This article discusses the phonological system of standard Russian based on the Moscow dialect (unless otherwise noted). For an overview of dialects in the Russian language, see Russian dialects. Most descriptions of Russian describe it as having five vowel phonemes, though there is some dispute over whether a sixth vowel, /ɨ/, is separate from /i/. Russian has 34 consonants, which can be divided into two types:

• hard (твёрдый ^ⓘ) or plain
• soft (мягкий ^ⓘ) or palatalized

Russian also distinguishes hard consonants from soft consonants and from iotated consonants, making four sets in total: /C Cʲ Cj Cʲj/, although /Cj/ in native words appears only at morpheme boundaries (подъезд, podyezd, IPA: [pɐdˈjest] for example). Russian also preserves palatalized consonants that are followed by another consonant more often than other Slavic languages do. Like Polish, it has both hard postalveolars (/ʂ ʐ/) and soft ones (/tɕ ɕː/ and marginally or dialectically /ʑː/).

Russian has vowel reduction in unstressed syllables. This feature also occurs in a minority of other Slavic languages like Belarusian and Bulgarian and is also found in English, but not in most other Slavic languages, such as Czech, Polish, most varieties of Serbo-Croatian, and Ukrainian.

Vowels

Russian has five to six vowels in stressed syllables, /i, u, e, o, a/ and in some analyses /ɨ/, but in most cases these vowels have merged to only two to four vowels when unstressed: /i, u, a/ (or /ɨ, u, a/) after hard consonants and /i, u/ after soft ones.

A long-standing dispute among linguists is whether Russian has five vowel phonemes or six; that is, scholars disagree as to whether constitutes an allophone of /i/ or if there is an independent phoneme /ɨ/. The five-vowel analysis, taken up by the Moscow school, rests on the complementary distribution of and , with the former occurring after hard (non-palatalized) consonants (e.g. жить ^ⓘ 'to live', шип ^ⓘ 'thorn, spine', цирк t͡sɨrk^ⓘ 'circus', etc.) and i after soft (palatalized) consonants (e.g. щит ɕːit^ⓘ 'shield', чин t͡ɕin^ⓘ 'rank', etc.). The allophony of the stressed variant of the open /a/ is largely the same, yet no scholar considers [ä] and [æ] to be separate phonemes^{[citation needed]} (which they are in e.g. Slovak and Australian English).

The six-vowel view, held by the Saint-Petersburg (Leningrad) phonology school, points to several phenomena to make its case:

• Native Russian speakers' ability to articulate ɨ in isolation: for example, in the names of the letters ⟨и⟩ and ⟨ы⟩.^[1]
• Rare instances of word-initial ɨ, including the minimal pair и́кать 'to produce the sound и' and ы́кать 'to produce the sound ы',^[2] as well as borrowed names and toponyms, like Ыб ɨp^ⓘ, the name of a river and several villages in the Komi Republic.
• Morphological alternations like гото́в ɡʌˈtof^ⓘ ('ready' predicate, m.) and гото́вить ɡʌˈtovʲɪtʲ^ⓘ ('to get ready' trans.) between palatalized and non-palatalized consonants.^[3]

The most popular view among linguists (and the one taken up in this article) is that of the Moscow school,^[2] though Russian pedagogy has typically taught that there are six vowels (the term phoneme is not used).^[4]

Reconstructions of Proto-Slavic show that *i and *y (which correspond to i and ɨ) were separate phonemes. On the other hand, after the first palatalization, Old East Slavic *i and *y contrasted only after alveolars and labials: after palatals only *i occurred, and after velars only *y occurred. With the development of phonemic palatalized alveolars and labials, *i and *y no longer contrasted in any environment and were reinterpreted as allophones of each other, becoming a single phoneme /i/. Even so, this reinterpretation entailed no mergers and no change in the pronunciation. Subsequently, sometime between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, the allophone of /i/ occurring after a velar consonant changed from ɨ to i with subsequent palatalization of the velar, turning old Russian хытрыи 'xɨtrɨj into modern хитрый 'xʲitrɨj and old гыбкыи 'gɨpkɨj into modern гибкий 'gʲipkʲij.^[5]

Allophonyedit

Russian vowels are subject to considerable allophony, subject to both stress and the palatalization of neighboring consonants. In most unstressed positions, in fact, only three phonemes are distinguished after hard consonants, and only two after soft consonants. Unstressed /o/ and /a/ have merged to /a/ (a phenomenon known as Russian: а́канье, romanized: ákan'je); unstressed /i/ and /e/ have merged to /i/ (Russian: и́канье, romanized: íkan'je); and all four unstressed vowels have merged after soft consonants, except in the absolute final position in a word. None of these mergers are represented in writing.

