Classification of vowels and consonants. Strong and weak positions of sounds

Basic differences between vowels and consonants

Everything is articulatory speech sounds divided into vowels and consonants. At a minimum, the main differences between these two categories of sounds include:

Position of the speech organs. During vowels, the speech channel is open, so that the outgoing stream does not encounter obstacles on its path. With consonants on the path of the exhaled breath air jet an obstacle of one form or another is always formed in a certain place of the speech channel (cf: [a-a-a, o-o-o], on the one hand, and [p, t, k] - on the other hand).

Differences in the tension of the speech organs. During the formation of vowels, there is a diffuse tension in the entire pronunciation apparatus. When consonants are formed, tension occurs only at a certain point in the speech channel: in other words, vowels are characterized by non-localized (unfocused) articulation, consonants by localized (focused) articulation.

The difference is in the air stream supplied from the lungs: with vowels it is very weak, with consonants it is strong, especially with voiceless consonants.

Some linguists contrast vowels with consonants according to the degree of opening of the jaw angle, qualifying vowels as “mouth openers”, and consonants as “mouth openers”.

Articulatory classification of consonants

In the introduction to linguistics as an elementary course in general linguistics, the articulatory classification of sounds can begin with both vowels and consonants.

Let's start with consonant sounds. The articulatory classification of consonants of any language presupposes, as a mandatory minimum, taking into account the following three characteristics: place of formation, method of formation and degree of sonority (sonority), otherwise - the ratio of voice (tone) and noise.

According to the place of education, answering the question where?, i.e. at what point in the speech channel the sound is formed, consonants are divided into the following varieties: 1.1. Labial or labial (lat. Labia – lips). a) When the lower lip approaches the upper lip, labiolabial consonants (bilabial) are formed: . b) When the lower lip approaches the upper teeth, labial-dental (labiodental) consonants of the type are formed. 1.2. Interdental (interdental) consonants such as English [θ] and [р]: thank [θж?k] – ‘to thank’, that [ржt] – that (that, that). 1.3. Front-lingual consonants are divided into dorsal, apical and cacuminal. a) When forming dorsal consonants (lat. Dorsum– back) the tip of the tongue is lowered to the lower teeth (such as Russian [t], [d], [s], [z], [n]). b) When apical consonants are formed (from the Latin Apex - tip), the tip of the tongue, rising along with the back, approaches the upper teeth or alveoli. These are consonants like English [t], [d], [n]. They also exist in Russian, for example, [sh], [sh’], [ch]. c) When forming kakuminal consonants (lat. Cacumen - apex), the tip of the tongue is not only raised, but also slightly bent upward, while the front part of the back of the tongue, on the contrary, is concave inward so that it takes on a spoon-shaped shape. An example is the front-lingual tremulous [r] as in Russian. 1.4. Middle lingual consonants, during the articulation of which the middle part of the back of the tongue, rising, approaches the hard palate. Consonants of this type are often called palatal (from the Latin Palatum - nlbo). The term “palatal” should not be confused with the term “palatalized”, i.e. softened. All consonants can be palatalized to one degree or another. For palatal consonants like [j], the middle lingual articulation is not additional, but primary. In Russian graphics, the sound [j] is indicated in some positions using the letter [й], in others - using iotated letters [e, l, yu, i], for example , barn, my, yours, and pit , llka etc. 1.5. Rear lingual consonants, when formed by an active organ is the back of the back of the tongue, approaching the soft forehead. An example would be consonants like [k], [g] as in the words cat, year 1.6. Deep lingual type of Kyrgyz consonants [Ķ], [Ģ]: Ķ ol (hand), ĶaĢaz (paper). 1.7. Uvular (reed) consonants (Latin U vula - uvula), in the formation of which the active organ is a small uvula (continuation of the soft palate). An example is the grading consonant [r] in French and some other languages. In everyday speech this sound is called burry [p]. 1.8. Laryngeal consonants formed when the vocal cords are closed or brought together. Available in Persian, Arabic, Korean, English (cf. English [h], similar to a light exhalation in words like hat - ‘hat’; hand – ‘hand’).

By way of education, responding to question how?, i.e. what is the nature of the passage of the air stream during the formation of speech sounds, consonants are divided into the following varieties. There are two main ways of interaction of pronunciation organs - closure and convergence. When closed, stop consonants are formed, and when brought together, fricative consonants are formed. 2.1. Stop consonants are divided into two varieties: a) stop consonants - explosive, when pronounced, the closure is immediately followed by a sharp opening, and the air forms a push, an explosion. All languages ​​of the world contain stop plosive consonants [p], [t], [k]. Plosive consonants are otherwise called explosive (from the French. Explosif– ‘explosive’). b) Implosive stops, the pronunciation of which is characterized by holding the stop in the absence of a push. Let's compare the pronunciation of initial and final stop consonants [k] and [t] in Russian words How And That: at the beginning of words they are pronounced as plosives, and at the end of words as implosives. 2.2. Friction consonants. When slit sounds are formed, the speech organs, coming together, form a narrow gap through which an air stream passes with friction. Examples are numerous: and others. Frictional consonants are otherwise called fricatives (from Lat. Fricare- rub). 2.3. Stop-frictional consonants such as Russian [ts], [ch] are called affricates (from Lat. Africata - close). The affricate is characterized by complex articulation with a stop beginning and a fricative end. But this is not a combination of a stop consonant with the corresponding fricative, but one indivisible articulation and, accordingly, one phoneme. Wed. combination of [ts] and affricate [ts] in words put away And scratch. 2.4. Closed - passing consonants. During their formation, some parts of the speech organs form a bow, others - a passage for an air stream. They are divided into three varieties: a) nasal consonants, formed by the labial stop for [m], and the dental stop for [n] in the oral cavity while an air stream passes through the nose due to the lowered position of the forehead curtain (soft forehead). b) lateral consonants, otherwise lateral (from Lat. Lateralis - lateral), formed by the dental bridge when an air stream passes along the sides of the tongue. This is how the consonant [l] is formed. c) trembling consonants, otherwise vibrants (from lat. Vibrantis- trembling, oscillating), formed by alternating passage with a bow). This is the consonant [r].

Based on the relationship between voice and noise, consonants are divided into sonorant and noisy. The basis of sonorants (type) is the voice (tone). The noise admixture is insignificant. From an acoustic point of view, sonorant consonants are opposed by all other consonants, called obstruents. Their acoustic basis is noise. Noisy consonants are divided into voiceless and voiced.

These are the basics of the articulatory classification of consonants within the boundaries of the minimum set of coordinates required to characterize the sound inventory of any language.

