The phonetic system of the Russian language cannot be called easy. As in any other language, in Russian there are vowels and consonants. But to determine which one is intuitively not always possible: for example, which one conveys the sound "th" - consonant or vowel? We will deal with this in detail below.
Letters and sounds
When children begin to learn letters and sounds in grade 1, they sometimes mix these concepts. However, letter and sound are completely different phonetic terms. A letter is called a graphic icon. And sound is what we hear and pronounce. Each letter is assigned certain sounds, with which they correspond in most cases, but there is no direct similarity between them.
Transcription is a way of transmitting the sounds that we hear in writing. With its help, it is easy to trace the difference between a letter and a sound. For example, there are letters for which no sounds are fixed: a hard sign (b) and a soft sign (b). Their function is to transmit the hardness or softness of the sound:
- mole - [mole] or mole - [mole '] .
In addition, there are letters that can convey different sounds: we write “MOLOKO”, but pronounce [smallAko]. Also, the same letter can transmit several sounds:
In view of this, it is not entirely correct to talk about consonants and vowels and sounds.
What are the sounds
The most extensive classification of sounds in the Russian language, which is based on the mechanism of their formation by voice, is the division into consonants and vowels. This is the first thing a school may need in a lesson. Sounds and letters, as we have already found out, are different phenomena. Therefore, it must be remembered that it is wrong to say "consonants and vowels." Sound is what may have this characteristic.
Any sound is formed as a result of the speech apparatus. However, this can happen in different ways. So, vowels are formed primarily by vocal cords. They are “musical” and have a tone. Consonant sounds are also formed with the participation of teeth and tongue, which in different positions form obstacles of various kinds in quality of air flow, as a result of which consonants are characterized by the presence of noise.
To understand whether a sound is a vowel or a consonant, you can conduct a simple test: if the sound can be longly sung using only the voice, then it is a vowel. If this does not work, then the sound is consonant.
There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet. For simplicity of designation, they are conditionally divided into vowels and consonants (21 consonants, 10 vowels and 2 without a designation “b” and “b”), however, many phonetists consider this incorrect for the reasons stated above. There are 46 sounds in Russian. Among them are 37 consonants and 6 vowels.
Consonant sounds of the Russian language
Why is it that there are more consonant sounds in Russian than letters? Such an advantage is obtained, first of all, due to the fact that one letter can denote both soft sound and hard:
- B - [b], [b '] or B - [c], [c'] , etc.
Vowels of the Russian language
For those who have forgotten the school curriculum, it is no less surprising why there is such a difference between the number of vowels and letters. Here the reason is that some letters correspond immediately with two sounds. For example, the letter "" transmits two sounds at once and when transcribed by transcription will look like [y'o].
The history of the letter "th"
Now that we have studied in detail the specific features of the phonetics of the Russian language, we can directly proceed to the question of whether the sound “y” conveys - consonant or vowel.
This question can confuse even the person experienced in Russian. The fact is that the letter “" ”has a rather interesting history, and the characteristics of the sound [''] have changed over time even in linguistics.
So, the letter "th" appeared in the Russian alphabet only after spelling reform in 1918. In most cases, in the words where it is now, the letter “i”, now absent in the alphabet, was used.
Scientists have long struggled with determining whether a vowel or consonant sound [y ']. For a long time, in many dictionaries it has been defined as a vowel. The reason for this was his story. The fact is that the letter “i” could be used both in the words where we now write “and” (for example, in the word “world” instead of “and”), and in the words where we now write “i” (for example , in the word "major" instead of "y"). And at that stage in the development of phonetics, these sounds did not differentiate.
Still, is “th” a consonant or a vowel?
Since pre-revolutionary times, phonetic science has moved forward, and new criteria for classifying sounds have appeared. As described above, the peculiarity of the consonant sound is that it has noise in its sound, and the tongue and teeth are actively involved in its formation.
To understand which sound "th" - vowel or consonant - try pulling it. If you try to sing it, without trying to replace it with [and], you can make sure that nothing happens.
Thus, according to modern standards, [th] is a clearly consonant sound. It is also unpaired (it does not have hard and soft variations) and sonorous (a sonorous sound is such a sound that the voice participates in its formation, and when pronouncing it, you can feel vibration if you put your hand to your throat).
It may be confusing that some vowels during transcription can relate to two sounds at once, one of which [y ']. For example, "yo" [y'o], "yu" [y'u], "I" [y'ya]. This should not be confusing. Such letters are called iotated and convey two sounds at once - consonant and vowel. The letters "e", "e", "yu" and "i" almost always correspond to iotated sounds. Such sounds most often appear in the following positions: at the beginning of a word, after another vowel sound, after soft and hard characters. Examples of iotated letters in words:
- application [zay'afka];
- raccoon [y'enot];
- Christmas tree [y'olka];
- shelter [priy'ut];
- blizzard [v'y'uga] .
Finally, it is worth mentioning that the sound “and short” does not exist, since this is the name of the letter. The sound is called “th”, there is also another name - “iot”.