Is the letter "Y" a vowel or a consonant, hard or soft? Phonetic parsing words.
This question is often asked by students who need to parse a word according to all the rules of phonetics. You will get the answer to it a little further.
General information.
Before talking about what the letter “y” is (soft or hard), you should find out why the letters of the Russian alphabet are generally divided according to such criteria.
The fact is that each word has its own sound shell, which consists of separate sounds. It should be noted that the sound of this or that expression is fully consistent with its meaning. At the same time, different words and their forms have completely different sound design. The sounds themselves don't matter. However, they perform essential role In russian language. After all, thanks to them, we can easily distinguish words.
Let's give an example
: [house] - [lady´] - [home´ma]; [m'el] - [m'el '], [volume] - [there], [house] - [volume].
Transcription.
Why do we need information about what the letter "y" is (hard or soft)? During a word, it is very important to correctly display the transcription that describes its sound. In such a system, it is customary to use the following symbols:
- this designation is called square brackets. They must be put to indicate transcription.
[ ´] is an accent. It is placed if the word has more than one syllable.
[b '] - a kind of comma is placed next to the consonant letter and indicates its softness.
By the way, during the phonetic analysis of words, the following symbol is often used - [j]. As a rule, they denote the sound of the letter “y” (sometimes a symbol such as [y] is also used).
Letter "y": consonant or vowel?
As you know, in Russian all sounds are divided into consonants and vowels. They are perceived and pronounced differently.
Vowel sounds are those sounds during the pronunciation of which air passes easily and freely through the mouth, without encountering any obstacles in its path. Moreover, they can be pulled, with the help of them you can scream. If you put your palm to your throat, then the work of the cords (voice) during the pronunciation of vowels can be quite easily felt. There are 6 stressed vowels in Russian, namely: [a], [e], [u], [s], [o] and [i].
Consonant sounds are those sounds during the pronunciation of which the air meets an obstacle in its path, namely a bow or a gap. Their appearance determines the nature of the sounds. As a rule, a gap is formed when pronouncing [s], [w], [h] and [g]. In this case, the tip of the tongue approaches the upper or lower teeth. The presented consonants can be drawn (for example, [zh-zh-zh], [z-z-z]). As for the bow, such a barrier is formed due to the closing of the organs of speech. The air, or rather its flow, abruptly overcomes it, due to which the sounds are energetic and short. That is why they are called explosive. By the way, it is impossible to pull them (try it yourself: [p], [b], [t], [e]).
In addition to the above consonants, the Russian language also has the following: [m], [d], [c], [f], [g], [l], [p], [h], [c], [x] . As you can see, there are many more than vowels.
Silent and voiced sounds.
By the way, many consonants form between pairs of deafness and sonority: [k] - [g], [b] - [p], [h] - [c], [d] - [t], [f] - [c], etc. In total, there are 11 such pairs in Russian. However, there are sounds that do not have pairs on this basis. These include: [th], [p], [n], [l], [m] are unpaired voiced, and [h] and [c] are unpaired voiceless.
Soft and hard consonants.
As you know, consonants differ not only in sonority or, conversely, deafness, but also in softness and hardness. This property represents the second most important feature of sounds.
So, the letter "y": hard or soft? To answer this question, you should consider each feature separately:
During the pronunciation of soft consonants, the entire tongue moves slightly forward, and its middle part rises slightly.
During the pronunciation of hard consonants, the entire tongue is literally pulled back.
It should be especially noted that many consonants form pairs among themselves according to such features as softness and hardness: [d] - [d '], [p] - [p '], etc. There are 15 such pairs in total. However, there are also sounds that do not have pairs on this basis. What solid letters are unpaired? These include the following - [w], [g] and [c]. As for unpaired soft ones, these are [u '], [h '] and [y '].
Letter designation.
Now you know the information about whether the letter "y" is hard or soft. But here comes new question: "How is the softness of such sounds indicated in writing?" For this, completely different methods are used:
The letters "e", "u", "ё", "i" after the consonants (not counting "zh", "sh", and "c") indicate that these consonants are soft. Let's give an example: uncle - [d'a´d'a], aunt - [t'o´t'a].
The letter "i" after the consonants (not counting "zh", "sh", and "c") indicates that these consonants are soft. Let's give an example: cute - [m'and'cute'], sheet - [l'ist], nowhere - [n'i´tk'i].
The soft sign ("ь") after consonants (not counting "zh" and "w") is an indicator of grammatical form. It also indicates that consonants are soft. Examples example: distance - [gave '], stranded - [m'el '], request - [proz'ba].
