear more and more often in the Russian language, and in what case to write one or another letter remains controversial.
Orthoepy
Let's return to where we started - our speech - it is determined by orthoepy. On the one hand, these are developed norms for correct pronunciation, and on the other, this is a science that studies, justifies and establishes these norms.
Orthoepy serves the Russian language, blurring the lines between adverbs to make it easier for people to understand each other. So that when communicating with each other, representatives of different regions think about what they are saying, and not about how this or that word sounded from the interlocutor.
The foundation of the Russian language and, therefore, pronunciation is the Moscow dialect. It was in the capital of Russia that science began to develop, including orthoepy, so the norms require us to speak - to pronounce sounds like Muscovites.
Orthoepy gives one The right way pronunciations, rejecting all others, but at the same time sometimes allowing options that are considered correct.
Despite clear, understandable and simple rules, orthoepy notes many features, nuances and exceptions in how letters are pronounced, denoting a soft consonant sound and a hard one...
Orthoepy: soft and hard consonants
Which letters have soft consonants? Ch, sch, th- Under no circumstances should you pronounce hard sounds instead of soft sounds. But this rule is violated by falling under the influence Belarusian language and even Russian dialects, reprimands. Remember how in this Slavic group the word sounds more, For example.
L- this is a paired consonant sound, respectively, standing immediately before the consonant or at the end of the word it should sound firm. Before oh, a, y, uh, s too (tent, corner, skier), but in some words that came to us more often from foreign languages, whose speakers live mainly in Europe, and which are proper names, l pronounced almost softly (La Scala, La Rochelle, La Fleur).
The consonants that come last in the prefix before a firm sign, even if followed by letters denoting a soft consonant sound, they are pronounced firmly (entrance, announcement). But for consonants With And h this rule does not have full force. Sounds With And h in this case they can be pronounced in two ways (congress - [s"]ezd - [s]ezd).
The rules of orthoepy state that the final consonant in a word cannot be softened, even if it merges with the next word starting with e (in this, to the equator, with emu). If such a consonant is softened in speech, this indicates that the person communicates through a colloquial style.
"b" also belongs to the list of "soft consonant letters" and the sounds before it should be pronounced softly, even the sounds m, b, p, c, f in words such as seven, eight, ice hole, shipyard, etc. Pronounce soft sounds firmly in front of " b" is unacceptable. Only in the words eight hundred and seven hundred m may not have a soft, but a hard sound.
Which letters represent soft consonants, you need to remember clearly - e, yu, yo, i, and.
So, in many foreign words before e the consonant sound is not softened. This often happens with labial m, f, c, b, p. P- Chopin, coupe; b- Bernard Show; V- Solveig; f- auto-da-fe; m- reputation, consommé.
Much more often than these consonants, firmly before e dental consonants sound r, n, z, s, d, t. R- Reichswehr, Roerich; n- pince-nez, tour; h- chimpanzee, Bizet; With- highway, Musset; d- dumping, masterpiece; T- pantheon, aesthetics.
Thus, the letters of soft consonants have a fairly definite composition, but fall under a number of exceptions.
Hard and Soft Consonants is a set of twenty cards that is an excellent didactic material to teach reading and develop a child's understanding of terms such as “soft” and “hard” sounds. These cards can be used with equal success for home grammar lessons and for educational classes in kindergartens and schools. early development. We offer you a color version of the cards. Soft consonants are colored green, hard consonants are blue. By printing them on a color printer and pre-cutting them, you can use them to demonstrate hard and soft sounds.
According to the hardness and softness of the sound, the consonants form fifteen pairs: [b] - [b'], [c] - [v'], [g] - [g'], [d] - [d'], [z] - [z'], [p] - [p'], [f] - [f'], [k] - [k'], [t] - [t'], [s] - [s'], [m] - [m'], [n] - [n'], [p] - [p'], [l] - [l'] and [x] - [x']. For example, the letter “R” in different words can be pronounced hard – “fish” and softly – “river”. To indicate softness, a special icon is used: [‘].
But there are sounds that have no pair for softness. For example: [y'], [h'], [sh'] are always soft, and [zh], [w], [ts] are always hard. All other nouns are soft if they are followed by the vowels i, yu, ё, e, i or ь, and hard if they are paired with other vowels and consonants.
