Vowels giving softness. Hard and soft consonants

Consonant sounds in Russian have several features that affect their pronunciation. One of these characteristics is hardness/softness.

The peculiarity of soft consonants

Soft consonants, unlike hard ones, are pronounced more smoothly. When they are articulated, the tongue rises slightly (begins to resemble an arch or a kind of “bridge”), and its tip rests against the base of the lower teeth.

For most consonantal (i.e. consonant) sounds of Russian speech, softness is a paired feature. Each hard consonant has a corresponding soft consonant. For example:

• [b]/[b"];
• [mm"];
• [z]/[z"];
• [d]/[d"];
• [f]/[f"].

Among all consonant pairs, only six sounds do not have the described characteristic. Some of them are always soft (this is [th], [w"], [h"]). Others are always hard (this type includes [ts], [w], [z]).

The main feature of soft consonants is that they affect the spelling of words. It is with this type of sounds that such well-known spelling patterns are associated, such as writing the combinations zhi/shi with the letter I or the combinations cha/scha with the letter A.

Indication of softness of consonants in written speech

When we speak, it is quite easy to distinguish soft consonants from hard ones, thanks to the peculiarities of their articulation. In writing, it is sometimes very difficult to discern where the sound is soft and where it is hard. For this purpose, several rules were introduced in the Russian language for the special designation of soft sounds in writing.

The first and most obvious way to highlight them is to place a soft sign next to them. If it immediately follows a consonant, then it is soft. Another spelling rule of the Russian language is connected with this - writing the combinations -chk-, -schn-, -chn-, -rsch-, etc. without a soft sign. (after all, the sounds [h"] and [w"] are always soft and there is no need to additionally designate this feature).

Also, softness in writing is indicated by using several vowels. These include:

• And, and.
• Her.
• Her.
• Yu, Yu.
• Me, me.

If a consonant is located before one of the listed letters, it will definitely be soft (for example, whale - [k "it", song - [p "es" n "a", people - [l "ud"i], maple - [kl "He].

Introducing a child to the Russian alphabet is always an encounter with an unknown but mysterious world, in which there are so many interesting things.

The letters of the Russian alphabet make up a whole family, with 33 inhabitants!

And everyone needs to be remembered in their places. But the study of letters does not end there. We also have to divide them into vowels and consonants, stressed and unstressed, soft and hard, voiceless and voiced.. And this is still far from a complete classification. Let's figure out how to correctly divide the letters of the alphabet into groups.

Vowels and consonants sounds and letters

First, let's figure out how many letters the Russian alphabet contains. There are 33 of them in total. They are all divided into two large groups: vowels and consonants.

We cannot attribute only the soft and hard signs to any of the groups: they do not denote sound, but serve to indicate the hardness or softness of the previous sound.

Table with cards of vowels and consonants in the Russian language.

Vowel sounds

Vowel sounds are pronounced easily, in a singsong manner. This is possible due to the fact that during articulation in the mouth there is no obstruction to the air flow.

How many vowels are there in Russian? – 10 letters. Vowel sounds are much smaller: only 6: A, O, U, Y, I, E. This difference is explained by the fact that 4 vowel letters are formed by merging two sounds: E=Y+O; E=Y+E; Yu=Y+U; I=Y+A.

Shocked and unstressed

Vowel sounds can be stressed or unstressed. Stressed vowel sounds in a word are emphasized by the voice. Thanks to stress, we understand the meaning of a word. There are words in which the meaning depends only on the placement of the stress, for example: castle- castle. Unstressed sounds are not pronounced so clearly, so in writing we check unstressed sounds with stress.

How many consonants and sounds are there in the Russian language?

There are only 21 consonants, but there are 37 sounds.

Consonant sounds are formed due to an obstruction that occurs in the mouth during the passage of air flow. The role of an obstruction can be played by teeth, tongue, lips; depending on the nature of the obstruction, consonants are divided into many groups, for example, labial, dental, etc.

Consonants are also divided into hard and soft, voiceless and voiced.

Hard and soft

Hard consonants are pronounced more roughly, while soft ones sound more graceful and are softened by a nearby vowel or in writing using a soft sign. In transcription, soft sounds are indicated by an adjacent apostrophe. For example, in the word HOUSE the letter “d” sounds hard, but in the word GO it sounds soft. Soft and hard consonants are presented in the table.

