Academic transcription of words in phonetics. Phonetic transcription is very simple. What are the rules of phonetic transcription for students studying the Russian language in depth

HOW TO WRITE A TRANSCRIPTION

Put stress on the word. If there are two or more stresses in a word, note the secondary ones as well. For example: mo-lo-dé be, à in something-mò -to-trá ns-port. In the transcription itself, stress must be placed.

Determine the degree of reduction that is characteristic of vowels in each unstressed syllable. The reduction of unstressed vowels is I (not very strong) and II (very strong) degrees.

I degree of reduction is observed in the following cases: 1) in the first pre-stressed syllable (a syllable preceding the main or secondary stress), 2) in any other pre-stressed syllable, if it is uncovered (i.e. begins with a vowel).

II degree of reduction is observed in all other cases - in particular, in all stressed syllables.

For example: on II -mo II -lo I -deut, àv something II -mò -then II -trá ns-port II .

Now you can write the transcript.

In the Russian tradition, transcription is written on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet.

Badges b and b are used only to indicate reduced vowels of the II degree of reduction. Icon e never used in transcription.

Icons for consonants correspond to ordinary letters of the Russian alphabet; letter th not used: the corresponding sound is indicated by a Latin character j. Its softness is usually not denoted (mid-lingual midpalatal sound cannot but be soft), but we will denote softness (for uniformity): .

To represent a sound usually represented by a letter sch, [w̅ '] is used as standard, but we will use the familiar icon sch: [sch'].

It is important to remember: the designation of softness in transcription is mandatory, even for always soft sounds [h ‘] and [u ‘]. This is important, because the sound [h] may appear positionally in Russian speech - for example, in the word laugh it off due to the assimilation of [t] and [w], a solid [h] is pronounced. In the flow of speech, sounds that are not realized by a native speaker of the Russian language can be pronounced: [γ] - voiced option [x], [dz] - voiced option [ts], [d'zh '] - voiced option [h '].

In general: all processes of assimilation, dissimilation, deafening of sounds at the end of a word, simplification of consonant groups and other phonetic processes should be reflected in transcription.

The length of the sound of a consonant sound is transmitted using a line: [n̅].

Under stress in Russian, 6 sounds are distinguished: [а́], [о́], [ы́], [е́], [и́], [у́]. In an unstressed position, vowel phonemes in Russian are subject to quantitative (<ы>, <и>, <у>) and quality (<а>, <о>, <э>) reduction. To reflect this opposition, different icons are used to indicate the reduced sounds, even if the actual sound is the same. For example, the same sounding in the literary language the woods and Fox are written differently in transcription: [l'i e sa] and [l'isa]. This is because in some dialects the corresponding unstressed vowels are pronounced differently. Rare cases of pronunciation of unstressed [o] in loanwords ( palazzo) and service ( but) words are written according to the actual pronunciation. You should also carefully listen to how prepositions and particles sound in the flow of speech: they can either be included in one phonetic word with the main word form, or act separately.

In the Russian literary language, 4 sounds are distinguished in the first degree of reduction: [а ъ], [and e] = [i], [s e] = [s] and [y], and in the second degree of reduction - 3: [ъ] = [ы̯], [ь]=[i̯] and [у᷃].

In an unstressed position, after soft consonants, only a front vowel or a rounded vowel can stand ([and e] = [and], [b] = [i̯], [y] and [y᷃]), and after hard ones - only a non-front vowel ( [a ъ], [s e] = [s], [b] = [s̯], [y] and [y᷃]).

Under stress after hard	Stressed after soft	I degree of reduction p/solid	I degree of reduction p / soft	II degree of reduction p/solid	II degree of reduction p / soft

Wife [zhy e na], tram [tra mwaj'ch'i̯k].

Rules and signs fonetictranscriptions 1

The phonetic recording of the Russian word and text is made using the letters of the Russian alphabet.

The transcribed word form or text is enclosed in square brackets.

In phonetic notation, punctuation marks and the transfer of part of the word form to another line are not put, since phonetic transcription conveys not the structure of the text, but the sound wave. The text is divided into phonetic phrases and syntagmas, or speech beats. Each phrase and syntagma is a sound "distance", a wave between two pauses. The latter are indicated in transcription either by one vertical line / - a small pause (this is how syntagmas are separated), or by two // - a longer pause (this is how phrases are separated). At the end of the phonetic notation, two vertical lines are placed (before the bracket) as a sign of the termination of the sound stream.