Front vowelsedit

When a preceding consonant is hard, /i/ is retracted to [ɨ]. Formant studies in Padgett (2001) demonstrate that [ɨ] is better characterized as slightly diphthongized from the velarization of the preceding consonant,^[6] implying that a phonological pattern of using velarization to enhance perceptual distinctiveness between hard and soft consonants is strongest before /i/. When unstressed, /i/ becomes near-close; that is, [ɨ̞] following a hard consonant and [ɪ] in most other environments.^[7] Between soft consonants, stressed /i/ is raised,^[8] as in пить pʲi̝tʲ^ⓘ ('to drink'). When preceded and followed by coronal or dorsal consonants, [ɨ] is fronted to ɨ̟.^[9] After a cluster of a labial and /ɫ/, [ɨ] is retracted, as in плыть pɫɨ̠tʲ^ⓘ ('to float'); it is also slightly diphthongized to ɯ̟ɨ̟.^[9]

In native words, /e/ only follows unpaired (i.e. the retroflexes and /ts/) and soft consonants. After soft consonants (but not before), it is a mid vowel [ɛ̝] (hereafter represented without the diacritic for simplicity), while a following soft consonant raises it to close-mid [e]. Another allophone, an open-mid [ɛ], occurs word-initially and between hard consonants.^[10] Preceding hard consonants retract /e/ to ɛ̠ and e̠^[11] so that жест ('gesture') and цель ('target') are pronounced ʐɛ̠st^ⓘ and tse̠lʲ^ⓘ respectively.

In words borrowed from other languages, /e/ often follows hard consonants; this foreign pronunciation usually persists in Russian for many years until the word is more fully adopted into Russian.^[12] For instance, шофёр (from French chauffeur) was pronounced ʂoˈfɛr^ⓘ in the early twentieth century,^[13] but is now pronounced ʂʌˈfʲɵr^ⓘ. On the other hand, the pronunciations of words such as отель ʌˈtelʲ^ⓘ ('hotel') retain the hard consonants despite a long presence in the language.

Back vowelsedit

Between soft consonants, /a/ becomes [æ],^[14] as in пять pʲætʲ^ⓘ ('five'). When not following a soft consonant, /a/ is retracted to [ɑ̟] before /ɫ/ as in палка ˈpɑ̟ɫkə^ⓘ ('stick').^[14]

For most speakers, /o/ is a mid vowel [o̞], but it can be a more open [ɔ] for some speakers.^[15] Following a soft consonant, /o/ is centralized and raised to [ɵ] as in тётя ˈtʲɵtʲə^ⓘ ('aunt').^[16][17]

As with the other back vowels, /u/ is centralized to [ʉ] between soft consonants, as in чуть tɕʉtʲ^ⓘ ('narrowly'). When unstressed, /u/ becomes near-close; central [ʉ̞] between soft consonants, centralized back [ʊ] in other positions.^[18]

Unstressed vowelsedit

Russian unstressed vowels have lower intensity and lower energy. They are typically shorter than stressed vowels, and /a e o i/ in most unstressed positions tend to undergo mergers for most dialects:^[19]

• /o/ has merged with /a/: for instance, валы́ 'bulwarks' and волы́ 'oxen' are both pronounced /vaˈɫi/, phonetically vʌˈɫɨ^ⓘ.
• /e/ has merged with /i/: for instance, лиса́ (lisá) 'fox' and леса́ 'forests' are both pronounced /lʲiˈsa/, phonetically lʲɪˈsa^ⓘ.^{[example needed]}
• /a/ and /o/^[20] have merged with /i/ after soft consonants: for instance, ме́сяц (mésjats) 'month' is pronounced /ˈmʲesʲits/, phonetically ˈmʲesʲɪts^ⓘ.