On our website, parents and kindergarten teachers can download Hard and Soft Consonant Sounds cards for free. There are other sets of cards that will help you prepare your child for school yourself.
Sound is the smallest unit of language pronounced with the help of the organs of the speech apparatus. Scientists have discovered that at birth, the human ear perceives all the sounds it hears. All this time his brain sorts unnecessary information, and by 8-10 months a person is able to distinguish sounds that are exclusively native language, and all the nuances of pronunciation.
33 letters make up the Russian alphabet, 21 of them are consonants, but letters must be distinguished from sounds. A letter is a sign, a symbol that can be seen or written. The sound can only be heard and pronounced, and in writing it can be designated using transcription - [b], [c], [d]. They carry a certain semantic load, connecting with each other to form words.
36 consonant sounds: [b], [z], [v], [d], [g], [zh], [m], [n], [k], [l], [t], [p ], [t], [s], [sch], [f], [ts], [w], [x], [h], [b"], [z"], [v"], [ d"], [th"], [n"], [k"], [m"], [l"], [t"], [s"], [p"], [r"], [ f"], [g"], [x"].
Consonant sounds are divided into:
- soft and hard;
voiced and voiceless;
paired and unpaired.
Soft and hard consonants
Phonetics of the Russian language has significant difference from many other languages. It contains hard and soft consonants.
At the moment of pronunciation soft sound the tongue is pressed harder against the palate than when pronouncing a hard consonant, preventing the release of air. This is what distinguishes a hard and soft consonant sound from each other. In order to determine in writing whether a consonant sound is soft or hard, you should look at the letter immediately after the specific consonant.
Consonant sounds are classified as hard in the following cases:
- if letters a, o, u, e, s follow after them - [poppy], [rum], [hum], [juice], [bull];
- after them there is another consonant sound - [vors], [hail], [marriage];
- if the sound is at the end of the word - [darkness], [friend], [table].
The softness of sound is written as an apostrophe: mole - [mol’], chalk - [m’el], wicket - [kal’itka], pir - [p’ir].
It should be noted that the sounds [ш'], [й'], [ч'] are always soft, and hard consonants are only [ш], [тс], [ж].
A consonant sound will become soft if it is followed by “b” and vowels: i, e, yu, i, e. For example: gen - [g"en], flax - [l"on], disk - [d"ysk] , hatch - [l "uk", elm - [v "yaz", trill - [tr "el"].
Voiced and voiceless, paired and unpaired sounds
Based on their sonority, consonants are divided into voiced and voiceless. Voiced consonants can be sounds created with the participation of the voice: [v], [z], [zh], [b], [d], [y], [m], [d], [l], [r] , [n].
Examples: [bor], [ox], [shower], [call], [heat], [goal], [fishing], [pestilence], [nose], [genus], [swarm].
Examples: [kol], [floor], [volume], [sleep], [noise], [shch"uka], [choir], [king"], [ch"an].
Paired voiced and voiceless consonants include: [b] - [p], [zh] - [w], [g] - [x], [z] - [s]. [d] - [t], [v] - [f]. Examples: reality - dust, house - volume, year - code, vase - phase, itch - court, live - sew.
Sounds that do not form pairs: [h], [n], [ts], [x], [r], [m], [l].
Soft and hard consonants can also have a pair: [p] - [p"], [p] - [p"], [m] - [m"], [v] - [v"], [d] - [ d"], [f] - [f"], [k] - [k"], [z] - [z"], [b] - [b"], [g] - [g"], [ n] - [n"], [s] - [s"], [l] - [l"], [t] - [t"], [x] - [x"]. Examples: byl - bel, height - branch, city - cheetah, dacha - business, umbrella - zebra, skin - cedar, moon - summer, monster - place, finger - feather, ore - river, soda - sulfur, pillar - steppe, lantern - farm, mansions - hut.
Table for memorizing consonants
To clearly see and compare soft and hard consonants, the table below shows them in pairs.