It goes without saying that the division of consonants into numerous varieties within each of the three coordinates does not at all mean that these varieties are inherent in all languages. For example, some languages ​​have glottal apical consonants, while others do not, etc. It is also obvious that languages ​​differ from each other both in the quantitative composition of their sound inventory, and, most importantly, in the specific features of its structural organization.

Now it is important to emphasize the following. Along with the main coordinates that are mandatory for all languages ​​(place of formation, method of formation, degree of sonority), when describing the consonantism of languages, it is necessary to take into account additional types of articulation. These include palatalization, aspiration and labialization.

Palatalization, caused by an additional elevation of the middle part of the back of the tongue towards the hard palate, can accompany any main articulation, except for the midlingual one.

During aspiration (from lat. . Aspiro– I pronounce with aspiration) an additional sign is aspiration (aspirates are aspirated consonants). Plosive consonants (, , in Korean) are most often subject to aspiration.

Labialization of consonants (their rounding) is an additional articulation when it is determined by phonetic position - most often the position before the labial vowels [o] and [y], for example, in words so, the garden is ours initial consonants are unlabialized, in the same words as t?ok, s?oda, n?os they are rounded (the icon at the top right above the consonant is an indicator of its roundedness).

Additional articulations in some languages ​​may not have phonemic status, while in others they may have it. For example, for the Russian language, the labialization of consonants is non-phonological, while palatalized consonants form correlative pairs to the corresponding non-palatalized ones, that is, they are endowed with a semantic distinctive function. Wed, on the one hand, pairs of words like so-so? ok, where are [t] and [t? ] belong to the same phoneme<Т>, and on the other hand, pairs of words like log – l’og, con – con’, where the consonants [l] and [l’], [n] and [n’] act as independent phonemes.

Another example: in English language consonant phonemes [p, t, k] are pronounced aspirated, i.e. aspirated. But aspiration is not a phonological feature here, since there is no opposition like [p] -, [t] -, [k] -.

The picture is different in Chinese, Korean, and a number of Indian languages, where aspiration acts as a phonological feature in relation to non-aspiration. So, phao V Chinese means “to run”... and pao - “hug (hug).”

Classification of consonants

By place of education:	Labial, ililabial Labiolabial Labiodental. f,v]	Forelingual t], [d], [s], [z], [n]), w.	Middle linguistic consonants - th	Rear lingual K, g. (cat, year) Uvular (burry P) Laryngeal
By method of education	closed - plosive (p, t, k) Stop – fricatives [ts], [h] or affricates (ts)	Smychno - passable: Nasals (n) lateral or lateral (l) tremulous or vibrant (p)
	sonorous and noisy.

Articulatory classification of vowels

Signs by which consonant sounds are described (place, method of formation, degree of sonority), are unsuitable for describing vowel sounds, which is explained by the differences between the sounds of these two categories. The tongue can move horizontally, moving back and forth, and vertically, rising to the hard palate or descending. Accordingly, in the first case, vowels of the front, middle and back rows are distinguished, and in the second case, vowels of the lower, middle and upper rises are distinguished. Taking into account the participation / non-participation of labial work, vowels are divided into labial (labialized) and non-labial (non-labialized).

Taking these features into account turns out to be quite sufficient for languages ​​with a small number of vowel phonemes, such as the Russian language, which is characterized by a three-stage vowel system.

The described division of vowels is most often schematically illustrated as follows:

	Front
Absence/presence labialization	Nonlabial

Since in many languages ​​of the vocal type the number of vowels amounts to several dozen, modern phoneticians prefer trapezoids of the following shape to depicting vowels in the form of triangles, squares and cubes (there are also such):

Note. You can get acquainted with the complete scheme of vowels in the form of a trapezoid, which includes, along with normally short and long vowels (for example, in Kyrgyz, English), as well as nasals as opposed to oral ones (French and other languages), in the textbook by A.A. Reformatsky.

Phonetic transcription

Ordinary writing, based on a system of spelling rules, does not provide a uniform reflection of the sound composition of speech. Meanwhile, in many cases, completely accurate reproduction of spoken speech is required (when teaching pronunciation, when recording dialect speech, etc.). In these cases, a special writing system called phonetic transcription is used.

Phonetic transcription is a letter that is based on the simplest, always uniform relationships between sounds and letters, namely: each sound of phonetic transcription is always indicated by only one, the same sign; each sign always represents the same sound.

There are various phonetic transcription systems, including the International Phonetic Association (IPA) system, based on the Latin script and supplemented by some other characters.

This system transcribes oral speech in Western European languages. To transcribe Russian speech, phonetic transcription based on Russian graphics (RFA) is most often used.

To master the technique of phonetic transcription, you must follow the following instructions:

For example,

Unbearable -[ n "вън^с" imъj]

Just - [fs"i?vo-nafs΄v]

Happy - [w:"isl΄ivj]

My uncle has the most honest rules - [m^j΄ad΄/samkh/ch΄esnkh/prav΄l//k^גd/n΄iЄfshutku/z?΄?Є???

Implementation of vowels in modern Russian

literary language in the stream of speech

Table 4

	Phonetic structure of the word
	Absolute-		the rest are pre-shock. syllables	stressed syllable	Stressed syllable	Overstressed syllables
		consonants
		consonants
		After soft consonants
		After hard consonants
		After hard and soft consonants

Phonetic processes (phenomena)

In the flow of speech, interacting under certain positional conditions, speech sounds undergo various changes. Traditionally, they are divided into combinatorial and positional, which is not entirely correct, since combinatorial changes are also positional. Thus, our clarifications boil down to the following: all changes in sounds that occur in the flow of speech in the aspect of modern synchrony are positional in the broad sense of the word; they are divided into combinatorial-positional and proper-positional changes.

The main types of combinatorial-positional changes are assimilation, accommodation and dissimilation.

Assimilation is the assimilation in the flow of speech of similar sounds (consonant - consonant, vowel - vowel) according to certain characteristics within one word or combination of words. There are assimilations:

Dissimilation - dissimilarity of sounds of the same type: from two identical or similar sounds two different or less similar sounds are obtained, for example: literary corridor(two [R]) and vernacular co[l]idor(regressive, dissimilation), etc.

Accommodation is the adaptation to each other in the flow of speech of different types of sounds (vowels to consonants, consonants to vowels). Examples: glad And glad, Where [A] in the second case, it adapts to the soft [p’], becoming more frontal in the row compared to the vowel [a] in the word glad(accommodation progressive, contact).