The merger of unstressed /e/ and /i/ in particular is less universal in the pretonic (pre-accented) position than that of unstressed /o/ and /a/. For example, speakers of some rural dialects as well as the "Old Petersburgian" pronunciation may have the latter but not the former merger, distinguishing between лиса́ lʲɪˈsa and леса́ lʲɘˈsa, but not between валы́ and волы́ (both vʌˈɫɨ). The distinction in some loanwords between unstressed /e/ and /i/, or /o/ and /a/ is codified in some pronunciation dictionaries (Avanesov (1985:663), Zarva (1993:15)), for example, фо́рте ˈfortɛ and ве́то ˈvʲeto.

Unstressed vowels (except /o/) are preserved word-finally, for example in second-person plural or formal verb forms with the ending -те, such as де́лаете ("you do") /ˈdʲeɫajitʲe/ (phonetically ˈdʲeɫə(j)ɪtʲe). The same applies for vowels starting a word.^[21]

As a result, in most unstressed positions, only three vowel phonemes are distinguished after hard consonants (/u/, /a ~ o/, and /e ~ i/), and only two after soft consonants (/u/ and /a ~ o ~ e ~ i/). For the most part, Russian orthography (as opposed to that of the closely related Belarusian) does not reflect vowel reduction. This can be seen in Russian не́бо (nébo) as opposed to Belarusian не́ба (néba) "sky", both of which can be phonemically analyzed as /ˈnʲeba/ and morphophonemically as |ˈnʲebo|, as the nominative singular ending of neuter nouns is o when stressed: compare Russian село́ sʲɪˈɫo, Belarusian сяло́ sʲaˈɫo "village".

Vowel mergersedit

In terms of actual pronunciation, there are at least two different levels of vowel reduction: vowels are less reduced when a syllable immediately precedes the stressed one, and more reduced in other positions.^[22] This is particularly visible in the realization of unstressed /o/ and /a/, where a less-reduced allophone [ʌ] appears alongside a more-reduced allophone [ə].

The pronunciation of unstressed /o ~ a/ is as follows:

1. [ʌ] (sometimes transcribed as [ɐ]; the latter is phonetically correct for the standard Moscow pronunciation, whereas the former is phonetically correct for the standard Saint Petersburg pronunciation;^[23] this article uses only the symbol [ʌ]) appears in the following positions:
   • In the syllable immediately before the stress, when a hard consonant precedes:^[24] паро́м pʌˈrom^ⓘ ('ferry'), трава́ trʌˈva^ⓘ ('grass').
   • In absolute word-initial position.^[25]
   • In hiatus, when the vowel occurs twice without a consonant between; this is written ⟨aa⟩, ⟨ao⟩, ⟨oa⟩, or ⟨oo⟩:^[25] сообража́ть sʌʌbrʌˈʐatʲ^ⓘ ('to use common sense, to reason').
2. [ə] appears elsewhere, when a hard consonant precedes: о́блако ˈobɫəkə^ⓘ ('cloud').
   • In absolute word-final position, [ʌ] may occur instead, especially at the end of a syntagma.^[26]
3. When a soft consonant or /j/ precedes, both /o/ and /a/ merge with /i/ and are pronounced as [ɪ]. Example: язы́к jɪˈzɨk^ⓘ 'tongue'; еда jɪˈda^ⓘ 'food ~ meal ~ eating'). /o/ is written as ⟨e⟩ in these positions.
   • This merger also tends to occur after formerly soft consonants now pronounced hard (/ʐ/, /ʂ/, /ts/),^[27] where the pronunciation [ɨ̞]^[28] occurs; e.g. шевели́ть ʂɨvʲɪˈlʲitʲ 'to stir ~ to move ~ to bulge'. This always occurs when the spelling uses the soft vowel variants, e.g. жена́ ʐɨ̞ˈna^ⓘ ('wife'), with underlying /o/ (as evident in жёны ˈʐonɨ ('wives'), where ⟨ё⟩ is stressed and written as such). However, it also occurs in a few word roots where the spelling writes a hard /a/.^[29][30] Examples:
     • жаль- 'regret': e.g. жале́ть ʐɨ̞ˈlʲetʲ^ⓘ ('to regret'), к сожале́нию ksəʐɨ̞ˈlʲenʲɪju^ⓘ ('unfortunately').
     • ло́шадь 'horse', e.g. лошаде́й, ɫəʂɨ̞ˈdʲej^ⓘ (pl. gen. and acc.).
     • -дцать- in numbers: e.g. двадцати́ dvətsɨ̞ˈtʲi^ⓘ ('twenty gen., dat., prep.'), тридцатью́ trʲɪtsɨˈtʲju^ⓘ ('thirty instr.').
     • ржано́й rʐɨ̞ˈnoj^ⓘ ('rye adj. m. nom.').
     • жасми́н ʐɨ̞ˈsmʲin^ⓘ ('jasmine').
4. These processes occur even across word boundaries as in под морем pʌd‿ˈmorʲɪm ('under the sea').