The initial sound of the syntagma, as well as all proper names, are transmitted in lowercase letters.

Stress on stressed syllables is obligatory.

Functional word before the significant ( proclitic) or after it ( enclitic) is written next to it (without a space) through a dash, because they are one phonetic word. A one- or two-syllable unstressed significant word can also be written, pronounced with neighboring significant words as one phonetic word. For example: [recognize 'is-kn'ik], [remove "s-st-lá], [kak-s-f-pol'] - as in the field, [inzh-house] - your house.

One of the general rules of phonetic transcription is that one letter should convey only one sound. Two different characters can be considered the same letter with different superscript (diacritic) marks, for example, á and a - the first character denotes a stressed sound [a], the second character denotes an unstressed sound [a] in the position of the absolute beginning of a word, for example: [akná], [arbat], [atákα], etc.; [t] and [t’], [h] and [h’], etc. - different designations of hard and soft paired consonants, etc.

The main signs of phonetic transcription are the letters of the Russian alphabet. All letters are used, except for two-digit (iotized) E, E, Yu, I , consonant letters Ch, C, Щ, as well as the letters Y. The signs b and b in transcription are used in a different function: they denote strongly reduced vowels of the middle series of the middle rise [b] after solid consonants and the anterior-mid series of the upper-middle rise [b ] after soft.

Instead of the letters C and Ch, denoting continuous sounds (affricates), letter combinations [tˆs] and [t"ˆsh") are used, which more accurately convey the specifics of the formation of these sounds, and the superscript chamber("shackle") indicates the fused nature of their pronunciation.

Instead of the letter Ш, denoting a long soft hissing sound, the length of which in the flow of speech can be reduced, the letter Ш is used with superscripts that convey the acoustic nature of this sound - [w':], for example, [w': andt], [w ':otka] etc. If the longitude in the stream of speech is shortened, then the sign of longitude is not put in the transcription, for example, [borsh '], [khvosh '].

In addition to the letters of the Russian alphabet, additional letters and signs are used in transcription:

α - the Greek letter "alpha" to designate an unstressed vowel [a] after a consonant in the position of the absolute end of the word, for example: [óknα], [sontˆsα] - the sun, [v'is'ólʹα] - cheerful;

 - a sign for designating an unstressed vowel in the position of the first prestressed syllable (not an absolute beginning) after a solid consonant, an allophone of phonemes<а>and<о>([trvá], [vlá]), hyperphonemes<а/о>([sbákα]) ;

[j] and [t] – yot and i-decimal for allophones of a phoneme< j >in strong [j] and weak [ί] positions;

[γ] - the Greek letter "gamma" for the voiced allophone of a phoneme<х>in a position before a voiced consonant at the junction of morphemes within a word ([tr'oγgrshóvyί] - three-penny, [t'ˆsh'tyr'oγgrán:yί] - tetrahedral, etc.) or at the junction of word forms ([ vdóγ deep'iί] - a deep breath, [m'e"γ d'ishovyί] - cheap fur);

The following diacritics are used in transcription:

akut - stress sign (ó, á, u, s, ý, e), "- secondary stress (o, a);

a vowel over a vowel is a designation of an overtone (shade) of a given vowel sound: and e, e and, s e, e s, o b, o b, etc. further, less, n[o b] better;

' - apostrophe - a sign of softness of consonants [t '], [d '], [k '], [l '], [p '];

¯, : - signs of longitude of a consonant inside a word or at the junction of two words; the sign ¯ is placed above the consonant letter, and the sign: - after it: [más: α], [v'i e s'en': iί], [rás:ór'itˆsα], [mátról: yr] ;

ˆ - camora - a sign that is used to denote the fused nature of the affricate: [tˆs], [t’ˆsh’].

1 N. A. Lukyanova. Modern Russian language: Lectures on phonetics. Novosibirsk: NGU, 1999, pp. 88–90.

Starting to learn a foreign language, a person is faced with the need to pronounce new words correctly. Unlike the Slavic languages, in which most words are read according to certain rules, in the same English there are quite a few exceptions to the rules for reading words. Phonetic transcription of words will help to pronounce and read words correctly. And although it often seems that this is a complex concept, in fact, everything is very simple, once you understand this issue.