Voiceless and voiced

Voiceless consonant sounds are pronounced without the participation of the voice, while in the formation of hard sounds the participation of the voice is necessary. Voiced and unvoiced sounds, as a rule, form a pair, for example: B-P, V-F, etc. There are only a few sounds that do not have a voiced-voiced pair: Shch, Ts, Y, R, L, M, N.

The table presented on our website will help you fully consider deaf and voiced, hard and soft consonants, as well as stressed and unstressed vowels. It can be hung in the classroom where children have begun to study the Russian alphabet in more detail. It would also be a good idea to hang the chart in a visible place at home if your child is starting to learn letters.

Tables

Cartoons on the topic

To help your child quickly learn the division of letters into vowels and consonants, you can offer him cartoons on this topic. On our website you will find educational cartoons dedicated to this topic.

Speech therapist. Russian alphabet

This video presents sounds in the Russian language using examples of onomatopoeia. This technique will allow children to practice the clarity of pronunciation of vowels and consonants, and to more clearly feel the difference in their sound. Sounds accompany bright pictures with animals and natural phenomena. You can watch the cartoon here

Learn and sing the Russian alphabet

This video contains a performance of the alphabet to music. The melody is pleasant, easy to remember, and the song itself is accompanied by a display of the letter and form of its writing. This cartoon can be useful for children of any age, as it is aimed not only at remembering the order of letters, but also at practicing diction. You can watch the cartoon here

Voiceless consonants

There is a generally accepted opinion that it is impossible to sing consonants. However, the authors of this cartoon break the usual stereotypes of perception. Of course, this video cannot be called a song in its entirety: rather, we will be dealing with a drawn-out pronunciation of voiceless consonants. This is extremely useful for children's diction, in which defects in the pronunciation of hissing sounds are constantly visible. Play this cartoon for your child more often so that he corrects his diction. You can watch the cartoon here

Voiced consonants

It is much easier to sing voiced consonant sounds, although again we will not be dealing with singing, but with prolonged pronunciation of the sound. The voice is involved in the formation of voiced consonants, so they can be easily chanted. This cartoon invites children to practice this simple task and become more familiar with ringing sounds. You can watch the cartoon here

Learn vowel and consonant sounds, because they form the basis of our alphabet!

Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy said that there is nothing sedimentary or crystalline in the Russian language; everything excites, breathes, lives. Such “liveness” of our native language is the merit of the words that make up it. But before you learn to use them, you need to learn the letters and sounds. They will be discussed in this article.

When learning a language with your child, you need to clearly make him understand the differences between spoken and written language. To do this, it is important to give him the concept of what a sound is and what a letter is.

Sounds are what we perceive with our hearing. Our brain easily separates what relates to speech from other sounds and interprets them into images. We can write down the sounds of speech in letters, forming words from them.

A letter is a graphic symbol of the alphabet, thanks to which we can display on paper what we hear by ear. But here lies a very big difficulty for the child. After all, the number of sounds and letters that reproduce them on paper in different words may differ in one direction or the other.

How many letters and sounds are there in the Russian language and alphabet and their relationship

IMPORTANT: We hear and can produce sounds with our speech apparatus. We can see and write letters! Sounds exist in all languages. Even in those where there is no written language.

In a word like "chair" letters correspond to sounds. But, in the word "sun", the letter "L" not pronounced. Letters are also not pronounced "Kommersant" And "b". They only slightly change the pronunciation of the words in which they are used.

There is also such a “school” word as "Compass". In which instead of sound [AND] sound is pronounced [s].

There are still a lot of words in the Russian language that are pronounced differently from how they are written in letters. Therefore, it is very important for a child to learn to correctly understand this difference.

Alphabet

Language is the main invention of mankind. Moreover, for every nation that has created its own language, it is distinguished by the characteristics peculiar to this people. At a certain stage in the development of a community that a particular people uses, there appears a need to record speech sounds combined into words and sentences. This is how writing appeared, and at the same time the alphabet. That is, a set of all the letters used in writing, standing in strict order.