The pronunciation of unstressed /e ~ i/ is [ɪ] after soft consonants and /j/, and word-initially (эта́п ɪˈtap^ⓘ ('stage'); икра́ ɪˈkra^ⓘ ('roe'); диви́ть dʲɪˈvʲitʲ ('to surprise'), etc.), but [ɨ̞] after hard consonants (дыша́ть dɨ̞ˈʂatʲ^ⓘ ('to breathe')). When in a word-final position after /ʐ/, /ʂ/ or /ts/ it might have an even more open allophone [ɘ], as in полоте́нце pəɫɐˈtʲent͡sə^ⓘ ('towel').^{[citation needed]}

There are a number of exceptions to the above vowel-reduction rules:

• Vowels may not merge in foreign borrowings,^[31][32][33] particularly with unusual or recently borrowed words such as ра́дио, ˈradʲɪo^ⓘ 'radio'. In such words, unstressed /a/ may be pronounced as [ʌ], regardless of context; unstressed /e/ does not merge with /i/ in initial position or after vowels, so word pairs like эмигра́нт and иммигра́нт, or эмити́ровать and имити́ровать, differ in pronunciation.^{[citation needed]}
• Across certain word-final inflections, the reductions do not completely apply. For example, after soft or unpaired consonants, unstressed /a/, /e/ and /i/ of a final syllable may be distinguished from each other.^[34][35] For example, жи́тели ˈʐɨtʲɪlʲɪ^ⓘ ('residents') contrasts with both (о) жи́теле (ʌ) ˈʐɨtʲɪlʲɪ̞^ⓘ ('about a resident') and жи́теля ˈʐɨtʲɪlʲə^ⓘ ('(of) a resident'). Also, хо́дит ˈxodʲɪt ('he goes') and хо́дят ˈxodʲət ('they go').
• If the vowel ⟨o⟩ belongs to the conjunctions но ('but') or то ('then'), it is not reduced, even when unstressed.^[36]

Other changesedit

Unstressed /u/ is generally pronounced as a lax (or near-close) [ʊ], e.g. мужчи́на mʊˈɕːinə^ⓘ ('man'). Between soft consonants, it becomes centralized to [ʉ̞], as in юти́ться jʉ̞ˈtʲitsə^ⓘ ('to huddle').

Note a spelling irregularity in /s/ of the reflexive suffix -ся: with a preceding -т- in third-person present and a -ть- in infinitive, it is pronounced as tsə, i.e. hard instead of with its soft counterpart, since ts, normally spelled with ⟨ц⟩, is traditionally always hard. In other forms both pronunciations sə and sʲə alternate for a speaker with some usual form-dependent preferences: in the outdated dialects, reflexive imperative verbs (such as бо́йся, lit. "be afraid yourself") may be pronounced with sə instead of modern (and phonetically consistent) sʲə.^[37]

In weakly stressed positions, vowels may become voiceless between two voiceless consonants: вы́ставка ˈvɨstə̥fkə^ⓘ ('exhibition'), потому́ что pə̥tʌˈmu ʂtə^ⓘ ('because'). This may also happen in cases where only the following consonant is voiceless: че́реп ˈtɕerʲɪ̥p^ⓘ ('skull').