The concept of phonetic transcription

Phonetic transcription is a way of graphic recording of the sounds of oral speech. Transcription is incredibly accurate and based on correct pronunciation. To achieve this, each transcription mark has a corresponding graphic symbol, and each symbol, in turn, corresponds to a well-defined sound.

With the help of transcription, it is possible to record in writing not only the pronunciation of sounds and words, but also sentences and texts.

Basic transcription rules

1) First of all, transcription is always recorded in special square brackets: .

2) If the transcribed word has two or more syllables, the stress must be placed.
3) If two words are read together, in phonetic transcription this is fixed using the league icon: [v_dom].
4) Capital letters are not written in the transcription.
5) If a sentence or text is transcribed, punctuation marks are not put. Instead, they put beveled vertical lines / (if the pause is small like a comma), // (with a longer pause), like a period or semicolon.
6) The softness of a consonant is indicated in transcription with an apostrophe placed to the right of the letter.
7) A non-syllabic sound is shown by an arc below it.
8) The length of the sound is indicated with a colon [a:], sometimes with a horizontal line above the letter.
9) To write words, there is a specially developed international phonetic alphabet, which is based on Latin letters, as well as some icons taken from the Greek alphabet.

10) Slavic languages in Cyrillic can also be written in Cyrillic letters (this applies to East Slavic languages).

Transcription in Russian

Despite its apparent simplicity, Russian transcription has a lot of nuances, without knowing which it will be difficult to correctly write down the transcribed word. Transcription in Russian is subject to the general rules of transcription, but there are additional features.

1) Consonants are written using all consonants of the Cyrillic letters of the alphabet, with the exception of y and u.
2) b and b do not denote sounds, therefore they are not recorded in transcription.
3) The sounds [th] and [h] are always soft, so in transcription they are not indicated by the softness icon.
4) The sounds [w], [g], [c] are always hard, although in rare cases the letter g can give a soft sound [g "]. If they are followed by the letter e, it is written in transcription as [e]: "c [e]thread".
5) The letter u, in transcription, is the sound [w: "] or [w"].
6) If the vowels are stressed, they are pronounced clearly and written using six characters: [a], [y], [o], [i], [e], [s].
7) Diphthongs yu, i e, e denote two sounds and are written in transcription respectively [yu], [ya], [ye], [yo], provided that they are either at the beginning of a word or after a vowel, b or b , in other cases - after consonants - they denote one sound [y], [a], [e], [o], with the designation of the previous consonant soft.
8) The letter and after the separating b becomes a diphthong and its transcription is [yy] - mura [in "yy].
9) Y in the transcription of some words is written as [j] for example "cha [j] ka".
10) The letters o and a, at the very beginning of a word or in the first syllable without stress in transcription, sound like [a], but the [^] icon is used to write them.
11) After soft consonants in syllables without stress, the letters e and i in transcription will be recorded as a kind of sound [ie]: [r'ieb'ina] - "rowan".
Interestingly, most Russian dictionaries do not indicate the transcription of words, so you either need to learn how to do it yourself or use the services of online resources that do it.

Transcription in English

If Russian transcription can be written in either Latin or Cyrillic, then English transcription is always written in Latin IPA. It is also subject to the rules and symbols common to all languages for transcribing words. However, unlike Russian, the pronunciation of English words has a more historical tradition and often does not follow the rules. In such cases, transcription is the only way to pronounce the word correctly. Therefore, most English words in dictionaries are written with transcription. The table below shows the main characters used in the transcription of English words.

Knowing what phonetic transcription is is very important, because this knowledge enables anyone not only to correctly read a word in a foreign language, but also to pronounce the words of their native language correctly.

Do you know why Russian is so hard for foreigners to learn? Especially those whose languages are not at all similar to Russian? One of the reasons is that you can’t say anything about our language, that words can be written as they are heard. We say “MALAKO”, but we remember that the word must be written through 3 letters O: “MILKO”.

This is the simplest and most obvious example. And no one, as a rule, thinks about how the transcription (that is, the graphic recording of sounds) of the most familiar words for us looks like. To learn how to figure out what sounds words consist of, schools and even universities perform such a task as phonetic analysis of a word.