The alphabet of the Russian language contains 33 letters and looks like this:

The alphabet is the basis of any language that everyone who studies it needs to know. Is it possible to learn to speak without knowing the alphabet? Certainly. But, in addition to the ability to express your thoughts, you need to learn to write and read. And this is impossible to do without knowing the alphabet.

Today, children have a lot of different aids for learning the alphabet. You can buy special flash cards, magnets, and a small primer that your child can take with him on walks or trips.

In our computerized era, electronic gadgets can also be called upon to help in learning the alphabet. Type letters in text apps and name the sounds that teach them. You can use your imagination and use graphic editors, change fonts and add fills. Create your own alphabet that will be interesting to your child. Then learning will go faster and more efficiently.

INTERESTING: Teachers have come up with a very interesting and exciting way to learn the alphabet. Dedicate each new day in your family to one of the letters of the alphabet. Of course, we shouldn’t forget about the rest. Bake buns in the shape of letters, make letters from plasticine with your child, draw them, assemble them from counting sticks. Be sure to tell about the letter the day is dedicated to and give examples of its use.

Vowel sounds and letters

Introducing your child to the alphabet is a very exciting activity. But this is only one of the first steps in mastering the language. To continue studying its elementary units, you need to learn how to divide them according to their characteristics.

Those letters that are pronounced drawlingly are called vowels.

• There are 10 vowels in Russian “A”, “E”, “Y”, “I”, “O”, “U”, “Y”, “E”, “Yu”, “I”
• 6 vowel sounds [a], [o], [y], [e], [i], [s]. Typically, vowel sounds in the school curriculum should be highlighted in red.

We have already clarified the difference between the elementary particles of language.

Letters I, Yo, Yu, E - iotized. They involve one or two sounds.

From this table, this difference can be seen again:

INTERESTING: By the way, about the letter “Y”. Today it is mistakenly believed that Karamzin introduced it into our alphabet. But that's not true. This was done by the director of the St. Petersburg Academy, Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, on November 18, 1783 at a meeting on the occasion of the creation of the first explanatory dictionary in Russia. She suggested changing the letters “IO” to one “E”.

Stressed and unstressed vowel sounds

• Stressed vowel sound pronounced with great force and does not undergo changes.

For example: sn e g, st ý l, shk A f

• Unstressed vowel sound pronounced with little force and undergoes changes.

For example: To ABOUT rzina (heard instead of ABOUT, sound A), m E dva d (In the first unstressed vowel sound instead E, can be heard AND), pl E cho (vowel sound AND is heard instead E).

IMPORTANT: Stress is not placed in words with one syllable and in words with a letter Yo.

Vowels Yotated letters Ya, Yu, E, Yo soften the consonant sound in front of them and create one sound: e → [e] or [i], е → [o], yu → [u], i → [a ].

For example:

• At the beginning of the word: hedgehog [y’ozhik]
• In the middle of a word: shelter [pri y’ut]
• At the end of the word: gun [roug y'o]

Hard and soft vowels have a direct effect on consonants. For example, a consonant "P", maybe as solid (in the word "plastic bag"), and soft (in the word "cookie").

Consonants and letters

Consonant letters are called such because they contain consonant sounds. There are 36 consonant sounds in the Russian language:

An apostrophe marks soft sounds.
And 21 consonants:

Consonant letters and sounds, soft and hard: table

Consonants, like vowels, can be either hard or soft. For example, in the word "River", beech "R" soft, but in a word "Hand"– hard. In general, several factors influence the softness and hardness of sounds in a word. For example, the location of a sound in a word. The sounds are softened by iota vowels ( "E", "Yo", "YU" And "I") and diphthongs that come after consonants. For example:

• "White"
• "Love"
• "Friday"

The letter also softens sounds "AND", and its antipode "Y", on the contrary, makes the sound hard. The presence of a soft sign at the end of a word plays an important role:

• "Linen" And "laziness"

A soft sign can soften the sound, even if it is inside a word:

• "Skates"

Voiceless and voiced consonants in Russian: table

Consonants can be voiced or unvoiced. Voiced sounds are obtained with the participation of the voice in the formation of sound. Whereas in the formation of a dull sound, the voice practically does not play its creative role.

Voiced consonants

are formed by the passage of an air stream through the mouth and vibration of the vocal cords. Thanks to this, consonants such as:

When forming voiceless consonants

To make it easy to remember voiceless consonants, remember the expression: STYOPKA DO YOU WANT CHEEK? - FI!