Phonemic analysisedit

Because of mergers of different phonemes in unstressed position, the assignment of a particular phone to a phoneme requires phonological analysis. There have been different approaches to this problem:^[38]

• The Saint Petersburg phonology school assigns allophones to particular phonemes. For example, any [ʌ] is considered as a realization of /a/.
• The Moscow phonology school uses an analysis with morphophonemes (морфоне́мы, singular морфоне́ма). It treats a given unstressed allophone as belonging to a particular morphophoneme depending on morphological alternations. For example, [ʌ] is analyzed as either |a| or |o|. To make a determination, one must seek out instances where an unstressed morpheme containing [ʌ] in one word is stressed in another word. Thus, because the word валы́ vʌˈɫɨ ('shafts') shows an alternation with вал vaɫ ('shaft'), this instance of ʌ belongs to the morphophoneme |a|. Meanwhile, волы́ vʌˈɫɨ ('oxen') alternates with вол voɫ ('ox'), showing that this instance of [ʌ] belongs to the morphophoneme |o|. If there are no alternations between stressed and unstressed syllables for a particular morpheme, then no assignment is made, and existence of an archiphoneme is postulated. For example, the word соба́ка sʌˈbakə ('dog') is analysed as |s(a/o)ˈbaka|, where |(a/o)| is an archiphoneme.^[39]
• Some linguists^[40] prefer to avoid making the decision. Their terminology includes strong vowel phonemes (the five) for stressed vowels plus several weak phonemes for unstressed vowels: thus, [ɪ] represents the weak phoneme /ɪ/, which contrasts with other weak phonemes, but not with strong ones.

Diphthongsedit

Russian diphthongs all end in a non-syllabic i̯, an allophone of /j/ and the only semivowel in Russian. In all contexts other than after a vowel, /j/ is considered an approximant consonant. Phonological descriptions of /j/ may also classify it as a consonant even in the coda. In such descriptions, Russian has no diphthongs.

The first part of diphthongs is subject to the same allophony as their constituent vowels. Examples of words with diphthongs: яйцо́ jɪjˈtso^ⓘ ('egg'), ей jej^ⓘ ('her' dat.), де́йственный ˈdʲejstvʲɪnnɨj^ⓘ ('effective'). /ij/, written ⟨-ий⟩ or ⟨-ый⟩, is a common inflexional affix of adjectives, participles, and nouns, where it is often unstressed; at normal conversational speed, such unstressed endings may be monophthongized to [ɪ̟].^[41]

Consonantsedit

⟨ʲ⟩ denotes palatalization, meaning the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant. Phonemes that have at different times been disputed are enclosed in parentheses.