It is not easy for everyone, but we will help you understand and successfully cope with it in the classroom and when preparing homework.

Phonetic analysis of the word- a task aimed at disassembling a word into letters and sounds. Compare how many letters it contains and how many sounds. And find out that the same letters in different positions can mean different sounds.

Vowels

There are 10 vowels in the alphabet of the Russian language: "a", "o", "y", "e", "s", "ya", "e", "yu", "e", "i".

But there are only 6 vowels: [a], [o], [y], [e], [s], [and]. The vowels "e", "ё", "yu", "ya" consist of two sounds: vowel + th. They are written as follows: "e" = [y'+e], "e" = [y'+o], "yu" = [y'+y], "i" = [y'+a]. And they are called iotized.

Remember that in transcription “e”, “e”, “yu”, “I” do not always decompose into two sounds. But only in the following cases:

when they stand at the beginning of the word: food [y'eda], ruff [y'orsh], skirt [y'upka], pit [y'ama];
when they stand after other vowels: my [my'em], my [may'o], wash [my'ut], warrior [way'aka];
when they stand after “b” and “b”: pedestal [p’y’ed’estal], drink [p’y’ot], drink [p’y’ut], nightingale [salav’y’a].

If "e", "e", "yu", "i" are in the word after soft consonants, they can be confused with [a], [o], [y], [e]: ball [m'ach'] , honey [m'ot], muesli [m'usl'i], branch [v'etka]. They denote one sound in a position after consonants and under stress.

Not under the stress “e”, “e”, “yu”, “I” give a sound [and]: rows [r’ida], forest [l’isok]. In other cases, the letter "I" without stress can be pronounced as [e]: quagmire [tr'es'ina].

Another interesting thing about the relationship between “b” and vowels: if after the soft sign in the word there is the letter “and”, it is pronounced as two sounds: streams [ruch’y’i].

But after the consonants "zh", "sh" and "c", the letter "i" gives the sound [s]: reeds [reeds].

The vowels "a", "o", "u", "e", "s" denote the hardness of consonants. The vowels "e", "ё", "yu", "ya", "and" denote the softness of consonant sounds.

By the way, in many words with the vowel "ё" it is always stressed. But this rule does not work for loanwords (amebiasis) and compound words (such as trinuclear).

Consonants

There are 21 consonants in Russian. And these letters form as many as 36 sounds! How is this possible? Let's figure it out.

So, among the consonants there are 6 pairs according to the sonority of deafness:

[b] - [p]: [b] a [b] eyelet - [p] a [n] a;
[c] - [f]: [c] oda - [f] anera;
[g] - [k]: [g] olos - [k] orova;
[d] - [t]: [d ’] yatel - [t] teaching;
[w] - [w]: [w ’] life - [w] suba;
[h] - [s]: [h ’] ima - o [s ’] en.

This is interesting because paired sounds are denoted by different letters. Such pairs are not found in all languages. And in some, for example, Korean, paired voiceless and voiced sounds are indicated by the same letter. Those. the same letter is read as a voiced or unvoiced sound, depending on the position in the word.

And there are 15 pairs of hardness-softness:

[b] - [b ’]: [b] a [b] point - [b ’] tree;
[in] - [in ']: [in] ata - [in '] fork;
[g] - [g ’]: [g] amak - [g ’] idrant;
[d] - [d ']: [d] wait [d '];
[h] - [h ’]: [h] gold - [h ’] to eat;
[k] - [k ']: [k] mouth - [k '] true;
[l] - [l ']: [l] dot - [l '] istik;
[m] - [m ’]: [m] a [m] a - [m ’] claim;
[n] - [n ']: [n] os - [n '] yuh;
[n] - [n ']: [n] archa - [n '] and [n '] mark;
[r] - [r ’]: [r] ys - [r ’] is;
[s] - [s ']: [s] both - [s '] herring;
[t] - [t ’]: [t] apok - [t ’] hen;
[f] - [f ']: [f] camera - [f '] hunting;
[x] - [x ']: [x] okkey - [x '] ek.

As you can see, the softness of sounds is provided by the letter “b” and soft consonants after the consonants.