As you can see, the softness of consonant sounds in writing is conveyed not by individual letters, but by their combinations with the vowels "e", "yu", "ё", "ya", as well as a soft sign. That is why, when phonetically parsing a word, experts recommend paying attention to neighboring characters.
As for the vowel "y", it is always soft. In this regard, in transcription it is usually denoted as follows: [th ']. That is, the comma symbol, indicating the softness of the sound, must always be set. [u '], [h '] obey the same rule.
Let's summarize.
As you can see, there is nothing difficult in correctly making a phonetic analysis of any word. To do this, you just need to know what vowels and consonants are, deaf and voiced, as well as soft and hard. For a better understanding of how it is necessary to arrange transcription, here are a few detailed examples.
1. The word "hero". Consists of two syllables, with the 2nd being stressed. Let's do a breakdown:
G - [g ’] - voiced, consonant and soft.
p - [p] - voiced, consonant, unpaired and hard.
o - [o] - stressed vowel.
th - [th ’] - voiced, consonant, unpaired and soft.
Total: 5 letters and 5 sounds.
2. The word "trees". Consists of three syllables, with the 2nd being stressed. Let's do a breakdown:
D - [d '] - voiced, consonant and soft.
e - [and] - unstressed vowel.
p - [p '] - voiced, consonant, unpaired and soft.
e - [e´] - stressed vowel.
in - [in '] - voiced, consonant and soft
b - [–]
e - [y '] - voiced, consonant, unpaired and soft and [e] - vowel, unstressed;
in - [f] - deaf,
What is the difference between vowels and consonants and sounds? What rules do they follow? How is the hardness and softness of sounds and letters indicated? You will get answers to all these questions in the presented article.
General information about vowels and consonants
Vowels and consonants are the basis of the entire Russian language. Indeed, with the help of their combinations, syllables are formed that add up to words, expressions, sentences, texts, and so on. That is why quite a lot of hours are devoted to this topic in high school.
and sounds in Russian
A person will learn about what vowels and consonants are in the Russian alphabet from the first grade. And despite all the seeming simplicity of this topic, it is considered one of the most difficult for students.
So, in the Russian language there are ten vowels, namely: o, i, a, s, u, i, e, e, u, e. During their direct pronunciation, you can feel how the air passes freely through the oral cavity. At the same time, we quite clearly hear our own own voice. It should also be noted that vowels can be pulled (ah-ah-ah-ah, uh-uh-uh, i-i-i-i-i, u-u-u-u-u and so on ).
Features and letters
Vowels are the basis of the syllable, that is, they organize it. As a rule, there are as many syllables in Russian words as there are vowels themselves. Let's bring good example: u-che-ni-ki - 5 syllables, re-bya-ta - 3 syllables, he - 1 syllable, o-no - 2 syllables and so on. There are even words that consist of only one vowel sound. Usually these are interjections (Ah!, Oh!, Woo!) and unions (and, a, etc.).
Endings, suffixes and prefixes are very important topics in the discipline "Russian language". Indeed, without knowing how such letters are written in a particular word, it is rather problematic to compose a competent letter.
Consonants and sounds in Russian
Vowel and consonant letters and sounds differ significantly. And if the former can be easily pulled, then the latter are pronounced as short as possible (except for hissing ones, since they can be pulled).
It should be noted that in the Russian alphabet the number of consonant letters is 21, namely: b, c, d, e, g, h, d, k, l, m, n, p, p, s, t, f, x, c, h, sh, sh. The sounds denoted by them are usually divided into deaf and voiced. What is the difference? The fact is that during the pronunciation of voiced consonants, a person can hear not only the characteristic noise, but also his own voice (b!, z!, p!, etc.). As for the deaf, they cannot be pronounced loudly or, for example, shouted. They create only a kind of noise (sh-sh-sh-sh-sh, s-s-s-s-s, etc.).
Thus, almost everything falls into two different categories:
- voiced - b, c, d, d, f, z, d, l, m, n, r;
- deaf - k, p, s, t, f, x, c, h, w.
Softness and hardness of consonants
Not everyone knows, but vowels and consonants can be hard and soft. This is the second most important feature in the Russian language (after voiced and deaf).
A distinctive feature of soft consonants is that during their pronunciation, the human language takes on a special position. As a rule, it shifts slightly forward, and its entire middle part rises slightly. As for when they are pronounced, the tongue is pulled back. You can compare the position of your speech organ yourself: [n] - [n '], [t] - [t ']. It should also be noted that voiced and soft sounds sound a little higher than solid ones.
