The speech of a person, especially a native speaker, must be not only correct, but also beautiful, emotional, expressive. Here the voice, diction, and sustained orthoepic norms are important.
The ability to pronounce sounds correctly consists of practical exercises (voice training: volume, timbre, flexibility, diction, etc.) and knowledge of when this or that pronunciation of sound is appropriate (orthoepic norms).
Before talking about letters that indicate soft consonant phonemes, we should recall the basic phonetic concepts and terms.
Phonetics: sounds and letters
To begin with, there are no soft consonants in the words of the Russian language. 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 and write them.
There is no complete correspondence between them. In one word, the number of letters and sounds may not match. The Russian alphabet consists of thirty-three letters, and in speech forty-seven sounds.
Accurate recording of sounds in a word through letters is transcription. The letters in this case are written in square brackets. In phonetic analysis, each sound must be written in a separate letter, put emphasis and indicate softness, if necessary ['], for example, milk - [malako], mole - [mol'] - 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 in its path, a vowel sound (melodious) is obtained. There are six of them in Russian. 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.
From the degree of involvement of noise and voice sounds in their formation, consonants are divided into:
- sonorous (voice is much stronger than noise);
- noisy - voiced and deaf.
There are also soft consonants in pronunciation (letters that designate them are written with an apostrophe) and solid sounds. They are distinguished by pronunciation - speaking a soft consonant, a person lifts the middle back of the tongue high to the sky.
Graphics: Letters
So, letters are designations of sounds on a letter. The science that studies them is graphics. The alphabet is a graphic image of the sounds of the language, arranged in a certain order. Ten letters of the Russian alphabet are vowels that denote vowels. It also includes twenty-one consonants and two letters that do not indicate 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 of the world.
Alphanumeric sound composition
In Russian, the composition of speech sounds and letters differs due to the specifics of the letter - the letters of soft consonants and hard are identical - ate [y'el], spruce [y'el ']; and six vowels are indicated on the letter in ten letters. So it turns out that there are fourteen more sounds in speech than letters in the alphabet.
Solid consonants
Consonant phonemes are made up of pairs: voiced - deaf, soft - hard. But there are those who will always sound solid - it’s w, w, c. Even in the words of a parachute, a brochure and one-root 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, u, th . There are no exceptions to these rules in the Russian language.
Paired consonants
Consonants are mostly paired, that is, each solid sound corresponds to its softer pronunciation. The letters denoting soft consonants will be identical. In the transcription, the ['] sign will be added to them.
How to determine where the soft consonants will stand? The letters do not immediately form words; first they form syllables. The softness or hardness of the pronunciation of the consonant depends on what sound comes after it in the syllable.
Syllables
A syllable is a sound or several sounds that are made in one breath, with one push of air.
Vowels - syllable-forming sounds, consonants adjoin them - the syllable is obtained: mo-lo-ko, le-ta-u-sha-i ry-ba. The number of syllables in a word is equal to the number of vowels in it.
Open syllables end with vowels: the picture is a picture, the legitimate one is right- dimensional.
If the consonant is at the end of the syllable, this is a closed syllable: car- t-on, legitimate - right-hand one .
In the middle of a word, there are often open syllables, and the consonants adjacent to them are transferred to the next syllable: give, announcer. The sounds that can close the syllable in the middle of a word are voiced, unpaired, hard consonants and soft. Letters for writing them - th, r, l, m, n . For example: sis - ki-sony-ka.
Distinguish the division of words into syllables and into parts for transfer, as well as morphemes. This is a syllabic or syllable principle of graphics. It applies to consonants.
Hard and soft consonants: letters (syllable principle)
It manifests itself in relation to consonants in that it determines the unit of reading and writing:
- As a combination of a consonant and a vowel following it.
- The combination of consonant and 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 refers to soft or hard, it is necessary to pay attention to what stands after it in the syllable.
If any consonant follows us of interest, then the determined sound is solid. For example: chatter - chatter, t - hard.
If the next one is a vowel, then you need to remember that before a, o, y, e, s there are solid consonants. For example: mom, fetters, vine.
And, e, u, i, e - letters denoting a soft consonant sound. For example, a song is a song, n, n are soft, while c is hard.
In order to speak well and correctly read soft consonants and sounds, you need to develop your phonemic hearing - understanding and distinguishing speech sounds. A well-developed ability to clearly determine what sounds are in the word, even if you hear it for the first time, will allow you to better remember and understand the speech of others. And most importantly - to speak more beautifully and more correctly.