There are unpaired consonant sounds in Russian that are never deaf:

[th '] - [th '] od;
[l] - [l]ama;
[l '] - [l '] lake;
[m] - [m] orkovka;
[m '] - [m '] yusli;
[n] - [n] rhino;
[n '] - [n '] bat;
[r] - [r] daisy;
[p '] - [p '] child.

To make it easier to remember all voiced sounds, you can use the following phrase: "We didn't forget each other".

As well as unpaired sounds, which, in turn, are never voiced. Try reading the words from the examples aloud and see for yourself:

[x] - [x] orek;
[x ‘] - [x ‘] irrg;
[c] - [c] drop;
[h '] - [h '] man;
[u’] - [u’] etina.

To remember exactly which sounds remain deaf in any situation, two phrases will help: "Stepka, do you want a cabbage?" - "Fi!" and “Foka, do you want to eat a cabbage soup?”.

If you carefully read the examples above, you probably already noticed that some consonants in Russian are never soft:

[f] - [f]uk and even [f] acorn;
[w] - [w] uba and [w] ilo are read equally firmly;
[c] - [c] scratch and [c] irk - the same thing, the sound is pronounced firmly.

Remember that in some borrowed words and names, “w” is still soft [w ’]: jury [w ’] yuri, Julien [w ’] julienne.

Similarly, there are consonants in Russian that are never pronounced firmly:

[th '] - [th '] cucumber;
[h '] - [h '] yell and [h '] asy - the sound is equally soft;
[u’] - [u’] eka and [u’] dropped - similarly: no matter what vowel comes after this consonant, it is still pronounced softly.

Sometimes, in some textbooks, the softness of these sounds is not indicated by an apostrophe during transcription - since everyone already knows that these sounds are not hard in Russian. And “u” is often referred to as [w ’:].

Remember also that the consonants "zh", "sh", "h", "u" are called hissing.

Phonetic parsing plan

First you need to spell the word correctly in terms of spelling.
Then divide the word into syllables (remember that there are as many syllables in a word as there are vowels in it), mark the stressed syllable.
The next item is the phonetic transcription of the word. Do not immediately transcribe the word - first try to pronounce it out loud. If necessary, speak several times - until you can say with certainty which sounds to record.
Describe in order all vowel sounds: designate stressed and unstressed.
Describe in order all consonant sounds: designate paired and unpaired ones according to sonority / deafness and hardness / softness.
Count and write down how many letters and how many sounds are in the word.
Note those cases in which the number of sounds does not correspond to the number of letters, and explain them.

In written phonetic analysis, sounds are written from top to bottom in a column, each sound is enclosed in square brackets -. At the end, you should draw a line and under it write down the number of letters and sounds in the word.

Special transcription marks

Now about how to correctly designate sounds during transcription:

["] - this is how the stressed vowel is designated in the main stressed syllable (O "canopy);
[ `] - this is how a side (secondary) substressed vowel sound is indicated: usually such a substressed syllable is located at the beginning of a word, occurs in compound words and words with prefixes anti-, inter-, near-, counter-, super-, super-, ex -, vice and others (`near "many);
['] - a sign of softening a consonant sound;
[Λ] - transcription sign for "o" and "a" in the following cases: position at the beginning of a word, the first pre-stressed syllable in a position after a solid consonant (arch [Λrka], king [kΛrol']);
- a more "advanced" transcription sign for recording iotized sounds, you can also use [y '].
[and e] - something between [and] and [e], used to denote the vowels "a", "e", "e" in the first pre-stressed syllable in a position after a soft consonant (baubles [bl "and e sleep]) ;
[s e] - something between [s] and [e] or [s] and [a], is used to denote the vowels “e”, “e” in the first pre-stressed syllable in position after a solid consonant (whisper [shy e ptat '];
[b] - a transcription sign for the vowels "o", "a", "e" in positions after a solid consonant in the pre-stressed and stressed syllable (milk [milk]);
[b] - a transcription sign for the vowels "o", "a", "ya", "e" in the position after a soft consonant in an unstressed syllable (mitten [var'shka]);
[–] - a sign indicating the absence of sound in place of "ъ" and "ь";
[ ‾ ] / [ : ] - transcription signs (you can use one or the other of your choice - this will not be a mistake) to indicate the longitude of consonants (to be afraid of [bΛy'atz: b]).