Notes

• Most consonant phonemes come in hard–soft pairs, except for always-hard /ts, ʂ, ʐ/ and always-soft /tɕ, ɕː, j/ and formerly or marginally /ʑː/. There is a marked tendency of Russian hard consonants to be velarized or uvularized,^{[42] [43]} though this is a subject of some academic dispute.^[44][45] Velarization is clearest before the front vowels /e/ and /i/,^[46][47] and with labial and velar consonants as well as the lateral.^[48][49] As with palatalization, it results in vowel colouring and diphthongisation when stressed, in particular with /i~ɨ/, realized approximately as ɯi̯ or ɤ̯ɪ. Its function is to make the contrast between hard and soft consonants perceptually more salient, and the less salient the contrast is otherwise (such as labial consonants being universally the most resistant to palatalization^[50]), the higher the velarization degree.
  • /ʐ/ and /ʂ/ are always hard in native words (even if spelling contains a "softening" letter after them, as in жена, шёлк, жить, and мышь). A few loanwords are spelled with ⟨жю⟩ or ⟨шю⟩; authoritative pronunciation dictionaries^[51] prescribe hard pronunciation for some of them (e.g. брошюра, парашют, амбушюр, шюцкор) but soft for other ones (e.g. пшют, фишю); жюри may be pronounced either way.^[52] The letter combinations ⟨жю⟩, ⟨жя⟩, ⟨жё⟩, ⟨шю⟩, ⟨шя⟩, and ⟨шё⟩ also occur in foreign proper names, mostly of French or Lithuanian origin. Notable examples include Гёльджюк (Gölcük, Kocaeli), Жён Африк (Jeune Afrique), Жюль Верн (Jules Verne), Герхард Шюрер (Gerhard Schürer), Шяуляй (Šiauliai), and Шяшувис (Šešuvis). The dictionary of Ageenko & Zarva (1993) prescribes soft pronunciation in these names. However, since the cases of soft ⟨ж⟩ and ⟨ш⟩ are marginal and not universally pronounced as such, ⟨ж⟩ and ⟨ш⟩ are generally considered always-hard consonants, and the long phonemes /ʑː/ and /ɕː/ are not considered their soft counterparts, as they do not pattern in the same ways that other hard–soft pairs do.
  • /ts/ is generally listed among the always-hard consonants; however, certain foreign proper names, including those of Ukrainian, Polish, Lithuanian, or German origin (e.g. Цюрупа, Пацюк, Цявловский, Цюрих), as well as loanwords (e.g., хуацяо, from Chinese), contain a soft tsʲ.^[53] The phonemicity of a soft /tsʲ/ is supported by neologisms that come from native word-building processes (e.g. фрицёнок, шпицята).^{[citation needed]} However, according to Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015), /ts/ really is always hard, and realizing it as palatalized tsʲ is considered "emphatically non-standard", and occurs only in some regional accents.^[54]
  • /tɕ/ and /j/ are always soft.
  • /ɕː/ is also always soft.^[54] A formerly common pronunciation of /ɕ/+/tɕ/^[55] indicates the sound may be two underlying phonemes: /ʂ/ and /tɕ/, thus /ɕː/ can be considered as a marginal phoneme. In today's most widespread pronunciation, ɕtɕ appears (instead of ɕː) for orthographical -зч-/-сч- where ч- starts the root of a word, and -з/-с belongs to a preposition or a "clearly distinguishable" prefix (e.g. без часо́в bʲɪɕtɕɪˈsof^ⓘ, 'without a clock'; расчерти́ть rəɕtɕɪrˈtʲitʲ^ⓘ, 'to rule'); in all other cases /ɕː/ is used (щётка ˈɕːɵtkə^ⓘ, гру́зчик ˈɡruɕːɪk^ⓘ, перепи́счик pʲɪrʲɪˈpʲiɕːɪk, сча́стье ˈɕːæsʲtʲjə^ⓘ, мужчи́на mʊˈɕːinə^ⓘ, исщипа́ть ɪɕːɪˈpatʲ, расщепи́ть rəɕːɪˈpʲitʲ etc.)
  • The marginally phonemic^[56] sound ʑː is largely obsolete except in the more conservative standard accent of Moscow, in which it only occurs in a handful of words. Insofar as this soft pronunciation is lost, the corresponding hard [ʐː] replaces it.^[57] This sound may derive from an underlying /zʐ/ or /sʐ/: заезжа́ть zə(ɪ̯)ɪˈʑːætʲ, modern zə(ɪ̯)ɪˈʐːatʲ^ⓘ. For most speakers, it can most commonly be formed by assimilative voicing of ɕː (including across words): вещдо́к vʲɪʑːˈdok. For more information, see alveolo-palatal consonant and retroflex consonant.
• /ʂ/ and /ʐ/ are somewhat concave apical postalveolar.^[58] They may be described as retroflex, e.g. by Hamann (2004), but this is to indicate that they are not laminal nor palatalized; not to say that they are subapical.^[59] They also tend to be at least slightly labialized, including when followed by unrounded vowels.^[54][60]
• Hard /t, d, n/ are laminal denti-alveolar t̪, d̪, n̪; unlike in many other languages, /n/ does not become velar [ŋ] before velar consonants.^[61]
• Hard /ɫ/ has been variously described as pharyngealized apical alveolar [l̺ˤ]^[62] and velarized laminal denti-alveolar [l̪ˠ].^[45][63][64]
• Hard /r/ is postalveolar, typically a trill r̠.^[65]
• Soft /rʲ/ is an apical dental trill r̪ʲ, usually with only a single contact.^[65]
• Soft /tʲ, dʲ, nʲ/ are laminal alveolar t̻ʲ^sʲ, d̻ʲ^zʲ, n̻ʲ. In the case of the first two, the tongue is raised just enough to produce slight frication as indicated in the transcription.^[66] Modern Russian tends to affricatize these sounds to tʲsʲ, dʲzʲ as in Belarusian.^[67] This phenomenon is called «tsekanye».
• Soft /lʲ/ is either laminal alveolar l̻ʲ or laminal denti-alveolar l̪ʲ.^[62][68]
• /ts, s, sʲ, z, zʲ/ are dental t̪s̪, s̪, s̪ʲ, z̪, z̪ʲ,^[69] i.e. dentalized laminal alveolar. They are pronounced with the blade of the tongue very close to the upper front teeth, with the tip of the tongue resting behind the lower front teeth.
• The voiced /v, vʲ/ are often realized with weak friction v̞, v̞ʲ or even as approximants ʋ, ʋʲ, particularly in spontaneous speech.^[54]
• A marginal phoneme /ɣ/ occurs instead of /ɡ/ in certain interjections: ага́, ого́, угу́, эге, о-го-го́, э-ге-ге, гоп. (Thus, there exists a minimal pair of homographs: ага́ ʌˈɣa^ⓘ 'aha!' vs ага́ ʌˈɡa^ⓘ 'agha'). The same sound ɣ can be found in бухга́лтер (spelled ⟨хг⟩, though in цейхга́уз, ⟨хг⟩ is x), optionally in га́битус and in a few other loanwords. Also optionally (and less frequently than a century ago) ɣ can be used instead of ɡ in certain religious words (a phenomenon influenced by Church Slavonic pronunciation): Бо́га ˈboɣə, Бо́гу ˈboɣʊ... (declension forms of Бог ˈbox 'God'), Госпо́дь ɣʌˈspotʲ 'Lord' (especially in the exclamation Го́споди! ˈɣospədʲɪ 'Oh Lord!'), благо́й bɫʌˈɣɵj 'good'.
• Some linguists (like I. G. Dobrodomov and his school) postulate the existence of a phonemic glottal stop /ʔ/. This marginal phoneme can be found, for example, in the word не́-а ˈnʲeʔə^ⓘ. Claimed minimal pairs for this phoneme include су́женный ˈsʔuʐɨnɨj^ⓘ 'narrowed' (a participle from су́зить 'to narrow', with prefix с- and root -уз-, cf. у́зкий 'narrow') vs су́женый ˈsuʐɨnɨj^ⓘ 'betrothed' (originally a participle from суди́ть 'to judge', now an adjective; the root is суд 'court') and с А́ней ˈsʔanʲɪj^ⓘ 'with Ann' vs Са́ней ˈsanʲɪj^ⓘ '(by) Alex'.^[70][71]