In Russian, almost all consonants have pairs on the basis of softness and hardness. However, there are those who simply do not have them. These include hard ones - [g], [w] and [c] and soft ones - [th "], [h"] and [w"].
Softness and hardness of vowels
Surely few people have heard that the Russian language has soft vowels. Soft consonants are sounds that are quite familiar to us, which cannot be said about the above. This is partly due to the fact that in high school there is practically no time for this topic. After all, it is already clear with the help of which vowels the consonants become soft. However, we still decided to dedicate you to this topic.
So, soft letters are those letters that are able to soften the consonants that come before them. These include the following: i, e, i, e, u. As for such letters as a, y, s, e, o, they are considered hard, since they do not soften the consonants going in front. To see this, here are a few examples:
The designation of the softness of consonants in the phonetic analysis of the word
The sounds and letters of the Russian language are studied by phonetics. Surely, in high school you were asked more than once to make a certain word. During such an analysis, it is imperative to indicate whether it is separately considered or not. If yes, then it must be denoted as follows: [n '], [t '], [d '], [in '], [m '], [p ']. That is, at the top right, next to the consonant letter in front of the soft vowel, you need to put a kind of dash. The following soft sounds are also marked with a similar icon - [th "], [h"] and [sh"].
The number of letters of the Russian alphabet is well known - 33. It would seem that there are the same number of sounds. But in fact, letters and sounds are different concepts, although they are interconnected. There are, for example, letters that do not have a sound correspondence at all - it is solid and soft sign And. They convey not the sounds themselves, but certain signs, for example, the hardness or softness of the consonant phonemes of the Russian language. In addition, these silent letters affect not only consonants, but also the vowels following them. But how?
Let's count how many vowels are in the Russian alphabet: "a", "e", "e", "i", "o", "y", "s", "e", "yu", "i". Total 10. What about sounds? only six: [a], [o], [i], [y], [s], [e]. It turns out that the letters "e", "e", "yu", "i" do not have a sound correspondence? Not certainly in that way. Let's make the following table:
Thus, we see that some vowels denote not one sound, but a whole combination. So the "I" in the word "poison" is actually [ya]. And the “e” in the word “ice” is [o] after the soft “l”: [l’ot]. But what if after the consonant there was suddenly an unpronounceable soft sign, for example, “pours”? Then we would again get a double phoneme: [l'yot]. Why did the Russian language have "extra" paired letters? Obviously, because the alphabet was born earlier than the science called phonetics, which deals with the study of sounds. In any case, the compilers of the alphabet least of all thought about how the consonant sounds of the Russian language affect vowels.
What does position in a word mean?
It turns out that the sound of vowels and the spelling of the corresponding letters depends on the previous consonant, or rather, on its hardness or softness. There are no exceptions to this rule, because if “u” or “I” are even at the beginning of a word, then, from the point of view of phonetics, such a word begins with a consonant [th ‘], which, unlike other consonants, is always soft. However, since traditionally there are letters in the language, denoting double sounds, then we write "south" and "box", not "yug" and "box".
It would seem logical to get rid of this confusion, cancel the "extra" vowels and write as we hear. But it's not so simple. The thing is, what if we delve into phonetics, we will find: the sound of vowels depends not only on the previous consonant, but also on such an important thing as stress. If the vowel is distinct and understandable under stress, then the farther it is from the stressed syllable, the less clear its sound. Let's take the word "bun". It is clear that the last vowel here is [o]. What's after the "l"? If we listen closely, we will hear something in between [a] and [o]. Such a change in sound, depending on its position relative to the stressed syllable, is called reduction in phonetics.
For this new vowel, the middle between [a] and [o], a new designation is introduced - [ʌ]. But that's not all. As already mentioned, the farther the syllable is from the stressed one, the more the vowel changes in it. And if you listen carefully again, then in the first syllable of the word "kolobok" we will hear a sound similar to [a], and to [o], and to [e]. And this new phoneme is designated as [ъ].
Thus, if we wanted to write "as we hear", then getting rid of some letters, we had to introduce others. Yes, and change the rules of spelling. After all, if today you just need to remember that there is not a single letter “a” in the word “kolobok”, then calculating which vowel you need to write, depending on the position of stressed and unstressed syllables, is hardly an easier task. In any case, literacy will not increase from this. In addition, writing “as you hear” can become a problem for understanding. It's not like everyone hears the same thing. This means that it is not excluded different variants writing the same word. For example, "Bigimot", "Begimot", "Bigemot" and, finally, "Behemoth".