As you can see, everything is very difficult with the transcription of letters into sounds. In the school curriculum, as a rule, these complicated and more accurate transcription signs are not used or are used little. Only with in-depth study of the Russian language. Therefore, instead of “and with an overtone e” and other complex designations, it is allowed to use the sounds [a], [o], [y], [e], [s], [i] and [th ’] in phonetic analysis.

Transcription rules

Do not forget also about the following rules for transcription of consonants:

voicing of deaf consonants in a position before voiced ones (bend [zg'ibat '], mowing [kΛz'ba]);
stunning voiced consonants in position at the end of a word (ark [kΛfch'ek]);
stunning a voiced consonant in a position before a deaf one, for example, a voiced “g”, which can turn into deaf sounds [k] and [x] (nails [noct’i], light [l’ohk’iy’]);
softening of the consonants "n", "s", "z", "t", "d" in a position in front of soft consonants (kantik [kan't'ik]);
mitigation of “s” and “z” in prefixes with-, from-, times- in the position before “b” (remove [from’y’at’]);
unreadable consonants "t", "d", "v", "l" in combinations of several consonant letters in a row: in this case, the combination "stn" is pronounced as [sn], and "zdn" - as [zn] (district [uy 'ezny']);
combinations of the letters "sch", "zch", "zsch" are read as [u'] (accounts [sh'oty]);
combinations of "ch", "th" are pronounced [w] (what [what], of course [kΛn'eshn]);
infinitive suffixes -tsya / -tsya are transcribed [c] (bite [bite: b]);
the endings of the -th / -it are pronounced through the sound [in] (your [tvy’evo]);
in words with double consonants, two transcription options are possible: 1) double consonants are located after the stressed syllable and form a double sound (kassa [kas: b]); 2) double consonants are located before the stressed syllable and give the usual consonant sound (million [m'il'ion]).

And now let's look at the phonetic transcription of words with examples. For recording, we will use a simplified system of transcription of consonants.

Examples of phonetic transcription of words

departure
ot-e "zd (2 syllables, stress falls on the 2nd syllable)
[aty'e "st]
o - [a] - vowel, unstressed
t- [t] - consonant, deaf (pair), hard (pair)
ъ – [–]
e - [y ’] - consonant, voiced (unpaired), soft (unpaired) and [e] - vowel, stressed
s - [s] - consonant, deaf (pair), hard (pair)
d - [t] - consonant, deaf (pair), hard (pair)
6 letters, 6 sounds
The letter "e" after the dividing "b" gives two sounds: [th "] and [e]; the letter "d" at the end of the word is stunned into the sound [t]; the letter "z" is stunned to the sound [c] in the position before the deaf sound.

One more example:

grammar
gram-ma "-ti-ka (4 syllables, stress falls on the 2nd syllable)
[gram: at "ika]
g - [g] - consonant, voiced (paired), solid (solid)
p - [r] - consonant, voiced (unpaired), solid (paired)
mm - [m:] - double sound, consonant, voiced (unpaired), solid (paired)
a - [a] - vowel, stressed
t - [t '] - consonant, deaf (pair), soft (pair)
k - [k] - consonant, deaf (paired), solid (paired)
a - [a] - vowel, unstressed
10 letters, 9 sounds
Double consonants "mm" give a double sound [m:]

And last:

became
sta-no-vi "-lis (4 syllables, stress falls on the 3rd syllable)
[standav'i "l'is']
s - [s] - consonant, deaf (pair), hard (pair)
t - [t] - concordant, deaf (paired), solid (paired)
a - [a] - vowel, unstressed
n - [n] - consonant, voiced (unpaired), solid (paired)
o - [a] - vowel, unstressed
in - [in '] - consonant, voiced (paired), soft (paired)
and - [and] - vowel, stressed
l - [l '] - consonant, voiced (unpaired), soft (paired)
and - [and] - vowel, unstressed
s - [s '] - consonant, deaf (paired), soft (paired)
b - [-]
11 letters, 10 sounds
The letter "o" in an unstressed position gives the sound [a]; the letter "b" does not denote a sound and serves to soften the consonant preceding it.

Instead of an afterword

Well, did this article help you deal with the phonetic parsing of words? It is not so easy to correctly write down the sounds that make up a word - there are many pitfalls along the way. But we tried to make it easier for you and explain all the slippery moments in as much detail as possible. Now such a task at school will not seem very difficult to you. Don't forget to teach your classmates and show them our helpful instructions.