If you delete all the vowels from this expression, only voiceless consonants will remain.

Paired and unpaired hard and soft consonants: table

In terms of hardness and softness, most sounds form pairs:

Paired and unpaired voiced and voiceless consonants: table

In the Russian language, it is customary to distinguish pairs of voiceless-voiced consonants:

The remaining consonants are unpaired:

Sometimes there is “forced” deafness or sonority of a consonant sound. This occurs due to the position of the sound in the word. A frequent example of such a forced state is the words: pond [rod] And booth [booth].

Sonorous- voiced unpaired consonant sounds. There are only 9 of them: [th’], [l], [l’], [m], [m’], [n], [n’], [r], [r’]

Noisy consonant sounds - there are voiced and voiceless:

1. Noisy voiceless consonants(16): [k], [k'], [p], [p'], [s], [s'], [t], [t'], [f], [f'], [ x], [x'], [ts], [h'], [w], [w'];
2. Noisy voiced consonants(11): [b], [b'], [c], [c'], [g], [g'], [d], [d'], [g], [z], [z '].

Summary table of commonly used soft and hard letters and sounds in the Russian language:

Sibilant consonants

Consonants "AND", "SH", "H" And "SCH" called sizzling. These letters add some zest to our language. At the same time, they make it very difficult. Even while learning these letters, the child should know the rules:

• "ZHI" — "SHI" write from "AND"
• "CHA" — "SHA" with a letter "A"
• "CHU" — "SHU" with a letter "U"

Letters "AND" And "H" are voiced, and the remaining two ( "SH" And "SCH") deaf. An important feature of these sounds is that they cannot be pronounced without opening the mouth. Compare their pronunciation with the pronunciation "M" or "N". To pronounce sibilant consonants, there must be a gap between the lips through which air will escape, creating an acoustic accompaniment for these sounds.

The letter “and short” denotes the consonant sound th

Letter "Y" or "And short" found in almost all Slavic alphabets, as well as in those non-Slavic alphabets that use the Cyrillic alphabet. In the Russian alphabet this letter occupies 11th place. It was formed from the vowel "AND" and a voiced consonant "J".

It is interesting that in the 18th century, when the civil script was introduced (as opposed to the church script), all superscript characters disappeared from it. And the letter "Y" an important part of her was missing. At the same time, the sound denoted by this letter “did not suffer” from such reforms. Return "Y" writing succeeded under Peter I. However, it was not returned to the alphabet. This was done only in the 20th century.

Today, more and more philologists attribute sound "Y" to sonorant consonants. That is, those sounds that are located between vowels and consonants, but still relate to a consonant. In addition, it is always considered soft.

Which letters have multiple sounds?

Letters and sounds tape for elementary school

Various manuals help very well in learning the Russian language. One of these benefits is "Summer of Letters". It helps to understand the difference between letters, quickly develop reading skills in children and facilitate phonetic analysis of words.

At least at first glance "Ribbon of Letters" carries a minimum of information, this is far from true. This manual can be used not only at school, but also at home. Parents can independently teach their child literacy using this tool.

“Tell me how to teach with a child consonants hard and soft, voiced and unvoiced?” - a mother recently asked, apparently, a first-grader.

Answer: no way.

There is no need to teach your child hard and soft consonants, voiced and voiceless. We need to teach the child to hear them and identify them based on various signs. It’s simply impossible to learn! It is necessary for the child to first understand how voiced and voiceless, hard and soft consonants are made, and after understanding comes knowledge.

How do we teach a child to distinguish consonant sounds?

Let's start with hard and soft consonants.

In Russian, not all consonants can be both hard and soft. Therefore, first the child must remember the consonants Zh, Sh, Ts, which are always hard, and Ch, Shch, Y, which are always soft.

Give your child such a reminder, pay attention to the child that the letters CH, Ш, И sit on the pillows because they are always soft. If the child has this reminder before his eyes, it will be easier for him to remember these letters. You can print it out and hang it above the table where your child studies. You can write it on cardboard and put it in a notebook on writing or the Russian language.

But the rest of the consonants can be either hard or soft. And neighboring letters will help determine the hardness and softness of a consonant.

