Consonants are voiced and voiceless. Stunning and voicing of consonants
According to their sound and method of formation, consonant sounds are divided in Russian into voiced and voiceless.
Voiced consonants are formed with the participation of the vocal cords and consist of voice and noise. Voiceless consonants are formed without the participation of the vocal cords and consist only of noise.
Most consonants form voiceless/voiced pairs. Table:
| [b’] - [p’] |
|
| [v’] - [f’] |
|
| [g’] - [k’] |
|
| [d’] - [t’] |
|
| [z’] - [s’] |
|
Some consonants do not form voiced/voiceless pairs (they are, so to speak, “only voiced” or “only voiceless”).
Unpaired voiceless consonants: [x], [x’], [ts], [ch’], [sch’].
Unpaired voiced consonants: [й’], [l], [l’], [m], [m’], [n], [n’], [р], [р’].
In the flow of speech, in certain positions, paired voiced consonants change to voiceless (voiced), and paired voiceless consonants change to voiced (voiced).
Voiced consonants are devoiced in two positions:
- At the end of the word:
Bread - [hl'ep].
(Many) flowers - [tsv’itof].
2. Before a voiceless consonant:
Claws - [kokt’i].
Spoon - [loshka].
Under the floor - [patpolam].
Voiceless consonants are voiced in position before paired voiced ones:
Request - [pros’ba].
Lights out - [adboy"].
With a friend - [to friends].
Consonants are soft and hard. Softening hard consonants
According to their sound and method of formation, consonant sounds in the Russian language are divided into hard and soft.
Soft consonants are formed with the participation of the middle part of the tongue and have a special, “soft” sound. Hard consonants are formed without the participation of the middle part of the tongue and have a “hard” sound.
Most consonants form hard/soft pairs.
Some consonants do not form hard/soft pairs (they are, so to speak, “only hard” or “only soft”).
Unpaired hard consonants: [zh], [sh], [ts].
Unpaired soft consonants: [th’], [h’], [sch’].
Hard consonants cannot be combined with the vowel sound [i] that follows them; soft consonants cannot be combined with the vowel sound [s] that follows them.
Man - [man] (here after the hard [zh] it sounds [s]).
Taught - [uch’il] (here after the soft [ch’] it sounds [i]).
In some cases, paired hard consonants are softened in the flow of speech.
Hard [n] can change to soft [n’] in combinations [n’ch’], [n’sch’].
Pancake - pancake [bl'in'ch'ik].
Change - changer [sm'en'sh'ik].
Hard [d], [t], [z], [s], [n] can soften before soft [d’], [t’], [z’], [s’], [n’].
Whistle - whistle [s’t’]net.
Forest - le[s"n"]ik.
The treasury is in the treasury.
Bow - ba[n"t"]ik.
India - I[n"d"]ia.
Similarity of consonants in sound and pronunciation, loss of consonants in difficult-to-pronounce combinations
In addition to softening, voicing and deafening in the flow of speech, consonant sounds undergo other changes in certain positions. Let's note some of them.
The sounds [z], [s], [d], [t] before the consonants [zh], [sh], [h"], [sch"] are similar to them in sound and pronunciation.
Sew - [shshyt’].
Kindle - [razzhech’].
Account - [sh’sh’ot].
He became generous - he became generous.
Clean up - [pach’ch’is’t’it’].
With a beetle - [buzz].
From wool - [ishshers "t"i].
In the verbs na -tsya and -tsya, the sounds [t’] and [s’], mutually similar in pronunciation, coincide in the double sound [ts].
To tear - [vazza].
Suitable - [gad’izza].
In the combination of TSC, the sounds [t] and [s], mutually similar in pronunciation, coincide in the sound [ts].
Arbatsky - [arbatskiy"].
Pirate - [p’iratsk’].
When a combination of consonant sounds is difficult to pronounce, one of them may be dropped.
Imperious - imperious.
Heart - s[rts]e.
Late - late.
The sun is so[nt]e.
Envious - envious.
Feeling is feeling.
Six hundred - she[ss]ot.
Dutch - goll[ns]ky.
Vowels are stressed and unstressed. Reduction of unstressed vowels
According to the characteristics of pronunciation, duration and strength of sound, vowel sounds are divided into stressed and unstressed.