Solid - before the letters A, O, U, Y, E Soft - before the letters I, E, E, Yu, I | Hard and soft consonants | |||
| b | ball | b" | battle | |
| V | howl | V" | eyelid | |
| G | garage | G" | hero | |
| d | hole | d" | tar | |
| h | ash | z" | yawn | |
| To | godfather | To" | sneakers | |
| l | vine | l" | foliage | |
| m | March | m" | month | |
| n | leg | n" | tenderness | |
| P | spider | P" | song | |
| R | height | R" | rhubarb | |
| With | salt | With" | hay | |
| T | cloud | T" | patience | |
| f | phosphorus | f" | firm | |
| X | thinness | X" | chemistry | |
| Unpaired | and | giraffe | h | miracle |
| w | screen | sch | hazel | |
| ts | target | th | felt | |
Another table will help you remember consonant sounds.
| Doubles | Voiced | Deaf |
| B | P | |
| IN | F | |
| G | TO | |
| D | T | |
| AND | Sh | |
| Z | WITH | |
| Unpaired | L, M, N, R, J | X, C, Ch, Shch |
Children's poems for better mastery of the material
There are exactly 33 letters in the Russian alphabet,
To find out how many consonants -
Subtract ten vowels
Signs - hard, soft -
It will immediately become clear:
The resulting number is exactly twenty-one.
Soft and hard consonants are very different,
But not dangerous at all.
If we pronounce it with noise, then they are deaf.
The consonant sounds proudly say:
They sound different.
Hard and soft
In fact, very light.
Remember one simple rule forever:
W, C, F - always hard,
But Ch, Shch, J are only soft,
Like a cat's paws.
And let’s soften others like this:
If we add a soft sign,
Then we get spruce, moth, salt,
Which one tricky sign such!
And if we add the vowels I, I, Yo, E, Yu,
We get a soft consonant.
Brother signs, soft, hard,
We don't pronounce
But to change the word,
Let's ask for their help.
The rider rides on a horse,
Con - we use it in the game.
Ability to distinguish between soft and hard consonants. Obviously, you don’t need to memorize them, but learn to hear them. And for this, the child needs to be told how exactly these sounds are made - this will greatly facilitate his understanding.
Always soft and always hard consonants
Not all consonants in our language are both hard and soft. First, you need your child to remember those of them that are only hard: Zh, Sh, Ts, and also always soft: Ch, Shch, Y. To do this, you can, for example, make a memorial plaque, where the hard ones will always be drawn above blue bricks, and always soft ones - over green pillows (the choice of color is based on how these sounds are designated in the lower grades).
If a child constantly sees this picture, which you put in his workbook or hang above him, then he will quickly remember these consonants.
How vowels “command” consonants
Then you explain to your child that other consonants can be either soft or hard. But the neighboring letters will help suggest this. If after our consonant there is another consonant, then ours is hard. For example: table. What comes after the C sound? So this is a hard consonant.
Vowel sounds “command” the consonant standing in front what it should be. If these are vowels: A, O, U, E, Y, then there are only hard consonants in front of them. And if it is: I, E, Yu, I, E, then it is soft. The softness of the previous consonant is also indicated by
Educational games
To make it easier for your child to remember this, try playing with him. Invite him to attach outside point your index finger to the palate and pronounce the syllables containing soft and hard consonants in turn. For example: TA - TYA, NA - NYA. Thanks to this, the child will be able to remember exactly how a consonant sound is produced. He will understand that when a soft consonant is formed, the tongue seems to move forward, and its back rises slightly towards the palate. But when hard consonants are pronounced, this does not happen.
Throw the ball to the child, naming a syllable with a hard consonant, and let him return the ball to you, having already pronounced it with a soft one. For example: LA - LA, LO - LE, LY - LI, etc.
At school, students are asked to distinguish hard and soft consonants using blue and green colors. Blue ones are hard and green ones are soft. Cut out a few red, blue and green squares and have them make a word mosaic. The child will display vowels in red, hard consonants in blue, and soft consonants in blue. green. For this, take small words of one or two syllables: fish, elephant, branch, chalk and so on.
Play the “chain of words” game. You pronounce a word ending with a syllable with a hard or soft consonant, and the child names the next word that begins with this syllable. Remembering to determine out loud which consonant, hard or soft, was in this syllable: winds - fish - bagels - cinema etc.
If you methodically explain to your child the difference between hard and soft consonants, this will help him navigate more easily in the future, when studying many of the features of the spelling of the Russian language. Good luck to you!