There is some dispute over the phonemicity of soft velar consonants. Typically, the soft–hard distinction is allophonic for velar consonants: they become soft before front vowels, as in коро́ткий kʌˈrotkʲɪj^ⓘ ('short'), unless there is a word boundary, in which case they are hard (e.g. к Ива́ну k‿ɨˈvanʊ 'to Ivan').^[72] Hard variants occur everywhere else. Exceptions are represented mostly by:

• Loanwords:
  • Soft: гёзы, гюрза́, гяу́р, секью́рити, кекс, кяри́з, са́нкхья, хянга́;
  • Hard: кок-сагы́з, гэ́льский, акы́н, кэб (кеб), хэ́ппенинг.
• Proper nouns of foreign origin:
  • Soft: Алигье́ри, Гёте, Гю́нтер, Гянджа́, Джокьяка́рта, Кёнигсберг, Кюраса́о, Кя́хта, Хью́стон, Хёндэ, Хю́бнер, Пюхяя́рви;
  • Hard: Мангышла́к, Гэ́ри, Кызылку́м, Кэмп-Дэ́вид, Архы́з, Хуанхэ́.

The rare native examples are fairly new, as most of them were coined in the last century:

• Soft: forms of the verb ткать 'weave' (ткёшь, ткёт etc., and derivatives like соткёшься); догёнок/догята, герцогёнок/герцогята; and adverbial participles of the type берегя, стерегя, стригя, жгя, пекя, секя, ткя (it is disputed whether these are part of the standard language or just informal colloquialisms)^{[citation needed]};
• Hard: the name гэ of letter ⟨г⟩, acronyms and derived words (кагебешник, днепрогэсовский), a few interjections (гы, кыш, хэй), some onomatopoeic words (гыгыкать), and colloquial forms of certain patronyms: Олегыч, Маркыч, Аристархыч (where -ыч is a contraction of standard language's patronymical suffix -ович rather than a continuation of ancient -ич).

In the mid-twentieth century, a small number of reductionist approaches made by structuralists^[73] put forth that palatalized consonants occur as the result of phonological processes involving /j/ (or palatalization as a phoneme in itself), so that there were no underlying palatalized consonants.^[74] Despite such proposals, linguists have long agreed that the underlying structure of Russian is closer to that of its acoustic properties, namely that soft consonants are separate phonemes in their own right.^[75]

Voicingedit

Final devoicingedit

Voiced consonants (/b/, /bʲ/, /d/, /dʲ/ /ɡ/, /v/, /vʲ/, /z/, /zʲ/, /ʐ/, and /ʑː/) are devoiced word-finally unless the next word begins with a voiced obstruent.^[76] In other words, their voiceless equivalent will be used (see table on the right).^[21]

Examples:

• рассказ (story, tale) sounds like расскас rɐˈskas
• нож (knife) sounds like нош noʂ
• Иванов (Ivanov) sounds like Иваноф ɪvɐˈnof; and so on.

