The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Russian pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA-ru}} and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.
Russian distinguishes hard (unpalatalized or plain) and soft (palatalized) consonants (both phonetically and orthographically). Soft consonants, most of which are denoted by a superscript j, ⟨ʲ⟩, are pronounced with the body of the tongue raised toward the hard palate, like the articulation of the y sound in yes. In native words /j, ɕː, tɕ/ are always soft, whereas /ʐ, ʂ, ts/ are always hard.[1]
See Russian phonology and Russian alphabet for a more thorough look at the sounds of Russian.
Consonants | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hard | Soft | |||||
IPA | Examples | English approximation | IPA | Examples | English approximation | |
b | ![]() |
boot | bʲ | ![]() ![]() |
beautiful | |
d | ![]() ![]() |
do | dʲ | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
dew (UK) | |
dʐ[3] | ![]() |
jug | dʑ[3] | начди́в; ![]() |
jig | |
dz[3] | ![]() |
lads | dzʲ[3] | дзюдо́[1] | lad's young | |
f | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
fool | fʲ | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
few | |
ɡ | ![]() ![]() |
goo | ɡʲ | ![]() |
argue | |
ɣ | ![]() ![]() |
between home and goo | ɣʲ | трёхдне́вный; други́х де́вушек[2] | between argue and yes | |
— | j | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
yes | |||
k | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
scar | kʲ | ![]() |
skew | |
l | ![]() |
pill | lʲ | ![]() ![]() |
lean | |
m | ![]() |
moot | mʲ | ![]() ![]() |
mute | |
n | ![]() |
noon | nʲ | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
newt (for some dialects) | |
p | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
span | pʲ | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
spew | |
r | ![]() |
flapped or trilled r, like in Spanish | rʲ | ![]() ![]() |
flapped or trilled r, like in Spanish | |
s | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
soup | sʲ | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
assume (for some dialects) | |
ʂ | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
rush | ɕː | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
wish sheep | |
t | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
stand | tʲ | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
stew (UK) | |
ts[3] | ![]() ![]() |
cats | tsʲ[3] | Цю́рих[1] | cat's young | |
tʂ[3] | ![]() |
chip | tɕ[3] | ![]() ![]() |
chip | |
v | ![]() |
voodoo | vʲ | ![]() ![]() |
view | |
x | ![]() ![]() |
loch (Scottish); ugh | xʲ | ![]() ![]() |
huge (for some dialects) | |
z | ![]() ![]() |
zoo | zʲ | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
presume (for some dialects) | |
ʐ | ![]() |
rouge | ʑː | ![]() |
prestige genre | |
Stressed vowels | ||||||
[-soft] | [+soft] | |||||
IPA | Examples | English approximation | IPA | Examples | English approximation | |
a | ![]() |
father | æ | ![]() ![]() |
pat (US) | |
ɛ | ![]() ![]() |
met | e | ![]() ![]() |
mace | |
ɨ | ![]() ![]() |
roses (for some dialects) | i | ![]() ![]() |
meet | |
o | ![]() ![]() |
chore | ɵ | ![]() ![]() |
foot | |
u | ![]() |
cool | ʉ | ![]() ![]() |
choose | |
Unstressed vowels | ||||||
[-soft] | [+soft] | |||||
IPA | Examples | English approximation | IPA | Examples | English approximation | |
ə | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
about | ə | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
lasagna | |
ɐ | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
bud | ɪ | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
bit | |
ɛ | тетра́эдр; поэте́сса[17] | met | ||||
ɨ | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
roses (for some dialects) | ||||
o | ![]() |
chore | ɵ | ма́чо; сёрфинги́ст[13][18] | foot | |
ʊ | ![]() |
pull | ʉ | ![]() ![]() |
youth | |
Suprasegmental | ||||||
IPA | Example | Explanation | ||||
ˈ | ![]() |
stress mark, placed before the stressed syllable | ||||
ː | ![]() |
consonant length mark, placed after the geminated consonant |
Notes
- ^ a b c Even though /ts/ and its voicing [dz] are considered to be exclusively hard consonants, they may be palatalized in certain words of foreign origin.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Consonants in consonant clusters are assimilated in voicing if the final consonant in the sequence is an obstruent (except [v, vʲ]). All consonants become voiceless if the final consonant is voiceless or voiced if the final consonant is voiced (Halle 1959:31).