Of interest are accommodation phenomena in examples like horse[k°o˙n’], with ol[с?о˙л'], where there is double multidirectional accommodation: the vowel to the subsequent consonant in a row and the first consonant to the subsequent vowel - by labialization, since these consonants, under the influence of the subsequent labial vowel, acquire a labial connotation (in transcription - the sign of a circle at the top right above the sound ). In both cases, regressive contact accommodation is evident, but in different ways - in the vowel series and consonant rounding.

The main type of proper-positional changes in sounds in the flow of speech is reduction, which applies to both vowels and consonants (usually the former).

Reduction is a weakening of the articulation of a sound and a change in its sound. There are quantitative and qualitative reductions.

During quantitative reduction, unstressed vowels are weakened, somewhat losing strength and length compared to the vowels of stressed syllables, but retain their characteristic timbre, without mixing with other vowels. So, in examples like s[uh]host, with [y] dick, s[y] stbv,

s[y] install The y-like quality of emphasized vowels is preserved in both the first and second pre-stressed syllables.

A different picture is observed with qualitative reduction, which takes place in languages ​​with strong dynamic stress. So, in particular, in the Russian language the vowels [o], [a], differing under stress (strong position), in the 1st pre-stressed syllable are weakened in the sound of their timbre (quality) and neutralized, coinciding in a sound close to [a ], designated in phonetic transcription by the “lid” sign [Λ]. Let's compare:

With<о>m - s<а>m, on the one hand, and WithΛ ma – with another ( WithΛ mb pΛ ymbla withΛ mb).

Wed. Also: ox-val, But VΛ ly, house, table, But dΛ mb,stΛ ly many others

Qualitative reduction can also affect consonants. For example, all noisy voiced consonants at the end of a word before a pause alternate in Russian with the corresponding voiceless noisy consonants. Let's compare: gla<з>A, But gla<с>, next<з>A, But sll<с>, draw<в >ah, dro<ф> etc.

The essence of the phonological aspect in phonetics and the concept of phoneme

As already noted, phonetics distinguishes three main aspects in speech sounds. We became acquainted with two of them (articulatory and acoustic). Now it is necessary to delve into the essence of the third - functional aspect, which relates to the phonological dimension of language. This dimension is the main one, since from the whole variety of features inherent in each sound, it focuses attention only on those that distinguish one sound unit from all others and, first of all, from closely related units. Such sound units are called phonemes, and the features by which they differ from each other are called distinctive features. Let us explain this using the example of a phoneme<Т>Russian language. Let's pay attention to such pairs of words as: 1) tom – house; 2) tom-som; 3) tom-com; 4) languid - languid. It is easy to verify that the phoneme<Т>is contrasted with the initial phonemes of the second members of the pairs by a set of the following differential features: in the first case – a sign of deafness against the background of voicedness; in the second - a sign of explosiveness against the background of fricativeness; in the third - anterior lingualism against the backdrop of posterior lingualism; in the fourth - hardness against the background of softness.

The aspect by which the phoneme was characterized<Т>, is oppositional: the system of phonemes of any language is a system of oppositions (oppositions), which makes it possible to differentiate by meaning the units of higher levels - morphemes, words, forms of words.

But in addition to the distinctive one, the phoneme is also endowed with an identifying function. This means that in the process of language functioning (in the flow of speech), the phoneme undergoes various modifications, determined by positional conditions of both contextual and structural properties.

Illustration of phoneme modifications caused by the action of context-determined positions using vowels as an example: po[b]tka, s’[˙á]du, s’[d]t’. Although all three vowel sounds enclosed in square brackets are under stress, the positions they occupy are different (in the first case between hard consonants, in the second after a soft before a hard, in the third between soft consonants). In relation to such cases, linguists say that the corresponding sounds are part of sign units in relations of additional distribution.

Illustration of modifications of phonemes caused by the action of structurally determined positions using the example of consonants: Moro<з>s - moro[s], gri<б>s - gr[n], holo<в>a - holo[f].

Despite the differences in positional conditions leading to modifications of phonemes in each of the two cases considered, such modifications of phonemes do not lead to meaning differentiation and do not violate the functional identity of morphemes and the words in which they function. In contrast to the oppositional aspect, this aspect of the functioning of phonemes can rightfully be called an equivalence, variable aspect of paradigmatic relations. Hence the definition of phoneme: “A phoneme is the minimal phonetic unit, which serves to distinguish and identify significant units of language (morphemes and words).”

The concept of position is one of the central phonological concepts. Being in strong positions, sounds are distributed across different phonemes

(cf. sounds [t] and [d] in examples like<т>om -<д>ohm). The phonemic status of sounds of weak positions may be different.

In examples like pos[b]dka, s’[˙á]du and s’ [d]t’ three different vowel sounds are variations of the same phoneme;

In examples like draw[f] And WithΛ mb each of the selected sounds can be varieties of different phonemes: with the ratio draw<ф>b - draw[f] consonant [f] is a type of phoneme<Ф>; with the ratio draw<в>b - draw[f] consonant [f] acts as a type of phoneme<В>; the situation is similar with sound [Λ] : in the context With<о>m - sΛmb reduced vowel [Λ] belongs to the phoneme<ABOUT>; in the context With<а>m - s[Λ]mb- phoneme <а>.

In examples like s[Λ]bbka determine the phonemic identity of a sound [Λ] the first pre-stressed syllable is impossible because there is no correlative strong position. This situation is called hyperphonemic, and the unit itself is called hyperphoneme, which is understood as the common part of two or more neutralized phonemes. In our example, the sound [Λ] is also common for <О>, and for <А>, representing a hyperphoneme<о/а>.

As the examples show, neutralization (removal of oppositions) is of two types - resolvable, when sounds of weak positions are checked against strong positions and brought under the corresponding phonemes (examples of the 2nd group); and insoluble when the sounds of weak positions are representatives of hyperphonemes (group phonemes) due to the lack of strong positions for each of the members of the hyperphoneme (example of the 3rd group).

Rules for identifying phonemes

When starting to describe the sound structure of any language, the linguist must be aware of the quantitative composition of phonemes that he has. The honor of formulating the rules for identifying phonemes belongs to the founder of phonology, prof. N.S. Trubetskoy. We present the main ones in our edition and illustrate them with examples from the Russian language.

First rule. If two sounds occur in the same position and their mutual substitution leads to a change in the meaning of words, these sounds are varieties of two phonemes. Examples : <п>ar -<б>ar,<с>loy -<з>loy, co<с>a - co<з>a, t<о>k - t<а>To,<л>uk -<л’>uk, co<н>- to<н’>.

Second rule. If two sounds occur in the same position, but their mutual replacement does not entail a change in the meaning of the words, these sounds are varieties (variants) of one phoneme. In the example [God! And [  ]Lord! plosive g and fricative  belong to the phoneme<г>.

Third rule. If two sounds never occur in the same position, they are combinatorial variants of the same phoneme. Examples:

P' ˙ b ty - p’[d]t’, where both [a] belong to the phoneme<А>; VLS - I'm taking, where they alternate as part of the same morpheme <в’˙оз> and vowels [o] // [and e], and consonants [s] // [z]. The members of the alternation of the first pair of sounds are varieties of the phoneme<о>, the second pair of sounds – a type of phoneme<з>.

From alternations of the indicated type, which are phonetically positional, i.e. conditioned by the action of “living” positional laws (such alternations do not know any exceptions), it is necessary to distinguish phonetically - non-positional alternations, inherited by the speakers of modern languages ​​by tradition. They are usually called grammatical because the alternations occur before grammatical units and are caused by their requirements, e.g. xo<д’>it-ho<ж>at, in<д’>it - in<ж>y (d’//f), but<с’>it - but<ш>y, about<с’>it - about<ш>y (s’ // w) and so on. By their essence, alternations of the first type are intraphonemic, while alternations of the second type are interphonemic. They are studied by morphonology, a special branch of linguistics that occupies an intermediate position between phonology and morphology.

Phonemic transcription

The distinction between the concepts of sound and phoneme involves the distinction between two types of transcription - phonetic and phonological (otherwise phonemic or phonemic).

The need to reflect as accurately as possible the features of spoken speech in writing requires phonetic transcription to use, in addition to the alphabet, a certain set of diacritics.

The use of phonemic transcription does not require detailed explanations, since it is intended to record not the sound, but the phonemic reality of the language. If the basic concepts of phonetics and phonemics as one of its sections are mastered in linking phonetic processes with the concepts of phonemes, variants, positions, etc., phonemic transcription, based on checking sounds of weak positions against strong positions in order to determine the phonemic status of these sounds, special presents no difficulties. You just need to master the technique of translating phonetic transcription signs into phoneme signs as invariant units of the sound system of a language, cleared of the details of real pronunciation in all the diversity of its features.

Texts written phonemic transcription are enclosed in broken brackets:<>.

Examples of writing the same text using 1) spelling, 2) phonetic transcription, 3) phonemic transcription:

2 3 1 3 1 1 2 3 1 2 2 3 1

I love the lush decay of nature.

2) [l’˙ubl’ejalush1 ь pr’irudy uv’i uh dbn'1 b].

3) < l'ubl'ujawritingjopr’irodi uv’adan’jo>.

Segmental and supersegmental units of language

Segmentation (from lat. Segmentum- segment) is the division of the speech stream into segments (slices, elements, segments of varying lengths), isolated from a linear sequence of utterances.

There are two types of segmentation - at the level of significant units (based on the content plan) and at the sound, phonetic level (based on the expression plan).

At the level of significant units, sentence – syntagma (phrase) – word – morpheme – phoneme are distinguished. Segmentation here covers units of all tiers of the language, so it can be called inter-tier segmentation.

At the phonetic level, units such as phrase - speech tact (phonetic word) - syllable - sound are distinguished. Segmentation here is limited to only one level (phonetic), so it can be called intra-tier segmentation.

As different segments of a speech chain, a sound, a syllable, a beat, a phrase belong to the segment level. In relation to sign units, they are their implementation, although there is no one-to-one correspondence between them. Suffice it to say that a phrase does not necessarily coincide with a sentence: it can combine several sentences; The boundaries of a phonetic word (speech beat) most often do not coincide with the boundaries of the word as a lexical unit, etc.

There are both quantitative and qualitative differences between sound units.

Quantitative: a phrase can consist of several measures, a measure - of several syllables, a syllable - of several sounds. But the opposite is not true.

Quality: the unity of a phrase is created by intonation, the unity of a beat by stress, the unity of a syllable by a wave of sonority, the unity of sound by its relative acoustic and articulatory homogeneity.

The phonological aspect of phonetics involves studying not only segmental, but also supersegmental units of the sound structure of a language. However, there is no consensus among scientists either about the quantitative composition of these and other units as a whole, or about their distribution among the two named groups.

Among the various solutions to the problem, we point out the following:

Segmental units include only speech sounds, supersegmental units include only stress and intonation;

Segmental units include sounds, syllables, beats, phrases, and supersegmental units include stress and intonation;

Segmental units include sounds, supersegmental units include syllables, measures, phrases, stress, intonation.

Of the three solutions indicated, we choose the second, and here's why. Unlike segmental (linear) units of various lengths, supersegmental (nonlinear, supralinear, superlinear) units do not exist on their own, separately from segmental ones, and cannot be pronounced in isolation from them, since they do not have independent existence. That is why they seem to be superimposed on segment units. This requirement is fully met by stress and intonation: stress is a means of organizing a beat, and intonation is a means of organizing a phrase.

The phonological aspect of phonetics, associated with the study of stress and intonation, is often designated by the term “prosody” and with good reason they speak of the prosody of a syllable, beat, phrase. As a result, terminologically and essentially, two sections of phonology are clearly distinguished - phonemics as the doctrine of phoneme theory and prosody as a doctrine of units of greater extent than the “sound phoneme”.

In the Russian language, there are 42 speech sounds, or, to use another term, 42 phonemes (from the Greek word phonema, which means "the sound of speech").

According to the mechanism of formation, phonemes are divided primarily into vowels and consonants (6 vowels and 36 consonants).

Consonants are characterized by the formation in the oral cavity of barriers to the path of exhaled air, either in the form of a stop of certain speech organs, or in the form of more or less narrow slits and passages formed by them, or, finally, in the form of a sequential connection of a stop with a gap. When some consonant phonemes are formed, these barriers are combined with phonation; when others are formed, phonation is absent.

The articulatory classification of vowels is built taking into account:

1) participation or non-participation of the lips. In vowel articulation O And y, In addition to the tongue, the lips take an active part, which move forward and round when pronouncing these phonemes. Therefore vowels OU called labialized (from lat. labia- lips), and all other vowels are non-labialized;

2) the degree of elevation of the tongue to the palate (upper, middle and lower elevation);

3) places where the tongue rises (front, middle and back row). The classification of vowel phonemes described above is presented in Table 1.

Table I Vowel classification

The articulatory classification of consonants is based on five main features:

2) method of articulation;

3) place of articulation;

4) the presence or absence of additional elevation of the back of the tongue to the hard palate;

5) place of resonance.

