What is a sound-letter analysis of a word? How to do it right? In the lessons of the Russian language in primary schools, they often give a similar task, but not all students have time to understand during the lesson how to properly analyze. Let's carefully study this issue.
What is it for
Unlike many European languages, where "as it is heard, it is written", the Russian spelling rules can be quite complicated. Why, for example, do we say “karova” and write “cow”? Let us recall the beloved New Year tree: why is it a “Christmas tree” and not a “yolka”?
It would seem that a combination of letters will give the same result. This means that a student who does not know the rules of spelling words and does not understand the meaning of transcription, which we write in the sound-letter analysis, will write many concepts incorrectly.
Moreover, the ability to write and read transcriptions is very useful when learning a foreign language, in particular - English. The rules for writing words there are very complicated - even more confusing than in our own - and therefore, without learning how to parse the contents of square brackets, you will not be able to speak freely!
First thing
The first thing a student needs is to write a transcription. It is drawn in square brackets. How does it differ from the usual spelling of a word? Firstly, there is no soft sign in it. Instead of the usual “b”, softness is indicated by a comma to the right from the top of the consonant. Do you remember that vowels do not have this parameter?
Some letters are not found at all in transcription: these are “I”, “Yu”, “e” and “e”. Instead, they will use either the notation of two phonemes: "th" + vowel, or only their "paired" vowel. Have you noticed that these letters are easy to replace? “E” is the same as “ye”, and “yu” can be represented as “yu”. This is exactly what is required in transcription.
Example
Let's look at the sound-letter analysis of the word "sailor". Here we see several characteristic details at once. Firstly, it is the presence of an unstressed vowel “o”, which will turn into “a”. What else do you notice? Right, the consonant "p" is soft. Denote this by a comma above the letter in the appropriate place. Finally, the “I” itself will turn into “a” - you don’t hear the sound of “y” when you pronounce this word?
So, we will write “sailor”. Sound-letter analysis is presented in square brackets on the right: [mar'ak]. That's all, we completed the first part of the task!
Looking ahead, we point out another detail: the number of letters and sounds in a word can vary. For example, in the word "steel" there will be 5 letters, but only 4 sounds. But the “box” will show exactly the opposite results - four against five.
Phoneme Characteristics
Each of the sounds represented in transcription is a phoneme. All of them have parameters that you must learn to highlight.
Consonants can be hard and soft, depending on the position in the word. For example, in the “sailor” we have analyzed, “p '” is soft. But in the word "moat" the same letter will be presented as a solid "p".
Another indicator will be a pair of “voiced-deaf”. Remember
what paired consonants are? “B-p”, “v-f”, “g-to” and so on. One of them is voiced, and the second is deaf. Some phonemes can only be voiced: these are “p”, “n”, “m”, “l”. Such sounds are called sonorous sounds - the nasal cavity is involved in their formation.
Please note that when performing sound-letter analysis, signs denoting sonorous phonemes are deafened at the end of the word. For example, a “mushroom” appears as transcription as [gr'ip]. Do you recognize a homonym - a similarly sounding word? Seasonal illness - the flu - is pronounced the same way.
Decor
So that the teacher does not find fault with the design of the assignment, let's see how to do it in accordance with the rules.
Write the word you want to parse with a capital letter. Now put a dash, and to the right of it is an open square bracket. When you compose a transcription, you will enter it here. Remember to close it with a symmetrical square bracket.
Below, under the source word you need to vertically write all its phonemes - these are the signs that make up the transcription. Please note that in the sound-letter analysis, the consonant together with the softness indicator is a single entity! For example, in the word "river" - [r'ek] - the first phoneme will not be "r", but "r '". Be sure to remember this.
Opposite to each phoneme received - where we wrote them “in the column” - indicate all their possible parameters. This includes softness-hardness, and the contrasting “voiced-deaf”. Opposite each sign, write, respectively, a vowel or consonant.
The word "class"
Let's look at another example. Let us choose the word “class” for sound-alphanumeric analysis. Our task is very simple. In the transcription, only the ending will differ from the original record ... But we don’t even know how to represent double consonants! The answer is simple - instead of two letters we will write one.
So, the “class” will appear before us as [class]. Here “K” is a solid, dull consonant, “L” is a solid and sonorous. Following the vowel “A”, we indicate “C” - solid and deaf.
Do not forget to indicate the number of letters and the number of sounds. For example, in the last word we examined, there are 5 letters, but only 4 sounds. In general, this is all the teacher needs in this assignment! Now select any other example and do a sound-letter analysis of the word yourself.
Complications
When you grow up, you will learn that all the vowels of every existing language on the planet, like all consonants, are reduced to one single plate. They have two parameters: lift and close. For example, the vowels "and", "s" and "y" refer to the same rise and differ in a number - respectively, front, middle and rear. And vice versa: “s” and “a” are vowels of the same row - middle, but they differ by rise. In the first case, it is upper, and in the second - lower.
If you want to connect your life with learning a language - to become a translator, a native language researcher, a teacher of relevant subjects, then you will definitely need to learn these subtleties. However, this seems complicated only at first glance.
Conclusion
The correct implementation of this task will help to further understand foreign languages. Firstly, you will be more competent to write. And besides this, you can clearly distinguish sounds, which is very important at the first stage of mastering a new language for you.
Complete tasks on time, and then study will bring more pleasure and take less time!