Г also represents voiceless x word-finally in some words, such as бог ˈbox ('god'). This is related to the use of the marginal (or dialectal) phoneme /ɣ/ in some religious words (see Consonants).

Voicing elsewhereedit

Basically, when a voiced consonant comes before a voiceless one, its sound will shift to its voiceless equivalent (see table).^[21]

• Example: Ложка (spoon) sounds like Лошка ˈɫoʂkə.

That happens because ж is a voiced consonant, and it comes before the voiceless к.

The same logic applies when a voiceless consonant comes before a voiced one (except в). In this case, the sound of the former will change to its voiced equivalent.^[21]

• Example: сделать (to do) sounds like зделать ˈzʲdʲeɫətʲ.

Russian features general regressive assimilation of voicing and palatalization.^[77] In longer clusters, this means that multiple consonants may be soft despite their underlyingly (and orthographically) being hard.^[78] The process of voicing assimilation applies across word-boundaries when there is no pause between words.^[79] Within a morpheme, voicing is not distinctive before obstruents (except for /v/, and /vʲ/ when followed by a vowel or sonorant). The voicing or devoicing is determined by that of the final obstruent in the sequence:^[80] просьба ˈprozʲbə^ⓘ ('request'), водка ˈvotkə^ⓘ ('vodka'). In foreign borrowings, this isn't always the case for /f(ʲ)/, as in Адольф Гитлер ʌˈdolʲf ˈɡʲitlʲɪr^ⓘ ('Adolf Hitler') and граф болеет ('the count is ill'). /v/ and /vʲ/ are unusual in that they seem transparent to voicing assimilation; in the syllable onset, both voiced and voiceless consonants may appear before /v(ʲ)/:

• тварь tvarʲ^ⓘ) ('the creature')
• два dva^ⓘ ('two')
• световой s(ʲ)vʲɪtʌˈvoj^ⓘ ('of light')
• звезда z(ʲ)vʲɪˈzda^ⓘ ('star')

When /v(ʲ)/ precedes and follows obstruents, the voicing of the cluster is governed by that of the final segment (per the rule above) so that voiceless obstruents that precede /v(ʲ)/ are voiced if /v(ʲ)/ is followed by a voiced obstruent (e.g. к вдове ɡvdʌˈvʲe 'to the widow') while a voiceless obstruent will devoice all segments (e.g. без впуска bʲɪs ˈfpuskə 'without an admission').^[81]

/tɕ/, /ts/, and /x/ have voiced allophones ([dʑ], [dz] and [ɣ]) before voiced obstruents,^[76][82] as in дочь бы ˈdodʑ bɨ^ⓘ[83] ('a daughter would'), плацдарм pɫʌdzˈdarm^ⓘ ('bridge-head') and горох готов ɡɐˈroɣ ɡɐˈtof ('peas are ready').

Other than /mʲ/ and /nʲ/, nasals and liquids devoice between voiceless consonants or a voiceless consonant and a pause: контрфорс ˌkontr̥ˈfors^ⓘ) ('buttress').^[84]

Palatalizationedit

Before /j/, paired consonants (that is, those that come in a hard-soft pair) are normally soft as in пью pʲju^ⓘ ('I drink') and бью bʲju^ⓘ ('I hit'). However, the last consonant of prefixes and parts of compound words generally remains hard in the standard language: отъезд ʌˈtjest^ⓘ ('departure'), Минюст ˌmʲiˈnjust^ⓘ ('Ministry of Justice'); when the prefix ends in /s/ or /z/ there may be an optional softening: съездить ˈs(ʲ)jezʲdʲɪtʲ^ⓘ ('to travel').

Paired consonants preceding /e/ are also soft; although there are exceptions from loanwords, alternations across morpheme boundaries are the norm.^[85] The following examples^[86] show some of the morphological alternations between a hard consonant and its soft counterpart: