In Russian, voiced and voiceless consonants differ in the participation / non-participation of the voice in the formation of a consonant.

The following consonants are voiced: [b], [b'], [c], [c'], [g], [g'], [e], [d'], [g], [h], [h'], [ d'], [l], [l'], [m], [m'], [n], [n'], [p], [p'].

The voiced sound is also [zh ’], found in the speech of individuals in the words yeast, reins and some others.

The following consonants are deaf: [ k], [k'], [n], [n'], [s], [s'], [t], [t'], [f], [f'], [x], [x '] [c], [h'], [w], [u'].

To remember which consonants are deaf, there is a mnemonic rule (rule for remembering): in the phrase “Styopka, do you want a shetz?” - "Fi!" contains all voiceless consonants.

There are 11 pairs of consonants opposed by deafness / voicedness: [b] - [p], [b '] - [p '], [c] - [f], [c '] - [f '], [g] - [k], [g '] - [k '], [d] - [t], [d '] - [t '], [s] - [s], [s '] - [s '], [g] - [w]. The listed sounds are, respectively, either voiced pairs or deaf pairs.

The remaining consonants are characterized as unpaired. Voiced unpaired ones include [d '], [l], [l '], [m], [m '], [n], [n '], [p], [p '], to deaf unpaired - sounds [x], [x'], [c], [h'], [u'].

But the appearance of a voiceless or voiced sound can be predetermined by its position in the word. Such deafness / voicedness turns out to be dependent, “forced”, and the positions in which this occurs are considered weak in terms of deafness / voicedness.

Voiced pairs are deafened (or rather, they change to deaf ones)

1) at the absolute end of the word: pond [rod];

2) in front of the deaf: booth [butka].

Deaf paired consonants before voiced ones, except [v], [v'], [d'], [l], [l'], [m], [m'], [n], [n'], [p], [p '], are voiced, that is, they change to voiced: threshing [malad'baʹa].

When pronouncing voiced consonant air flow creates vibrations of the vocal cords. If the vocal cords are not involved, then the sound is considered deaf.

But in Russian, a voiced letter does not always mean a voiced sound (and vice versa: a voiceless consonant does not always mean a voiceless sound). It depends on the position of the letter in the word.

Voiced consonant often stunned at the end of a word. For example, in the word "colander" we read "k" at the end, because the sound is in a weak position. Can also be stunned before a voiceless consonant. For example, we pronounce the word "gait" as "plowing".

To determine which letter will be written correctly, the letter must be placed in a strong position in a single-root word (that is, before a vowel or consonants M, L, N, R).

For example: “boat” - “boat”, “mushroom” - “mushroom”.

Table

Also paired in deafness / voicedness are pairs of soft consonants, from those indicated in the table. For example: "b' - p'", "v' - f'".

Hard and soft

In words, the same letter can denote both hard and soft sounds. This is due to the influence of subsequent consonants on softness/hardness. Before A, O, U, S, E sound hard consonants, before I, E, E, Yu, I - soft.

Table

In Russian, not all speech sounds are indicated, but only the main ones. There are 43 basic sounds in Russian - 6 vowels and 37 consonants, while the number of letters is 33. The number of basic vowels (10 letters, but 6 sounds) and consonants (21 letters, but 37 sounds) also do not match. The difference in the quantitative composition of the main sounds and letters is determined by the peculiarities of Russian writing. In Russian, hard and soft sounds are denoted by the same letter, but soft and hard sounds are considered different, which is why there are more consonant sounds than the letters they are denoted by.

Voiced and voiceless consonants

Consonants are divided into voiced and voiceless. Voiced sounds are made up of noise and voice, deaf sounds are made up of noise only.

Voiced consonants: [b] [b "] [c] [c "] [g] [g "] [d] [d "] [h] [h "] [g] [l] [l "] [ m] [m "] [n] [n"] [r] [r "] [th]

Deaf consonants: [n] [n "] [f] [f "] [k] [k "] [t] [t "] [s] [s "] [w] [x] [x"] [ h "] [u"]

Paired and unpaired consonants

Many consonants form pairs of voiced and voiceless consonants:

Voiced [b] [b "] [c] [c "] [g] [g "] [d] [d "] [s] [s"] [g]

Deaf [n] [n "] [f] [f "] [k] [k "] [t] [t "] [s] [s "] [w]

The following voiced and voiceless consonants do not form pairs:

Voiced [l] [l "] [m] [m "] [n] [n "] [r] [r "] [th]

Deaf [x] [x "] [h "] [u"]

Soft and hard consonants

Consonants are also divided into hard and soft. They differ in the position of the tongue during pronunciation. When pronouncing soft consonants, the middle back of the tongue is raised to the hard palate.

Most consonants form pairs of hard and soft consonants:

Solid [b] [c] [g] [d] [h] [k] [l] [m] [n] [p] [r] [s] [t] [f] [x]

Soft [b "] [c"] [g "] [d"] [h "] [k"] [l"] [m "] [n"] [n "] [p"] [s"] [ t "] [f"] [x"]

The following hard and soft consonants do not form pairs:

Solid [w] [w] [c]

Soft [h "] [u"] [th"]

Hissing consonants

The sounds [w], [w], [h ’], [u ’] are called hissing.

[w] [w] [h "] [u"]

Whistling consonants

[s] [s "] [s] [s "] [c]

Whistling sounds s-s, s-z anterior-lingual, slotted. When articulating hard s-z, the teeth are exposed, the tip of the tongue touches the lower teeth, the back of the tongue is slightly curved, the lateral edges of the tongue are pressed against the upper molars, which causes a groove to form in the middle. Air flows through this groove creating frictional noise.

When pronouncing soft s, z, the articulation is the same, but additionally the back of the tongue rises to the hard palate. When pronouncing sounds, the z-z ligaments are closed and vibrate. The palatine curtain is up.

Letter "y": hard or soft? This question is often asked by students who need to parse a word according to all the rules of phonetics. You will get the answer to it a little further.

General information

Before talking about what the letter “y” is (soft or hard), you should find out why the letters of the Russian alphabet are generally divided according to such criteria.

The fact is that each word has its own sound shell, which consists of separate sounds. It should be noted that the sound of this or that expression is fully consistent with its meaning. At the same time, different words and their forms have completely different sound design. The sounds themselves don't matter. However, they play an important role in the Russian language. After all, thanks to them, we can easily distinguish words. Here's an example:

• [house] - [lady´] - [do´ma];
• [m'el] - [m'el'], [volume] - [there], [house] - [volume].

Transcription

Why do we need information about what the letter "y" is (hard or soft)? During a word, it is very important to correctly display the transcription that describes its sound. In such a system, it is customary to use the following symbols:

This designation is called They must be put to designate transcription.

[´] is an accent. It is placed if the word has more than one syllable.

[b '] - a kind of comma is placed next to the consonant letter and indicates its softness.

By the way, during phonetic parsing of words, the following symbol is often used - [j]. As a rule, they denote the sound of the letter “y” (sometimes a symbol such as [y] is also used).

Letter "y": consonant or vowel?

As you know, in Russian all sounds are divided into consonants and vowels. They are perceived and pronounced differently.

• Vowel sounds are those sounds during the pronunciation of which air passes easily and freely through the mouth, without encountering any obstacles in its path. Moreover, they can be pulled, with the help of them you can scream. If you put your palm to your throat, then the work of the cords (voice) during the pronunciation of vowels can be quite easily felt. There are 6 stressed vowels in Russian, namely: [a], [e], [u], [s], [o] and [i].
• Consonant sounds are those sounds during the pronunciation of which the air meets an obstacle in its path, namely a bow or a gap. Their appearance determines the nature of the sounds. As a rule, a gap is formed when pronouncing [s], [w], [h] and [g]. In this case, the tip of the tongue approaches the upper or lower teeth. The presented consonants can be drawn (for example, [zh-zh-zh], [z-z-z]). As for the bow, such a barrier is formed due to the closing of the organs of speech. The air, or rather its flow, abruptly overcomes it, due to which the sounds are energetic and short. That is why they are called explosive. By the way, it is impossible to pull them (try it yourself: [p], [b], [t], [d]).

In addition to the above consonants, the Russian language also has the following: [m], [d], [c], [f], [g], [l], [p], [h], [c], [x] . As you can see, there are many more than vowels.

Silent and voiced sounds

By the way, many consonants form between pairs of deafness and sonority: [k] - [g], [b] - [n], [h] - [c], [d] - [t], [f] - [c], etc. In total, there are 11 such pairs in Russian. However, there are sounds that do not have pairs on this basis. These include: [th], [p], [n], [l], [m] are unpaired voiced, and [h] and [c] are unpaired voiceless.

Soft and hard consonants

As you know, consonants differ not only in sonority or, conversely, deafness, but also in softness and hardness. This property is the second most important feature of sounds.

So, the letter "y": hard or soft? To answer this question, you should consider each feature separately:

• During the pronunciation of soft consonants, the entire tongue moves slightly forward, and its middle part rises slightly.
• During the pronunciation of hard consonants, the entire tongue is literally pulled back.

It should be especially noted that many consonants form pairs among themselves according to such features as softness and hardness: [d] - [d ’], [p] - [p ’], etc. There are 15 such pairs in total. However, there are also sounds that do not have pairs on this basis. What letters of solid consonants are unpaired? These include the following - [w], [g] and [c]. As for unpaired soft ones, these are [u '], [h '] and [y '].

Designation on the letter

Now you know the information about whether the letter "y" is hard or soft. But here a new question arises: "How is the softness of such sounds indicated in writing?" For this, completely different methods are used:

• The letters "e", "u", "ё", "i" after the consonants (not counting "zh", "sh", and "c") indicate that these consonants are soft. Let's give an example: uncle - [d'a´d'a], aunt - [t'o´t'a].
• The letter "i" after the consonants (not counting "zh", "sh", and "c") indicates that these consonants are soft. Let's give an example: cute - [m'i´ly '], sheet - [l'ist], no´tki - [n'i´tk'i].
• The soft sign ("ь") after consonants (not counting "zh" and "w") is an indicator of grammatical form. It also indicates that consonants are soft. Examples example: distance - [gave '], stranded - [m'el '], request - [proz'ba].

As you can see, the softness of consonant sounds in writing is conveyed not by individual letters, but by their combinations with the vowels "e", "yu", "ё", "ya", as well as a soft sign. That is why when experts recommend paying attention to neighboring characters.

As for the vowel "y", it is always soft. In this regard, in transcription it is usually denoted as follows: [th ']. That is, the comma symbol, indicating the softness of the sound, must always be set. [u '], [h '] obey the same rule.

Summing up

As you can see, there is nothing difficult in making any word correctly. To do this, you just need to know what vowels and consonants are, deaf and voiced, as well as soft and hard. For a better understanding of how it is necessary to arrange transcription, we will give several detailed examples.

1. The word "hero". Consists of two syllables, with the 2nd being stressed. Let's do a breakdown:

g - [g ’] - voiced, consonant and soft.

e - [and] - unstressed vowel.

p - [p] - voiced, consonant, unpaired and hard.

o - [o] - stressed vowel.

th - [th ’] - voiced, consonant, unpaired and soft.

Total: 5 letters and 5 sounds.

2. The word "trees". Consists of three syllables, with the 2nd being stressed. Let's do a breakdown:

d - [d '] - voiced, consonant and soft.

e - [and] - unstressed vowel.

p - [p '] - voiced, consonant, unpaired and soft.

e - [e´] - stressed vowel.

in - [in '] - voiced, consonant and soft

e - [y '] - voiced, consonant, unpaired and soft and [e] - vowel, unstressed;

in - [f] - deaf, and hard.

Total: 8 letters and 8 sounds.

Usually, children do not have serious difficulties in understanding the difference between vowels and consonants. But on hard and soft consonants, you should dwell in more detail.

How to teach children to distinguish between hard and soft consonants

The very first thing to teach a child is that consonants can be hard and soft, but not letters.

Typical mistake:
Children confuse sound and letter. Remember that a sound is a sound, and a letter is an icon, it is written. A letter cannot be hard or soft, only a consonant sound can be hard or soft in pronunciation.

Sometimes children can easily learn to distinguish between soft and hard sounds by ear.
But it happens that this is difficult, and in this case, signs will come to the rescue by which one can distinguish hard sounds from soft ones.

Distinctive features of soft and hard sounds

What sound comes after the consonant:

• If after the consonant there is a vowel a, o, y, e, s, then the consonant is solid.
• If after the consonant there is a vowel and, e, u, i, then the consonant is soft.

Working with examples:
In the words "mother", "nora" - solid consonants, because after them come "a" and "o".
In the words "fly", "nanny" - consonants are soft, because after them come "e", "and", "I".

• If another consonant sounds after a consonant, then the first consonant will be hard.
• There are sounds that can only be hard and sounds that can only be soft, no matter what sound is heard and what letter is written after them.

Always solid sounds - w, w, c.
Always soft - th, h, u.
A common way to learn these sounds is a simple technique: we write the letters that convey these sounds in a line, and underline "th, h, u". The underline symbolizes the pillow on which soft sounds sit. The pad is soft, so the sounds are soft.

Soft sign and hard sign

• If the consonant is at the end of the word, and after it is the letter “b”, then the consonant is soft.

This rule is easy to apply if the child sees the written word, but it will not help if the child performs the task by ear.

Movement of the tongue when pronouncing soft and hard sounds

When pronouncing a soft sound, the tongue moves slightly forward, approaching the palate (or touching it) with its middle.
When pronouncing solid sounds, the tongue does not move forward.

Table of signs of hard and soft sounds

Solid:

1. Before a, o, u, uh, s.
2. At the end of a word before a consonant.
3. Zh, c, sh.

Soft:

1. Before the vowels e, e, i, u, i.
2. If after the consonant there is a soft sign (dust, measles).
3. Y, h, sh.

A picture or just a list of thematic words is shown, and the task is given to choose words with soft or hard consonants. For example:

Voiced and voiceless consonants

There are 11 pairs of voiced/voiced consonants in Russian.
The phonetic difference between voiced and voiceless consonants lies in the tension of the vocal cords. Deaf sounds are pronounced with the help of noise, without tension of the ligaments. Voiced sounds are pronounced with a voice, are caused by the vibration of the vocal cords, because. noisy air comes out of the larynx.

Mnemonic technique for memorizing deaf sounds:
Memorize the phrase: “Stepka, do you want a cabbage? - Fi! All consonants here are deaf.

Examples of tasks for children

Tasks for training the difference of paired consonants can be compiled for each pair according to the following principle (using the example of the D/T pair):

Tasks for the difference between a pair of consonants Г/К