An interesting option for memorizing hard and soft consonants was suggested by our reader Irina: “I figured out how to remember for my children three always hard sounds, (“Zh”, “Sh”, “C”), i.e. those that never soften.

Iron, Washer and Cement - Which will be harder? What's the secret?

There are always three soft sounds: “Ch”, “Shch”, “Y”. Here's a funny tongue twister: Bangs Tickle Y-Y-Y. ("th" will play the sound of laughter)"

If after the defined consonant there is another consonant, then it is hard. For example, in the word “song” after S there is N and we mark S as a hard consonant. Despite the fact that in the Russian language there is a concept of assimilation, when sounds are likened to one another, as in this case, in elementary school we do not go into such jungles of phonetics.

If there is a vowel sound after a consonant, then it is very easy to determine hardness and softness. All vowel letters are commanders and they command the previous consonant what sound to be - hard or soft. The only exceptions are the 6 letters that we talked about earlier. Make this reminder to your child and let it help him distinguish between hard and soft sounds.

And, of course, it is necessary to teach the child to hear hard and soft sounds, to distinguish between them by ear. There are many development exercises for this. And the well-known game can be modified to suit our task and give the child the task of determining hard or soft first consonant in a word.

At first, you need to select words that begin with a consonant: stump, pony, crayfish, river, bow, hatch... Then you can complicate the task and select words where the consonant is not the first sound. Since there are several consonants in a word, you need to discuss with your child which consonant you will determine - the first or the last. The child needs to identify by ear the desired consonant in a word and hear its hardness or softness. And this is already a difficult task. For example: o d it came and went d Uvanchik. The first consonant is D, but in these words it denotes sounds of different softness.

Apply all these methods at once and the child will learn to identify without problems. About voiced and deaf next time.

If you have questions, write in the comments.

What is sound? This is the minimum component of human speech. Depicted in letters. In written form, sounds are distinguished from letters by the presence of square brackets at the first, which are used in phonetic transcription. The letter is o, the sound is [o]. The transcription shows differences in spelling and pronunciation. Apostrophe [ ‘ ] indicates soft pronunciation.

In contact with

The sounds are divided into:

• Vowels. They can be pulled easily. During their creation, the tongue does not take an active part, being fixed in one position. The sound is created due to changes in the position of the tongue, lips, various vibrations of the vocal cords and the force of air supply. Length of vowels – basis of vocal art(chanting, “singing smoothly”).
• Consonant sounds a are pronounced with the participation of the tongue, which, occupying a certain position and shape, creates an obstacle to the movement of air from the lungs. This leads to noise in the oral cavity. At the output they are converted into sound. Also, the free passage of air is hampered by the lips, which close and open during speech.

Consonants are divided into:

• voiceless and voiced. Deafness and sonority of sound depend on the functioning of the speech apparatus;
• hard and soft. The sound is determined by the position of the letter in the word.

Letters representing consonants

Deaf

Voiceless in Russian: [k], [p], [s], [t], [f], [x], [ts], [sh]. The easiest way to remember is a phrase, and not a set of letters, “Styopka, do you want a cheek? Fi!” containing them all.

An example in which all consonant sounds are unvoiced: rooster, honeycomb, pin.

Voiced

When they are formed, the shape of the tongue is close to the form that produces voiceless sounds, but vibrations are added. Voiced consonant sounds create active vibrations of the ligaments. Vibrations deform the sound wave, and not a pure stream of air enters the oral cavity, but sound. Subsequently, it is further transformed by the tongue and lips.

Voiced consonants include: b, c, g, d, g, z, j, l, m, n, r.

When they are pronounced, tension is clearly felt in the larynx area. In addition, it is almost impossible to speak them clearly in a whisper.

A word in which all consonants are voiced: Rome, pride, ash, estuary.

Summary table of consonants (voiceless and voiced).

It is due to the change in sound that Russian speech is enriched with various words that are similar in spelling and pronunciation, but completely different in meaning. For example: house - volume, court - itch, code - year.

Paired consonants

What does pairing mean? Two letters that are similar in sound and, when pronounced, take similar positions with the tongue, are called paired consonants. The pronunciation of consonants can be divided into one-stage (lips and tongues are involved in their creation) and two-stage - the ligaments are connected first, then the mouth. Those cases when, during pronunciation, mouth movements coincide and create pairs.