Stressed vowels in Russian have a significantly longer duration and sound strength than unstressed vowels. Stressed vowels are characterized by clearer pronunciation than unstressed vowels.
Stressed vowels form stressed syllables in speech, unstressed vowels - unstressed syllables.
In an unstressed position, vowels are pronounced less clearly and sound for less duration (i.e., they are reduced).
Vowels [и], [ы], [у] without stress generally retain their sound.
Saw - [p’ila].
Smoke - [smoke].
Hand - [hand].
Vowels [o], [e], [a] without stress change the quality of their sound.
After hard consonants, unstressed [o] and [a] coincide in a short vowel sound, close but not identical to [a] (in the school phonetics course there is no special symbol for this sound; the symbol [a] is used).
Chapter - [chapter].
Words - [glory].
After soft consonants, unstressed [e] and [a] coincide in a short vowel sound, close but not identical to [i] (in the school phonetics course there is no special icon for this sound; the symbol [i] is used).
Deeds - [d'ila].
Pyatak - [p’itak].
The dual role of the letters E, E, Yu, I in Russian graphics
Letters e, yo, yu, I play double role in Russian graphics.
Letters e, yo, yu, I denote two sounds at once if they are at the beginning of a word, either after the separating b and b, or after a vowel sound: [y'e], [y'o], [y'u], [y'a].
There is - [y'es"t"] (letter e denotes two sounds at the beginning of a word).
Will shed - [pral "y"ot] (letter e denotes two sounds after b).
Comfort - [uy'ut] (letter Yu denotes two sounds after a vowel).
The letters e, e, yu, i, standing after soft consonants, denote only the vowel sounds [e], [o], [u], [a] and the softness of the previous consonant.
Forest - [l’es].
Honey - [m’ot].
Luke - [l’uk].
Row - [r’at].
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 voiceless:
- 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
Let's remember how speech sounds are born. When a person begins to speak, he exhales air from his lungs. It runs down the windpipe into the narrow larynx, where special muscles are located - the vocal cords. If a person pronounces consonants, he closes his mouth (at least a little), which causes noise. But consonants make different noises.
Let's conduct an experiment: cover our ears and pronounce the sound [p], and then the sound [b]. When we pronounced the sound [b], the ligaments became tense and began to tremble. This trembling turned into a voice. There was a slight ringing in my ears.
You can conduct a similar experiment by placing your hands on the neck on the right and left sides and pronouncing the sounds [d] and [t]. The sound [d] is pronounced much louder, more sonorous. Scientists call these sounds sonorous, and sounds that consist only of noise - deaf.
Paired consonant sounds in terms of voicedness and deafness
Let's try to divide sounds into two groups according to the method of pronunciation. Let's populate phonetic houses in the city of sounds. Let's agree: dull sounds will live on the first floor, and voiced sounds will live on the second floor. Residents of the first house:
[b] | [d] | [z] | [G] | [V] | [and] |
[P] | [T] | [With] | [To] | [f] | [w] |
These consonant sounds are called paired by sonority - deafness.
They are very similar to each other - real “twins”, they are pronounced almost identically: the lips form the same way, the tongue moves the same way. But they also have pairs of softness and hardness. Let's add them to the house.
[b] | [b’] | [d] | [d’] | [z] | [z’] | [G] | [G'] | [V] | [V'] | [and] |
[P] | [P'] | [T] | [T'] | [With] | [With'] | [To] | [To'] | [f] | [f’] | [w] |
The sounds [zh] and [sh] do not have paired soft sounds, they always hard. And they are also called sizzling sounds.
All these sounds are indicated by letters:
[b] | [b’] | B | (bae) |
[P] | [P'] | P | (peh) |
[d] | [d’] | D | (de) |
[T] | [T'] | T | (te) |
[z] | [z’] | Z | (ze) |
[With] | [With'] | WITH | (es) |
[G] | [G'] | G | (ge) |
[To] | [To'] | TO | (ka) |
[V] | [V'] | IN | (ve) |
[f] | [f’] | F | (ef) |
[and] | AND | (zhe) |
|
[w] | Sh | (sha) |
Unpaired voiced consonants
But not all consonant sounds and letters form pairs. Those consonants that do not have pairs are called unpaired. Let's put unpaired consonant sounds in our houses.