The syllabic principle is convenient in that it reduces the number of letters in the alphabet. Indeed, in order to designate soft and hard consonant phonemes, one would have to invent, create, and learn fifteen new graphic elements for users. Just so many paired consonants are contained in our speech. In practice, it turned out to be sufficient to define vowels indicating which soft consonant letters.
Soft consonant letters
The softness of sound is indicated by ['] only when writing transcription - sound analysis of a word.
When reading or writing, there are two ways to indicate soft consonants.
- If a soft consonant completes a word or faces another consonant, then it is designated “b”. For example: a blizzard, a steward, etc. Important: when writing, the softness of a consonant is determined by "b" only if it stands in the same root words both before the soft and the hard consonant in different cases (flax - flax). Most often, when two soft consonants stand side by side, after the first “b” they are not used in spelling.
- If a soft vowel is followed by a vowel, then it is determined by the letters i, u, and, e, e . For example: drove, sat, tulle, etc.
Even when applying the syllabic principle, problems arise with e before the consonant, they are so deep that they turn into orthoepy. Some scholars believe that a necessary condition for harmony is a ban on writing e after solid consonants, because this grapheme defines soft consonants and interferes with the correct pronunciation of solid. There is a proposal, replace e with a unique e . Prior to the introduction of unified spelling of e - e syllables in 1956, pairing spelling of such words (adequate - adequate) was actively and legally practiced. But unification did not solve the main problem. Replacing e with e after hard consonants, obviously, will also not be an ideal solution, new words appear in Russian more and more often, and in which case writing one letter or another remains controversial.
Orthoepy
Let's get back to where we started - our speech - it is due to orthoepy. On the one hand, these are the developed norms for correct pronunciation, and on the other, it is a science that studies, substantiates and establishes these norms.
Orthoepy serves the Russian language, erases the line between dialects, so that people can more easily understand each other. So that, communicating with each other, representatives of different regions think about what they are saying, and not about how a particular word sounded by the interlocutor.
The foundation of the Russian language and, consequently, pronunciation is the Moscow dialect. It was in the capital of Russia that science began to develop, including orthoepy, so the rules require us to speak - to make sounds like Muscovites.
Orthoepy provides one correct way of pronouncing, rejecting all the others, but at the same time it sometimes allows options that are considered true.
Despite the clear, understandable and simple rules, orthoepy notes many features, nuances and exceptions in how the letters are pronounced, indicating a soft consonant sound and hard ...
Orthoepy: soft and hard consonants
Which consonant letters are soft? H, uh, th - pronouncing hard sounds instead of soft sounds, is by no means impossible. But this rule is violated, falling under the influence of the Belarusian language and even Russian dialects, reprimands. Remember how in this Slavic group the word still sounds, for example.
L is a pair of consonants, respectively, standing directly before the consonant or at the end of a word it should sound solid. In front of a, u, u, u, u, too (tent, corner, skier), but in some words that came to us more often from foreign languages, native speakers of which live mainly in Europe, and which are proper names, l is pronounced almost softly (La Scala, La Rochelle, La Fleur).
The consonants last in the prefix in front of a solid sign, even if then there are letters indicating a soft consonant, are pronounced firmly (staircase, announcement). But for those who agree with and z, this rule does not have full force. Sounds s and s in this case can be pronounced in two ways (exit - [s'] ride - [s] ride).
The rules of orthoepy stipulate that you cannot soften the final consonant in a word, even if they merge with the next word starting with e (in this, to the equator, with emu). If the speech softens such a consonant, it says that the person communicates through a colloquial style.
" B " also refers to the list of "soft consonants" and the sounds in front of it should be pronounced softly, even sounds m, b, n, c, f in words such as seven, eight, ice hole, shipyard, etc. Pronounce soft sounds firmly before " b " are unacceptable. Only in words of eight hundred and seven hundred meters can it have a soft, but not hard sound.
Which letters indicate soft consonants, you need to remember clearly - e, u, e, i, and .
So, in many foreign words before e, the consonant sound is not softened. This often happens with labial m, f, c, b, n. P - Chopin, coupe; b - Bernard Shaw; c - Solveig; f - autodafe; m - renom, consom.
Much more often than these consonants, the dental consonants r, n, s, s, d, t. Sound firmly before e . R - Reichswehr, Roerich; n - pince, tour; h - chimpanzee, Bizet; s - highway, Musset; d - dumping, a masterpiece; t - pantheon, aesthetics.
Thus, the letters of soft consonants have a rather definite composition, but fall under a number of exceptions.