- ^ a b c d e f g h The affricates [ts], [tɕ], and [tʂ] (and their voiced counterparts [dz], [dʑ], and [dʐ]) are sometimes written with ligature ties: [t͡s], [t͡ɕ], and [t͡ʂ] ([d͡z], [d͡ʑ], and [d͡ʐ]). Ties are not used in transcriptions on Wikipedia (except in phonology articles) because they may not display correctly in all browsers.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k The voiced obstruents /b, bʲ, d, dʲ, ɡ, v, vʲ, z, zʲ, ʐ/ are devoiced word-finally unless the next word begins with a voiced obstruent (Halle 1959:22).
- ^ a b c d ⟨г⟩ is usually pronounced [ɣ] or (word-finally) [x] in some religious words and colloquial derivatives from them, such as
Го́споди and
Бог, and in the interjections
ага́,
ого́,
го́споди,
ей-бо́гу, and also in бухга́лтер [bʊˈɣaltʲɪr] (Timberlake 2004:23). /ɡ/ devoices and lenites to [x] before voiceless obstruents (dissimilation) in the word roots -мягк- or -мягч-, -легк- or -легч-, -тягч-, and also in the old-fashioned pronunciation of -ногт-, -когт-, кто. Speakers of the Southern Russian dialects may pronounce ⟨г⟩ as [ɣ] (soft [ɣʲ], devoiced [x] and [xʲ]) throughout.
- ^ a b Intervocalic ⟨г⟩ represents /v/ in certain words (
сего́дня,
сего́дняшний, итого́ ), and in the genitive suffix -ого/-его (Timberlake 2004:23).
- ^ The soft vowel letters ⟨е, ё, ю, я⟩ represent iotated vowels /je, jo, ju, ja/, except when following a consonant. When these vowels are unstressed (save for ⟨ё⟩, which is always stressed) and follow another vowel letter, the /j/ may not be present. The letter ⟨и⟩ produces iotated sound /ji/ only after ь.
- ^ /l/ is often strongly pharyngealized [ɫ], but that feature is not distinctive (Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996:187-188).
- ^ Alveolo-palatal consonants are subjected to regressive assimilative palatalization; i.e. they tend to become palatalized in front of other phones with the same place of articulation.
- ^ Most speakers pronounce ⟨ч⟩ in the pronoun что and its derivatives as [ʂ]. All other occurrences of чт cluster stay as affricate and stop.
- ^ ⟨щ⟩ is sometimes pronounced as [ɕː] or [ɕɕ] and sometimes as [ɕtɕ], but no speakers contrast the two pronunciations. This generally includes the other spellings of the sound, but the word счи́тывать sometimes has [ɕtɕ] because of the morpheme boundary between the prefix ⟨с-⟩ and the root ⟨-чит-⟩.
- ^ Geminated [ʐː] is pronounced as soft [ʑː], the voiced counterpart to [ɕː], in a few lexical items (such as дро́жжи or заезжа́ть) by conservative Moscow speakers; such realization is now somewhat obsolete (Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015:224)).
- ^ a b c d e f Vowels are fronted and/or raised in the context of palatalized consonants: /a/ and /u/ become [æ] and [ʉ], respectively between palatalized consonants, /e/ is realized as [e] before and between palatalized consonants and /o/ becomes [ɵ] after and between palatalized consonants.
- ^ a b Unstressed /a/ and /o/ regularly lose their contrast, being pronounced [ɐ] in word-initial position, as well as when in a sequence, and [ə] in posttonic position (i.e. after the stress); in non-initial pretonic position (i.e. before the stress) they are reduced to [ɐ] only immediately before the stress, being realized [ə] otherwise.
- ^ Only in certain word-final morphemes (Timberlake 2004:48-51).
- ^ Unstressed /a/ is pronounced as [ɪ] after ⟨ч⟩ and ⟨щ⟩ except when word-final.[citation needed]
- ^ a b In the careful style of pronunciation unstressed /e/ and /o/ in words of foreign origin may be pronounced with little or no reduction.
- ^ Unstressed [ɵ] only occurs in words of foreign origin.
References
- Cubberley, Paul (2002), "The phonology of Modern Russian", Russian: A Linguistic Introduction, Cambridge University Press
- Halle, Morris (1959), Sound Pattern of Russian, MIT Press
- Jones, Daniel; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
- Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4.
- Timberlake, Alan (2004), "Sounds", A Reference Grammar of Russian, Cambridge University Press
- Yanushevskaya, Irena; Bunčić, Daniel (2015), "Russian" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 45 (2): 221–228, doi:10.1017/S0025100314000395
See also
- Template:ru-IPA for the Wiktionary template to automatically generate pronunciation for Russian words