To the second house - unpaired voiced consonants sounds:
Let us remind you that the sound [th’] always just soft. Therefore, he will live alone in our house. These sounds are represented in writing by letters:
[l] | [l’] | L | (ale) |
[m] | [m’] | M | (Em) |
[n] | [n’] | N | (en) |
[R] | [R'] | R | (er) |
[th’] | Y | (and short) |
The sounds of the second house are also called sonorous , because they are formed with the help of the voice and almost without noise, they are very sonorous. The word “sonorant” is translated from the Latin “sonorus” meaning sonorous.
Unpaired voiceless consonants
We will put you in the third house unpaired voiceless consonants sounds:
[X] | [X'] | [ts] | [h’] | [sch'] |
Let us remember that the sound [ts] is always solid, and [h’] and [sch’] - always soft. Unpaired voiceless consonants are indicated in writing by letters:
[X] | [X'] | X | (Ha) |
[ts] | C | (tse) |
|
[h’] | H | (che) |
|
[sch'] | SCH | (now) |
Sounds [h’], [h’] - sizzling sounds.
So we populated our city with consonant sounds and letters. Now it’s immediately clear why there are 21 consonant letters and 36 sounds.
Let's secure it.
There are riddles, the meaning of which lies in the knowledge of consonant sounds, they are called charades. Try to guess them:
1. With a deaf consonant I pour myself into the field,
With the ringing one - I myself am ringing to the expanse . (Spike - voice)
2. With a deaf person - she cuts the grass,
With a voiced sound, it eats the leaves. (Scythe - goat)
3. With “em” - pleasant, golden, very sweet and fragrant.
With the letter "el" it appears in winter, but disappears in spring . (Honey - ice)
In order to develop the ability to pronounce certain sounds, especially hissing ones, they learn tongue twisters. The tongue twister is told slowly at first, and then the pace is accelerated. Let's try to learn tongue twisters:
Six little mice rustle in the reeds.
The hedgehog has a hedgehog, the snake has a squeeze.
Two puppies were chewing a brush in the corner, cheek to cheek.
All consonant sounds in the Russian language are divided into hard and soft and into voiceless and voiced. What is the difference between voiced consonants? Our article answers this question.
How are voiced sounds formed?
In the process of forming a consonant sound, not only the voice, but also various noises are involved. They arise due to the fact that various obstacles form in the mouth, which are then overcome by the flow of air. For example, when pronouncing the sound [b], we close our lips, and the exhaled air forcefully breaks this barrier.
Children studying Russian in the third grade distinguish sounds by deafness and voicedness only in the indicated way. But sometimes schoolchildren in grades 5–6 also distinguish sonorants (very sonorous) and hissing ones. In the latter there is no voice at all - only noise (with the exception of F).
For example, a voiced consonant at the beginning of the word “lynx” is sonorant, and a voiceless consonant at the beginning of the word “pike” is hissing.
The sonorant consonants “l” and “r” can even take on some of the functions of a vowel and form a syllable. This happens, for example, in the word “smysol” (which is why it is sometimes mistakenly written “smysol”).
How to distinguish a ringing sound
There are several signs by which a voiced consonant can be distinguished.
You can say the sound out loud by placing your hand on your throat near the vocal cords; if vibration is felt, the sound is ringing.
You can simply memorize voiceless and voiced consonants. Or remember, relying on pairs of deafness and voicedness.
There are mnemonic formulas that allow you to remember unvoiced and voiced sounds. This is a phrase or word where all sounds are either unvoiced or voiced. Let us give examples of such formulas.
- Deaf: Styopka, would you like some soup? - Fi. (In this phrase all sounds are unvoiced)
- Voiced: Normal (sonorants only)
Paired and unpaired voiced consonants
Most voiced consonants form voiceless-voiced pairs. In the table below, all voiced sounds are shown in the top row, and the unvoiced sounds paired with them are shown in the bottom row. If there is a dash in one row or another, it means the sound is unpaired.
Voicing and stunning
In the flow of speech, sounds depend on their “neighbors”, so they can change their quality under the influence of their environment.
In Russian, several phenomena are possible:
- Stun
- Assimilation(similarity) by deafness-voicing.
Stunning occurs at the end of a word. A voiced consonant at the absolute end of a word is pronounced as its own voiceless pair. For example, [gr’ip] (mushroom).