But we haven’t taken into account yet that not only “a” and “o” change in the same way, but also other vowels. At the same time, scientists go further, discovering new variants of sounds. For example, along with [ʌ] and [ъ], another variant of the same sound appeared - [ɑ̟]. This is "a" after hard consonants before "l". It turns out that the further we delve into the topic, the less likely it is to get an answer to the question: how many vowels are there in Russian?
Vowels of the Russian alphabet - how many are there?
In fact, everything is not so sad. There are still six vowels. The fact is that science recognizes vowels as real sounds in the form they are heard under stress. Yet other variants are called allophones, in other words, forms depending on the position in the word and stress. Of course, the division is somewhat artificial, but still better than chaos.
Video
Vowel sounds and letters, how to figure it out? This video will help you.
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Introduction
In Russian, all letters, both vowels and consonants, are its basis. After all, thanks to letters, syllables are formed, and with the help of syllables we compose words, from words, expressions, sentences, and so on.
But today's lesson we will start by studying the consonants of the Russian language.
Consonants
Distinguish between consonants and sounds. What are these letters that are called consonants? To understand what consonants are, let's learn about the origin of the word "consonants". And they are called so because they always go next to vowels or together with vowels.
There is a fundamental difference between consonants and vowels. If you remember that all vowels can be easily pulled or even sung, then consonants should be pronounced as short as possible. The only exceptions are hissing consonants, since they can also be pulled.
The alphabet of the Russian language has twenty-one consonants and 37 consonants.
Consonants
Voiced and deaf sounds
Consonants are divided into voiced and unvoiced sounds. Here, pay attention to the letters that are written in pairs. If you look closely, then in each pair there is one letter that has a deaf sound, and the other has a voiced sound.
Silent letters mean a dull sound, and when we pronounce them, we hear only noise, while pronouncing voiced letters, we can hear not only the noise, but also the voice.
B - P, Z - S, D - T, G - K
But in this moment we see letters that have a pair. These pairs in Russian can be counted eleven pieces. But not all letters got pairs, so in the Russian alphabet there are also unpaired voiced, as well as unpaired deaf.
Exercise: Think of words for paired voiced and deaf sounds.
Soft and hard sounds
In addition to voiced and unvoiced letters of the alphabet can have soft and hard consonants.
During the pronunciation of sounds, in accordance with what sound we pronounce, the position of our tongue changes. When pronouncing soft consonants, our language takes one position, and when it is hard, it is completely different.
Now let's try to pronounce soft sounds first, and then hard ones. If you notice, then when pronouncing soft consonants, we move the tongue a little forward and at the same time its middle part slightly rises. But when we pronounce hard consonants, our tongue is slightly pulled back.
Vowels and sounds in Russian
Now we invite you to remember what vowel sounds and letters are in Russian. There are only ten of us:
Pronouncing vowels, unlike consonants, during pronunciation we can pull or sing them, and at the same time we feel how the air passes through the entire oral cavity, and we clearly hear our voice.
Exercise 1.
Write the word rose
1. Change the letter z to s in this word.
2. What word did you get?
3. What has now changed in the third sound, and how did it begin to sound?
4. What are all the vowels in this word?
5. What are the consonants in this word?
Exercise 2.
Cat, juice, small, feast, bow, ball
1. Replace the vowels in these words with other vowels.
2. What kind of words did you get?
3. Write down the new words you come up with.
4. How are vowels read in previous words?
5. How should sounds be read, hard or soft, in newly formed words?
Homework
1. Vowels and consonants - what is their difference?
2. What is the difference between letters and sounds?
3. Does the number of letters of the Russian alphabet match the number of sounds?
4. Why are there fewer vowels in Russian than vowels?
5. How can you explain why there are more sounds than letters?
6. What types of consonant sounds are divided into?
There are a lot of different voices in the world, almost everything, except for the vacuum, can be heard. Mankind has created in the process a system of conditional signals, the combination of which can be perceived by the consciousness of each of the individuals as a kind of image that implies a specific semantic meaning.
In contact with
So what are sounds in Russian? These are essentially meaningless, the smallest elements of words or that help convey a thought from one person to another. For example, the combination of the consonants "d" and "m" and one vowel "o" can create the word "house", which in turn has a very specific meaning. Such "bricks" of the Russian language are vowels and consonants, hard and soft, hissing and sonorous.
What is the difference?