Based on the first sign (the presence or absence of vibration of the vocal folds), consonants are divided into:

2) sonorous (from lat. sono- sound), in the formation of which there is almost no noise and the tone of voice predominates: l,l", p,r", m,m", n,n", and (j),

3) deaf people whose formation involves only noise: p, p", t, t", k.k", f, f", s, s", x, c, h", w, sch.

According to the second criterion (according to the method of articulation), consonants are divided into:

1) stop - stop-plosive: b, b", p, p", d, d", t, t", g, g", k, k" and occlusive passages: m, m", n, n", l, l";

2) fricatives (fricatives): v, v", f, f", z, z", s, s", w, w, sch, x, x", and (j),

3) affricates: ts, h";

4) trembling: p,p".

According to the third criterion (place of articulation), consonants are divided into:

1) labial - labial-labial: m, m", p, p", b, b" and labiodental: f, f", v, v".

2) lingual - lingual-dental: t, t", d, d", n, n", s, s", z, z", c; lingual-alveolar: l,l", p,p"; lingual-anteropalatal: w, f, h, sch; lingual-midpalatal: k", g", x", "y"(j); posterior lingual (back palatal): g, k, x.

According to the fourth characteristic (by the presence or absence of elevation of the back of the tongue), consonants are divided into:

1) hard: hard pairs of all consonants except h, sch;

2) soft: soft pairs of all consonants except w, f, c.

According to the fifth criterion (according to the place of resonance), consonants are divided into:

1) nasal: m, m", n, n";

2) oral: all other consonants.

Thus, each consonant sound (phoneme) has a number of articulatory features and, depending on this, can be simultaneously classified into several groups.

A visual representation of the distribution of consonants according to five pronunciation features can be drawn from Table 2.

table 2 Classification of consonants

Texts of tickets 8th grade.

Ticket number 1.

The Russian language is the national language of the Russian people, the state language of the Russian Federation and the language of interethnic communication.

Language- the main means of communication between people. With the help of language, people communicate with each other, convey their thoughts, feelings, desires.

As a means of communication, language is connected with the life of society, with the people who are native speakers of the given language.

Russian language in modern world performs three functions:

1) the national language of the Russian people;

2) the state language of the Russian Federation;

3) the language of interethnic communication of the peoples of Russia.

Let's look at these three functions.

Russian language is national language of the Russian people, who, together with other nations, played big role in the history of our country.

The Russian language is the language of science, technology and culture. Works of outstanding Russian writers were created in Russian: A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, N. V. Gogol, I. S. Turgenev, L. N. Tolstoy, A. P. Chekhov, A. M. Gorky , K. G. Paustovsky and others.

Russian language is one of the richest languages ​​in the world. He has a large vocabulary and has developed expressive means to denote all the necessary concepts in any field. human activity. The richness and expressiveness of the Russian language was noted by many writers and public figures: V. Belinsky, N. Gogol, I. Turgenev, A. N. Tolstoy, M. Gorky, K. Paustovsky. “There is no doubt that the Russian language is one of the richest languages ​​in the world,” V. Belinsky. “We have been given possession of the richest, most accurate, powerful and truly magical Russian language,” - K. Paustovsky.

The basis of the Russian national language is literary language. Literary language is the language of books, newspapers, theater, radio and television, government agencies and educational institutions. Literary language is studied at school.

The Russian literary language is a standardized language. The pronunciation of words, the choice of words and the use of grammatical norms, the construction of sentences in a literary language are subject to literary rules, or norms.

Literary language has oral and written forms. Oral speech- This is speech that sounds and is pronounced. IN oral speech It is important to correctly pronounce sounds, words, sentences, observe intonation and stress. It is characterized by simple short sentences. Written speech related to writing. It is formatted correctly and accurately in terms of spelling and punctuation. IN writing Complex and complex sentences are used.

Russian language is state language of the Russian Federation. All the laws of the country are adopted on it, the head of state - the President of Russia - speaks on it, the basic law of our country - the Constitution of the Russian Federation - is written in this language. Party congresses and conferences on various fields of knowledge are held in Russian.

Russian Federation- a multinational state. Among equals national languages Russian language acts as language of interethnic communication of the peoples of Russia. Knowledge of Russian along with your native language is necessary for the exchange of information in various areas. As a means of interethnic communication, the Russian language helps solve the problems of national, economic and cultural development of our multinational country. With the help of the Russian language, the peoples of Russia can join the riches of Russian and world scientific thought and culture. The Russian language plays the role of an intermediary between all the languages ​​of the peoples of Russia and serves mutual enrichment national cultures. Russian language is the most widespread among other languages ​​in our country.

Ticket number 2.

Classification of vowels and consonants. Strong and weak position of sounds.

In the forest, on the street, at home, we hear many different sounds. Speech sounds differ from all other sounds primarily in that they form words.

Speech sounds are the sounds that make up words. Sound is the basic unit of language, along with words and sentences. Sounds play an important meaning-distinguishing role in a language: they create the external, sound shell of words and thereby help to distinguish words from each other.

The branch of language science that studies speech sounds is called phonetics.

The sounds of the tongue are formed in the speech apparatus when air is exhaled. The speech apparatus includes the larynx with vocal cords, oral and nasal cavities, tongue, lips, teeth, palate. In the speech apparatus, exhaled air passes through the larynx between tense vocal cords and through the oral cavity, which can change its shape. This is how they are formed vowel sounds. They consist only of voice. Exhaled air can meet an obstacle in the oral cavity in the form of a bow or the convergence of the speech organs and exit either through the mouth or through the nose. This is how consonant sounds are formed. They are made of noise, and some are made of voice and noise.

There are 6 vowel sounds in the Russian language: [a"], [o"], [u"], [ы"], [i"], [e"]. Vowel sounds can be stressed (for example, juice [o"], var [a"], drill [u"], forest [e"], sin [i"]) and unstressed (for example, water [a], grass [a ], pike perch [u], forest [and], fox [and], was [s]). The sounds under stress are in a strong position, and without accent – in a weak. The sounds [у], [ы] are always in a strong position. To check an unstressed vowel at the root, you need to choose a word with the same root or change the word so that this sound is under stress: amazing - marvelous, heavy - heaviness, window - windows.

Consonants: [b], [c], [d], [d], [g], [h], [k], [l], [m], [n], [p], [r], etc. There are 36 consonant sounds in total. Consonant sounds are divided into voiced and unvoiced. Pairs of voiced and unvoiced sounds are formed:

The voiced [l], [m], [r], [n], [th] do not form pairs.