Assimilation occurs in the middle of a word. In Russian, the sound is influenced by the neighbor on the right. Most often, a voiced sound becomes dull due to the fact that it is adjacent to another dull sound. Examples of assimilation: tub, riddle. Less often, a consonant becomes voiced “for company.” For example, request [proz’ba].
Similar processes occur in different languages, but in different ways. For example, in Chuvash language a voiceless consonant, once between two vowels, becomes voiced.
How to check a questionable consonant
Because of these linguistic processes, consonant sounds are made to sound different from themselves in some positions. Therefore they need to be checked.
To determine what sound, voiceless or voiced, must be written in a given word, you should change the word or select a root word so that there is a vowel after the consonant. For example, pillar-pillars, mow-mow, pointer-point.
The absolute end of a word is not a strong position that makes it possible to distinguish consonants by deafness and voicedness.
There are words that cannot be verified. For example, football, backpack, etc. You need to memorize them or look them up in the dictionary.
What have we learned?
From the article we learned that consonant sounds in the Russian language are voiced and unvoiced. To form a voiced consonant, you need more voice than noise. We learned which sounds are paired in terms of deafness and voicedness, and which are not. We learned what sonorous and hissing sounds are.
Test on the topic
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Usually, children do not have serious difficulties understanding the difference between vowels and consonants. But we should dwell in more detail on hard and soft consonants.
How to teach children to distinguish between hard and soft consonants
The very first thing you need to teach your child: consonant sounds can be hard and soft, but not letters.
Typical error:
Children confuse sounds and letters. We remember that a sound sounds, and a letter is an icon, it is written. A letter cannot be hard or soft; only a consonant sound can be hard or soft in pronunciation.
Sometimes children can easily learn to distinguish soft and hard sounds by ear.
But it happens that this is difficult, and in this case signs will come to the rescue by which you can distinguish hard sounds from soft ones.
Distinctive features of soft and hard sounds
What sound comes after a consonant:
- If after a consonant there is a vowel a, o, u, e, s, then the consonant is hard.
- If after a consonant there is a vowel and, e, yu, i, then the consonant is soft.
Working on examples:
In the words “mama” and “nora” the consonants are hard, because they are followed by “a” and “o”.
In the words “fly” and “nanny” the consonants are soft because they are followed by “e”, “i”, “ya”.
- If another consonant sounds after a consonant, then the first consonant will be hard.
- There are sounds that can only be hard and sounds that can only be soft, no matter what sound is heard or what letter is written after them.
Always hard sounds - zh, sh, ts.
Always soft - th, h, shch.
A common way to learn these sounds is a simple technique: we write the letters that convey these sounds on a line, and emphasize “th, ch, sch.” The underscore symbolizes the cushion on which the soft sounds sit. The pad is soft, which means the sounds are soft.
Soft sign and hard sign
- If there is a consonant at the end of a word and the letter “b” after it, then the consonant is soft.
This rule is easy to apply if the child sees the written word, but it will not help if the child performs the task by ear.
Movement of the tongue when pronouncing soft and hard sounds
When pronouncing a soft sound, the tongue moves slightly forward, approaching (or touching) the palate with its middle.
When pronouncing hard sounds, the tongue does not move forward.
Table of signs of hard and soft sounds
Solid:
- Before a, o, y, e, y.
- At the end of a word before a consonant.
- F, c, w.
Soft:
- Before vowels e, ё, and, yu, I.
- If after a consonant there is soft sign(dust, measles).
- Y, h, sch.
A picture or simply a list of thematic words is shown, and the task is given to choose words with soft or hard consonants. For example:
Voiced and voiceless consonants
There are 11 pairs of voiced/voiceless consonants in the Russian language.
The phonetic difference between voiced and voiceless consonants lies in the tension of the vocal cords. Voiceless sounds are pronounced with the help of noise, without straining the ligaments. Voiced sounds are pronounced by voice and are caused by vibration of the vocal cords, because air comes out of the larynx noisily.
Mnemonic technique for memorizing voiceless sounds:
Learn the phrase: “Styopka, do you want some cheek? - Fi! All consonant sounds here are voiceless.
Examples of tasks for children
Tasks for training the differences between paired consonants can be compiled for each pair to the following principle(using the example of a D/T pair):
Tasks for distinguishing a pair of consonants G/K
