At home and on the street, we can hear many sounds: the steps of a person, the ticking of a clock, the sound of rain, birdsong, the hoot of a car. However, the sounds of human speech stand apart and differ from others, because they can be used to form words. It is known that all sounds of the Russian language are divided into two groups: consonants and vowels. With the formation of vowels for air, there is no obstruction in the oral cavity. But in the case of the pronunciation of consonants in the oral cavity there is a barrier. So, what can be consonants, what groups are they divided into, what does the expression “paired consonants” mean?
Deaf and voiced consonants
The division into these groups is as follows: voiced consonants are pronounced using noise and voice, but deaf people consist of one noise. The first and second can form pairs by deafness / voicing. Relative pairing is represented by 12 rows. For example: "d" - "t", "g" - "k", "s" - "s" and others. Such sounds are paired consonants. But not all consonants can be paired. The voiced "n", "m", "l", "y", "p", and also the deaf "c", "x", "u", "h" do not form them. On the letter, sounds are indicated by the corresponding letters. It is important to be careful. Paired and unpaired consonants at the end of a word or in the middle before a consonant can sound the same, but can be indicated by different letters. To check their spelling, it is necessary to find a word with the same root, so that after the consonant to be checked, there is a vowel, and the sound leaves no doubt in the spelling. For instance:
gr b - gr b s, gr pp - gr pp ozny;
rót - rótová (cavity), ród - ródovaya (castle).
Consonants soft and hard
Depending on the position of the language when pronouncing sounds, all consonants are divided into hard and soft. These are different phonemes. Paired consonants and unpaired are distinguished. Examples of pairs: "in" - "in ," , "k" - "k ," , "p" - "p ," and others. The icon ( , ) indicates the softness of sound during transcription. The soft “u”, “h”, “th” pairs, and also always the solid “w”, “w”, and “c” do not form pairs. Of course, it is very important to distinguish between paired consonants, hard and soft. Sometimes they even distinguish words. For instance:
m yo - m ol, me l - mele.
In “mel” and “small” the highlighted consonants are soft, and in the words “mol” and “small ” - solid. Thanks to this special pronunciation, words are not confused.
When writing words, the softness of consonants can be indicated in the following ways:
- With the help of "b". For example: skates, moose, hit.
- Using the letters "and", "I", "e", "e", "y". These are the cases: the wheel, tossed, the ball.
It is important to remember that in the middle of the word before the consonant, softness is not indicated by a soft sign in the following combinations: "st", "schn", "nt", "rsc", "chn", "chk", "nsh", "low." Pay attention to the words: end , competitor, bridges . In the selected combinations, the first consonant is heard softly, but is written without a soft sign.
The letters "I", "e", "e", "y" can represent the vowel sounds "a", "e", "o", "y" + the softness of the consonant in front of them. In other cases (at the beginning of a word, after a vowel, after "b", "b") they mean two sounds. And before the sound "and" consonants will always be pronounced softly.
So, one could notice that the creation of pairs is a feature very characteristic of the system of consonant sounds of the Russian language. Paired consonants are combined into groups and simultaneously opposed to each other. Often they help distinguish words.