The voiceless [x], [ts], [h], [sch] do not form pairs.

The sounds [zh], [sh], [h], [sch] are called hissing.

Strong position of voiced and voiceless consonants in front of vowels: d O R O G A, n A h A l O, With O V e T s; before voiced consonants [l], [m], [n], [r], [th]: With catch, With mola, With new, P really, V south. Weak position of consonants: stun at the end of a word and before voiceless consonants: du b[p], ro g[k], [f] V se; voicing before voiced consonants: molo T b[ d"]ba, s[z] beat. To check the spelling of paired voiced and voiceless consonants at the end and in the middle of words before the consonants, you need to choose a word with the same root or change the word so that after the consonant there is a vowel sound: oak - oaks, low - low, pointer - indicate, fairy tale - fairy tale, threshing - to thresh, request - to ask, etc.

Voiced and voiceless consonant sounds are divided into hard and soft. Consonants form pairs of hard and soft sounds:

Solid	[m]	[n]	[P]	[R]	[With]	[T]	[f]	[X]
soft	[m"]	[n"]	[P"]	[R"]	[With"]	[T"]	[f"]	[X"]

Solids [zh], [sh], [ts] do not form steam.

Soft [h], [sch], [th] do not form steam.

Ticket number 3.

The word as a unit of language. Lexical meaning of the word. Groups of words by lexical meaning.

The main meaningful unit of language is word. The totality of all the words of a language constitutes it vocabulary. Branch of language science that studies lexicon language is called lexicology. How more words a person knows, the richer his speech, the more accurately he can express his thoughts. Reading especially enriches speech.

Words in the language serve to designate specific objects, attributes of objects, actions, attributes of actions, quantities. What a specific independent word means is its lexical meaning. For example, there is an item " bridge" and there is the word " bridge", denoting this item. Lexical meaning of the word " bridge" the following: "a structure for crossing, crossing a river, a ravine, a railway track."

According to the lexical meaning, words are divided into single-valued and polysemous, words with direct and figurative meaning, homonyms, synonyms, antonyms. Let's take a closer look at each of these groups.

Single meaning words– these are words with one lexical meaning. For example, coat of arms– a distinctive sign of a state or city, which is depicted on flags, coins, and seals. Ambiguous words- these are words that have several lexical meanings. In a polysemantic word, one meaning is related to another in meaning. For example, in the word crest an object for combing hair, and the top of a mountain, and the top of a wave, and the top of a newly plowed layer of earth, and a fleshy growth on the head of a rooster are indicated. Moreover, there is a similarity in shape between these objects. There are more polysemantic words in the language than single-valued ones. IN explanatory dictionaries individual meanings of polysemantic words are highlighted by numbers in one dictionary entry.

Direct meaning of the word– this is its main lexical meaning. For example, the word howls denotes the sounds made by a wolf: the wolf howls. figurative meaning of the word- this is its secondary meaning, which arose on the basis of the direct one and is connected with it in meaning: the wind howls. The appropriate use of a word in a figurative meaning makes the speech bright and figurative.

Homonyms- these are words that are identical in sound and spelling, but completely different in lexical meaning. Usually homonyms refer to one part of speech, for example, onion- garden plant and onion– weapons, sports equipment; key- an object for unlocking and locking the lock and key- spring. It is necessary to distinguish between polysemantic words and homonyms. IN polysemantic words meanings are related to each other. Homonyms – different words, the meanings of which have nothing in common. In explanatory dictionaries, homonyms are given as different words, in different dictionary entries.

Synonyms– words of the same part of speech, different in sound, but the same or similar in lexical meaning. For example, words blizzard, blizzard, blizzard, blizzard, blizzard have a common lexical meaning: falling snow in windy weather. Synonyms make up a series of words called synonymous row. One of the synonyms is the main one, the main one, in dictionaries it is placed first. Synonyms in speech are used:

1) for more precise expression of thoughts (wet and wet);

2) for expression emotional coloring(fell and stumbled);

3) as a means of overcoming unjustified repetition of the same word;

4) as a way of connecting sentences in the text.

Antonyms- these are words of the same part of speech, opposite in lexical meaning: true - false, beautiful - ugly, start - finish, up - down etc. The use of antonyms makes our speech brighter and more expressive.

Ticket number 4.

Groups of words by use and origin.

According to their use and origin, words are divided into commonly used and non-commonly used (limited in use), dialectal, professional, obsolete, new (neologisms), borrowed. Let's take a closer look at each of these groups.

The main part of the vocabulary of the Russian language consists of commonly used words, i.e. such words that all Russian people use, regardless of profession and place of residence: father, mother, son, daughter; good, beautiful, long; one two Three; I you he; talk, walk, write. Such words can be used in any style of speech, both when we speak and when we write.

Words limited in use include dialect words (dialectisms) and professional words (professionalisms).

Dialectisms are words that are used primarily by residents of one area. There are three main groups of dialects in the Russian language: Northern Russian dialects, Southern Russian dialects, Central Russian dialects. The same objects (signs, actions) in dialects and in the literary language are often called differently: rooster (literary language and Northern Russian dialect) - kochet (South Russian dialect); speak (literary language) – bait (Northern Russian dialect) – gutarit (South Russian dialect). Many dialect words become commonly used and are included in synonymous groups, for example, house (common), izba (Northern Russian), hut (South Russian). Dialect words are used in works of art to convey the speech characteristics of residents of a certain area.

Professional words are words used in the speech of people united by some profession or specialty. In mathematics, for example, denominator, numerator, multiplier, addend; in the science of language: phonetics, spelling, syntax, etc. Special words meaning scientific concepts, are called terms. Professional words are used in works of art to more accurately describe people and their activities.

Obsolete words (archaisms) are words that have fallen out of active, everyday use: horse-drawn horse, policeman, butler. Most often, words become obsolete if objects, tools, concepts, etc., called by these words, go out of use. In works of fiction, obsolete words are used to more accurately describe the lives of people in the past.

Neologisms (new words) are words that appear in a language to name new objects, tools, cultures, new ideas about the world, etc. Some neologisms quickly lose their connotation of unusualness and novelty, becoming commonly used (cosmonaut, pirozhkovaya, traffic light), others retain this connotation more long time(moon landing, lunar rover). Some new words do not become commonly used, remaining neologisms (most often the author's neologisms): lips melt from the cold (in Mayakovsky; they become plum-colored, blue with a hint of purple).