Use this article when preparing for lessons and passing the GIA and the Unified State Examination. And be sure to tell us in the comments what examples of phonetic parsing of words you are asked at school.

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Sounds belong to the section of phonetics. The study of sounds is included in any school curriculum in the Russian language. Acquaintance with sounds and their main characteristics occurs in the lower grades. A more detailed study of sounds with complex examples and nuances takes place in middle and high school. This page gives only basic knowledge by the sounds of the Russian language in a compressed form. If you need to study the device of the speech apparatus, the tonality of sounds, articulation, acoustic components and other aspects that are beyond the scope of the modern school curriculum, refer to specialized textbooks and textbooks on phonetics.

What is sound?

Sound, like words and sentences, is the basic unit of language. However, the sound does not express any meaning, but reflects the sound of the word. Thanks to this, we distinguish words from each other. Words differ in the number of sounds (port - sport, crow - funnel), a set of sounds (lemon - firth, cat - mouse), a sequence of sounds (nose - dream, bush - knock) up to a complete mismatch of sounds (boat - boat, forest - park).

What sounds are there?

In Russian, sounds are divided into vowels and consonants. There are 33 letters and 42 sounds in Russian: 6 vowels, 36 consonants, 2 letters (ь, ъ) do not indicate a sound. The discrepancy in the number of letters and sounds (not counting b and b) is due to the fact that there are 6 sounds for 10 vowels, 36 sounds for 21 consonants (if we take into account all combinations of consonant sounds deaf / voiced, soft / hard). On the letter, the sound is indicated in square brackets.
There are no sounds: [e], [e], [u], [i], [b], [b], [g '], [w '], [ts '], [th], [h] , [sch].

Scheme 1. Letters and sounds of the Russian language.

How are sounds pronounced?

We pronounce sounds when exhaling (only in the case of the interjection “a-a-a”, expressing fear, the sound is pronounced when inhaling.). The division of sounds into vowels and consonants is related to how a person pronounces them. Vowel sounds are pronounced by the voice due to the exhaled air passing through the tense vocal cords and freely exiting through the mouth. Consonant sounds consist of noise or a combination of voice and noise due to the fact that the exhaled air meets an obstacle in its path in the form of a bow or teeth. Vowel sounds are pronounced loudly, consonant sounds are muffled. A person is able to sing vowel sounds with his voice (exhaled air), raising or lowering the timbre. Consonant sounds cannot be sung, they are pronounced equally muffled. Hard and soft signs do not represent sounds. They cannot be pronounced as an independent sound. When pronouncing a word, they affect the consonant in front of them, make it soft or hard.

Word transcription

Transcription of a word is a record of sounds in a word, that is, in fact, a record of how the word is pronounced correctly. Sounds are enclosed in square brackets. Compare: a - letter, [a] - sound. The softness of consonants is indicated by an apostrophe: p - letter, [p] - hard sound, [p '] - soft sound. Voiced and voiceless consonants are not marked in writing. The transcription of the word is written in square brackets. Examples: door → [dv'er '], thorn → [kal'uch'ka]. Sometimes stress is indicated in transcription - an apostrophe before a vowel stressed sound.

There is no clear juxtaposition of letters and sounds. In the Russian language, there are many cases of substitution of vowel sounds depending on the place of stress of a word, substitution of consonants or dropping out of consonant sounds in certain combinations. When compiling a transcription of a word, the rules of phonetics are taken into account.

Color scheme

In phonetic analysis, words are sometimes drawn with color schemes: letters are painted with different colors depending on what sound they mean. Colors reflect the phonetic characteristics of sounds and help you visualize how a word is pronounced and what sounds it consists of.

All vowels (stressed and unstressed) are marked with a red background. Iotated vowels are marked green-red: green means a soft consonant sound [y ‘], red means the vowel following it. Consonants with solid sounds are colored blue. Consonants with soft sounds are colored green. Soft and hard signs are painted in gray or not painted at all.

Designations:
- vowel, - iotated, - hard consonant, - soft consonant, - soft or hard consonant.

Note. The blue-green color is not used in the schemes for phonetic analysis, since a consonant cannot be both soft and hard at the same time. The blue-green color in the table above is only used to show that the sound can be either soft or hard.