Summary table of paired consonants taking into account hardness and softness

In speech, it is common not to pronounce each letter, but to “eat” it. This is not an exception only for Russian speech. This is found in almost all languages ​​of the world and is especially noticeable in English. In Russian, this effect is subject to the rule: paired consonant sounds replace (auditory) each other during speech. For example: love – [l’ u b o f’].

But not everyone has their own pair. There are some that are not similar in pronunciation to any others - these are unpaired consonants. The reproduction technique differs from the pronunciation of other sounds and combines them into groups.

Paired consonants

Unpaired consonants

The first group can be pronounced softly. The second has no analogues in pronunciation.

Unpaired consonants are divided into:

• sonors – [th’], [l], [l’], [m], [m’], [n], [n’], [r], [r’]. When they are pronounced, a stream of air hits the upper sky, like a dome;
• hissing – [x], [x’], [ts], [h’], [sch’].

The Russian language contains letters that are difficult to understand in context. Are the sounds [ch], [th], [ts], [n] voiced or unvoiced? Learn these 4 letters!

Important![h] - deaf! [th] - sonorous! [ts] is deaf! [n] – sonorous!

Unpaired consonants

Hard and soft

They are the same in spelling, but different in sound. Voiceless and voiced consonants, with the exception of hissing ones, can be pronounced hard or soft. For example: [b] was – [b`] beat; [t] current – ​​[t`] flowed.

When pronouncing hard words, the tip of the tongue is pressed against the palate. Soft ones are formed by pressing to the upper palate of the middle part of the tongue.

In speech, the sound is determined by the letter following the consonant.

Vowels form pairs: a-ya, u-yu, e-e, y-i, o-yo.

Double vowels (I, ё, yu, e) are pronounced in one of two combinations: the sound [th] and a paired vowel from E, O, U, A, or a soft sign and a paired vowel. For example, the word cabin boy. It is pronounced [y] [y] [n] [g] [a]. Or the word mint. It is pronounced as: [m’] [a] [t] [a]. The vowels A, O, U, E, Y do not have a double sound, therefore do not affect the pronunciation of the preceding consonant.

Example difference:

A spoon is a hatch, honey is a sea, a house is a woodpecker.

Phonetic transcription:

[Spoon] – [L’ u k], [m’ o d] – [m o r’ e], [house] – [d’ a t e l].

Pronunciation rules:

• solid ones are pronounced before A, O, U, E, Y. Abscess, side, beech, Bentley, former;
• soft ones are pronounced before Ya, Yo, Yu, E, I. Revenge, honey, whale, mashed potatoes, mint;
• hard ones are pronounced if they are followed by another consonant: death. After the consonant [s] there is a consonant [m]. Regardless of whether the M is soft, voiced or hard, the S is pronounced firmly;
• hard ones are pronounced if the letter comes last in the word: class, house;
• Consonants before the vowel [e] in borrowed words are pronounced firmly, as before [e]. For example: muffler – [k] [a] [w] [n] [e];
• always soft before b: elk, pulp.
• exceptions to the rules:
  • always solid F, W, C: life, thorns, cyanide;
  • always soft Y, H, Sh: white, black, pike.

Attention! A voiceless letter does not always represent the same sound. It depends on the position in the word.

Hard and soft sounds

Stun

The Russian language has a concept of stunning - some voiced ones sound like voiceless ones consonant sounds from a pair.

This is not a speech defect, but, on the contrary, is considered a criterion for its purity and correctness. But this rule only works with paired consonants. For example, [g] in speech is often replaced by [x]. This refers to a defect, since [g], which is close to [x], is considered a distinctive feature of the Ukrainian language. Its use in Russian speech is incorrect. The exception is the word God.

Rules and examples:

• the letter is the last in the word: tooth - [zup], ice hole - [p r o r u p’];
• after the letter there is a voiceless consonant: russula - [raw cheese].

There is a reverse process - voicing. Means that in speech voiceless ones are pronounced as their counterparts to voiced ones. Voicing is justified when they come before voiced consonants: transaction - [z d' e l k a].

Consonants, voiced and voiceless, hard and soft

Consonant sounds are voiced and unvoiced. Russian language lesson in 5th grade