By origin, the vocabulary of the Russian language includes native Russian words (i.e. those that originated in the Russian language) and borrowed ones (i.e. those taken from other languages). The vocabulary of the Russian language contains about 10% of borrowed words. Words are borrowed from other languages ​​for various reasons: to name borrowed objects, tools, concepts (oboe, tractor, ballet, art); to clarify the names of similar objects, tools, machines (hotel, motel; jam, marmalade, marmalade, confiture). Most often, words are borrowed from Greek, Latin, French, English, German, and Turkic languages. When borrowing foreign words in the Russian language, they undergo phonetic, semantic, morphological changes, as well as changes in the composition of the word.

Ticket number 5.

Phraseologism: its lexical meaning, functions in sentences and text.

Phraseologisms are stable combinations of words that are close in lexical meaning to one word. The phraseological unit as a whole has lexical meaning, for example: to kick the bucket - to mess around; distant lands - far away.

Like a word, a phraseological unit can have synonyms and antonyms. Phraseologisms-synonyms: two pairs of boots, two birds of a feather (one is no better than the other); at the end of the world, where the raven did not bring bones, where Makar did not drive calves (far). Phraseologisms are antonyms: lift to the skies - trample into the dirt; rolling up your sleeves - carelessly; brew porridge - to dissolve the porridge; hard to climb - easy to climb. The phraseological unit the cat cried has a synonym little and an antonym a lot.

Most of the phraseological units reflect the deeply folk, original character of the Russian language. The direct (original) meaning of many phraseological units is connected with the history of our Motherland, with some customs of our ancestors, and their work. Thus, the expression to beat the thumbs (to mess around) arose on the basis of the direct meaning of “splitting a block of wood into thumbs (chocks) to make spoons and ladle out of them,” i.e. do a very simple, easy thing.

Phraseologisms – bright and means of expression language. They are often found in speech. For example: “You will pass the exams and you will be a free Cossack (free).” (A.I. Kuprin). Egor may be a debater, but he is a wet chicken (a slob). Afraid of cart squeaks (coward).

Phraseologisms characterize all aspects of a person’s life - his attitude to work, for example, golden hands, kicking ass, attitude towards other people, for example, bosom friend, disservice, personal strengths and weaknesses, for example, does not lose his head, is led by the nose.

Phraseologism plays the role of one member of the sentence: Finishing, cleanliness of the casket

caught the eye (stood out, was different). (I. Krylov) The guys worked with their sleeves rolled up (okay, diligently).

The meaning of phraseological units, proverbs, and sayings is acquired by quotations from literary works: Happy people don’t watch the clock (A. S. Griboyedov) Sow the reasonable, the good, the eternal... (N. A. Nekrasov)

Phonetics.Basic concepts.System of sounds.Syllables.Syllabification

Phonetics - (Greek phone - sound) - the study of the sound system of a language, a section of linguistics that studies the sound means of language (sounds, stress, intonation). A special section of phonetics - orthoepy - describes a set of norms of literary pronunciation. Orthoepy occupies a special place among linguistic disciplines. She studies those units of language that have no meaning, but they determine the existence of significant units of language.

Thus, morphology, syntax, and lexicology study linguistic units that have lexical meaning. Phonetics studies linguistic units that do not have lexical meaning, but serving to distinguish units of grammar and vocabulary. However, some linguistic phenomena are on the border of phonetics and grammar, since it is impossible to correctly determine the basis of a word without knowing the phonetic laws.

Depending on the objectives of the study, phonetics is distinguished:

Private and general;

Descriptive and historical;

Comparative;

Experimental;

Sociophonetics.

Particular phonetics deals with the study of the sound system specific language, general studies general patterns. Descriptive studies the phonetic system of a language at a certain period of its development. Historical studies the changes that have occurred in the sound system of a language throughout its history. Comparative studies the phonetic structure of several languages. Sociophonetics studies the pronunciation features of individual population groups. Experimental studies language through experiments.

Speech is a stream of sounds and it seems to be continuous. The flow can be divided into separate parts. Division may be different. If this division is based on grammatical design, then we are talking about division into sentences, words and morphemes. With phonetic division, the following units are identified: text, phrase, speech beat or syntagm, phonetic word, syllable and sound.

Text is only the initial value of the phonetic division of speech, because speech is not phonetic, but communicative in nature. The text also has phonetic characteristics: limited by pauses. Pause at the beginning and end of the text. Phrases stand out from the text by intonation. A phrase is a piece of text that has logical stress (|| – pause). A phrase is a phonetic unit, a sentence is a grammatical unit. IN complex sentence one phonetic phrase.

Phrases are divided into speech beats or syntagms. Syntagms are distinguished by intonation, but at the border of the syntagma an unfinished intonation is heard.

On the shore of desert waves || he stood || doom of the great hill

The division of a speech stream into syntagms is always determined by meaning, so options are possible.

We must learn to work and rest.

A phonetic word is characterized by stress. Phonetic stress is a complex of sounds or a segment of a sound chain. There may be no pauses between words. In this case, a phonetic word can correspond to the first lexical word or several words.

That same night || wide boat || departed from the hotel.

3 speech beats, 2 phonetic words each.

A syllable is a push of speech exhalation. Sound is the minimal element of speech flow.

Classification of vowels and consonants

Sound from an acoustic point of view is the vibration of air particles. The source is the vibration of sound chords. From the point of view of articulation, vowels and consonants of speech are distinguished.

Articulation is a set of actions of the organs of pronunciation at the moment of sound. The main difference is this. Consonants - when formed, air overcomes an obstacle, thus, vowels are characterized by the flow of voice, and consonants by the presence of voice and/or noise.

Vowels are tone sounds. A musical tone voice is involved in their formation. Noise is not taken into account. The difference in vowels is determined by the different structure of the speech organs.

In modern Russian there are 6 vowels [a] [o] [e] [u] [s] [i].

by place of education

The difference between vowels that cause the tongue to move horizontally is taken into account:

Front vowels - during articulation the tongue is strongly moved forward [i] [e]

Middle vowels - the tongue is slightly moved back [ы] [а]

Back vowels [у] [о]

by the degree of elevation of the tongue vertically relative to the palate

High vowels [i] [ы] [y]

Middle vowels [e] [o]

Low vowels [a]

The upper vowels will be closed or narrow compared to the middle vowels, while the lower vowels will be open or wide. Middle vowels are closed compared to the lower ones, and open compared to the upper ones.

by participation or non-participation of lips

The presence or absence of lavialization - stretching or rounding of the lips.

Lavialized [y] [o]

Unlavalised (all others)

The division into 3 rows and the rise does not reflect the full richness of the SRY. In unstressed syllables ch. pronounced with varying degrees of reduction - change, shortening of vowel sounds in an unstressed position. Unstressed vowels are pronounced less clearly. Some vowels are not distinguished.