When thinking about how to distinguish between sounds and letters, it is worth knowing that the second is specific characters with which graphically record what we hear, for example, there is an “a”, which we can say out loud, mentally, whisper or shout, however, until it is written down on paper in the desired form, it will not become a letter. From this it is clear that it is very simple to distinguish between these two concepts - what is on paper, a written symbol is a letter, what we hear or say is a sound.
Attention! How do sounds differ from their written symbols? There are 33 graphic elements in Russian, but they consist of 43 voice signals, with 10 vowels and 6 sounds, and vice versa, 21 and 37 consonants, respectively. From this we can draw a simple conclusion - not all letters and sounds coincide with each other and are heard the way they are written.
What are vowels?
This is the name of such elements of the language that can be sung. How do they differ from their opposite - consonants? They consist only of voice, the air during their pronunciation is easily drawn into the lungs and passed through the mouth. What are vowels? These are graphic symbols written on paper or a combination of them.
table of correspondence
| Voice | Graphic |
| A | A |
| O | O |
| at | at |
| And | And |
| s | s |
| uh | uh |
| y'a | I |
| y'u | Yu |
| y'e | e |
| yo | yo |
What letters make two sounds? Some are formed by two elements - a consonant (s) and a vowel corresponding to the sound. These are the iotized elements of the alphabet that are needed to perform the following functions:
- If you need to put a vowel after a vowel, for example, the word "my".
- After separating mark- "hug".
- In cases where the vowel should be at the beginning of the phonetic word - "pit".
- If you need to soften the consonant in front - “chalk”.
- If you need to reproduce a foreign word.
If such an iotized symbol comes after an unpaired one in terms of hardness or softness, then it denotes an ordinary one, for example, “silk” is read as “silk”.
Iotated vowels
What are consonants?
Consonants are the smallest language units that cannot be sung when they are pronounced air exhaled from the lungs hits an obstacle, for example, on the language. They are divided into pairs, hissing, as well as hard and soft. Let's deal with everyone in order.
Voiced, deaf and hissing
What are the consonants? The table will help you see clearly:
The apostrophe denotes softened elements. This applies to all of the listed pairs, except for "g", since it cannot be soft. In addition, there are consonants that have not been defined in pairs. This:
In addition to the deaf and voiced ones listed, there are also hissing ones. These include "g", "w", "u" and "h". They are necessarily deaf, when they are pronounced language different ways pressed against the palate. To the ear, they are a bit like the hiss of a snake, if you stretch them a little.
Consonants
Hard and soft
Soft differ from hard in the way of pronunciation. When a person pronounces them, he presses his tongue to the palate, which makes them not so rude. As in the previous case, they are divided into pairs, with some exceptions. Almost all elements of the Russian alphabet can be both hard and soft. How many of them do not have such a pair?
| Soft |
| h' |
| j' |
| sch' |
| Solid |
| and |
| w |
| c |
It turns out that the pairs do not make up all hissing, “sh” and Y, which is also present in the composition of several vowels. All others can be softened under certain conditions.
Such a difference between the number of consonant sounds in Russian is justified precisely by the last division according to softness. The fact is that such a softened form is not reflected graphically in writing in any way - we learn about softness by the softening vowel that follows it. This almost doubles the number of sounding units compared to letters.
Hard and soft consonants
How do vowels differ from consonants?
The division into two types of sounds occurs depending on pronunciation techniques. Melodious and "light" vowels, unlike consonants, are easy to pronounce, pull, sing. If you listen to any melodic song, you can hear that they stretch like marshmallows.
Consonants, in turn, imply some kind of obstacle, that is, the flow of air does not come out of the mouth easily and smoothly, but bumping into the tongue, lips, teeth, and so on. Such elements are difficult to pull, they seem to have a sharp ending, regardless of whether they are sonorous or deaf, hard or soft.
Interesting! With graphic symbols, everything happens in exactly the same way, because despite the fact that they are written on paper, belonging to one or another group is determined precisely by sound.
"Special" elements of the Russian language
There are two characters in the Russian alphabet, under which no audible signals are implied. This solid mark"b" and soft sign "b". They are needed:
- To share. The presence of one of these signs in a word indicates that the vowel following it should be iotized.
- A non-separating soft sign can inform the reader that the consonant preceding it is soft, or perform a grammatical function, for example, indicate the gender of the word - "oven".
Russian lessons Sounds and letters
Vowels and consonants. Designating them with letters
Conclusion
Knowledge of the correct interaction of these basic elements helps to write many Russian words correctly. Sound and writing give the key to the melody of speech and writing, its beauty and harmony.