Consonants are classified according to 4 criteria:

Sanitary and noisy

Sanoric - consonants in the formation of which the voice and slight noise are involved [r] [n] [m] [l]

Noisy deaf people - only noise [p] [f] [k] [t] [s] [w] [ts] [x]

Characteristic feature The Russian consonant system is the presence of pairs of sounds that are correlated by sonority-voicelessness, hardness-softness. Correlativity lies in the fact that in some phonetic conditions they differ as two sounds, but in other conditions they do not differ.

Rose - dew, once - grew.

According to the place of noise formation (labial and lingual)

labiolabial [m] [p] [b]

labiodental [f] [v]

front-lingual:

dental [c] [z] [l] [n] [t] [d] [c]

anterior palatal [w] [g] [r] [h]

middle language [th]

back lingual [k] [g]

According to the method of noise generation

Closing (explosive) – [p] [t] [k] [g] [d]

Precatative (frictional) – [f] [v] [s] [z] [w] [g] [x]

Africates – [ts] [h] [sch]

Occlusive [n] [m] [l]

Trembling [r]

By the presence or absence of softening (hard and soft)

without paired soft w, c, w

Phonetic units. Sound.

1. Sound is the minimum unit of sounding speech. The word hand has 4 sounds.

3. A syllable is a segmental phonetic unit - a combination of several sounds, one of which is certainly a vowel.

Open syllable- the one that ends with a vowel sound: go-lo-va, ra-ma, yu-lA.

Closed - at the end there is a consonant sound: sleep, kar-kass, bol-tik.

Covered– begins with a consonant: SA-dy, mo-yu, ya-rmar-ka.

Uncovered– begins with a vowel: o-sen, ar-ka.

Transfer rules:

1. There are as many syllables as there are vowel sounds.

2. The border between words in the middle of a word usually passes after a vowel sound: law, ta-bu-re-tka.

3. If between vowel sounds in a word there is a combination of several consonants, then the entire combination of consonants, as a rule, goes to the next syllable

There are 2 exceptions to the last rule:

1) the sonorant consonant “yot”, being in the middle of the word between a vowel and a consonant, always goes back to the previous syllable: may-ka, sing-te, tay-na, catch-mal;

2) the remaining 8 sonorant sounds (r, r/, l, l/, m, m/, n, n/) behave somewhat differently in this position. If they are found before noisy consonants, they always go back to the previous syllable, while the noisy sound is added to the next syllable: maar-ka, gal-ka, ram-pa, i-yun-skiy. If sonorant sounds are located before some other sonorant sound, then the entire combination of consonants general rule goes to the next syllable: volna, ko-rma, Marya.

4. The establishment of boundaries between syllables can be affected by the selection of significant parts of the word in a word, as a result of which variants of syllable separation appear. for example, at the junction of a prefix and a root (if the prefix ends with a consonant sound, and the root begins with it), the boundary between syllables can be drawn both according to the phonetic rules of layer separation, and taking into account the separation of the prefix and the root: raz-break and raz-bit; to tell and suggest.

Speech sounds are studied in a branch of linguistics called phonetics. All speech sounds are divided into two groups: vowels and consonants. Vowel sounds can be in strong and weak positions. A strong position is a position under stress, in which the sound is pronounced clearly, for a long time, with greater force and does not require verification, for example: city, earth, greatness. In a weak position (without stress), the sound is pronounced indistinctly, briefly, with less force and requires verification, for example: head, forest, teacher. All six vowel sounds are distinguished under stress. In an unstressed position, instead of [a], [o], [z], other vowel sounds are pronounced in the same part of the word. So, instead of [o], a slightly weakened sound [a] - [vad]a is pronounced, instead of [e] and [a] in unstressed syllables, [ie] is pronounced - a sound intermediate between [i] and [e], for example: [ m"iesta], [h"iesy], [p"iet"brka], [s*ielo]. The alternation of strong and weak positions of vowel sounds in the same part of a word is called positional alternation of sounds. The pronunciation of vowel sounds depends on which syllable they are in in relation to the stressed one. In the first pre-stressed syllable, vowel sounds change less, for example: st[o]l - st[a]la. In other unstressed syllables, the vowels change more, and some do not differ at all and in pronunciation approach zero sound, for example^: transported - [p''riev'6s], gardener - [s'davot], water carrier - [v'davbs] (here ъ кь denote an unclear sound, zero sound). The alternation of vowel sounds in strong and weak positions is not reflected in writing, for example: to be surprised is a miracle; in the unstressed position the letter that denotes is written percussion sound in this root: to be surprised means “to meet with a marvel (miracle).” This is the leading principle of Russian orthography - morphological, providing for uniform spelling of significant parts of a word - root, prefix, suffix, ending, regardless of position. The designation of unstressed vowels, verified by stress, is subject to the morphological principle. There are 36 consonant sounds in the Russian language. Consonant sounds of the Russian language are those sounds during the formation of which the air encounters some kind of obstacle in the oral cavity; they consist of voice and noise or only noise. In the first case, voiced consonants are formed, in the second - voiceless consonants. Most often, voiced and voiceless consonants form pairs based on voicedness-voicelessness: [b] - [p], [v] - [f], [g] - [k], [d] - [t], [zh] - [ w], [h] - [s]. However, some consonants are only voiceless: [x], [ts], [ch"], [sh] or only voiced: [l], [m], [n], [r], [G]. Hard ones are also distinguished and soft consonants. Most of them form pairs: [b] - [b"], [v] - [v"], [d] - [g"], [d] - [d"], [z] - [z"], [k] - [k"], [l] - [l"], [m] - [m*], [n] - [n*], [p] - [p"], [r] - [r"], [s] - [s"], [t] - [t"], [f] - [f"], [x] - [x"]. Solids do not have paired sounds consonants [zh], [sh], [ts] and soft consonants, [h"], [t"]. In a word, consonant sounds can occupy different positions, that is, the location of the sound among other sounds in the word. Position, when which the sound does not change is strong. For a consonant sound, this is the position before a vowel (weak), sonorant (true), before [v] and [v*] (twist). All other positions are weak for consonants. In this case, the consonant sound changes : voiced before deaf becomes deaf: hem - [patshyt"]; the deaf before the voiced becomes voiced: request - [prbz"ba]; the voiced at the end of the word is deafened: oak - [dup]; the sound is not pronounced: holiday - [praz"n"ik]; hard before the soft can become soft: power - [ vlas"t"].