Pronunciation of vowel sounds and their combinations. Pronunciation of vowels and consonants

Lecture material

subject Russian language

Topic “Orthoepic norm”

Soldatova E.N.

Lebedyan, 201_

Orthoepic norms - these are the rules for the sound design of words, parts of words, sentences, i.e. the rules for pronunciating sounds, placing stress, and using intonation.

Among the orthoepic norms the following stand out:

pronunciation standards(pronunciation standards) - rules for pronunciation of sounds(scam, and not scam, boo[te]rbrod, and not sandwich);

accent norms (accentological norms) - rules for placing stress(alphabet, and not alpha "vit, dosu"g, A not up to "sug);

norms for using intonation(intonation norms) - rules of intonation, speech.

Studies orthoepic norms of oral speechorthoepy(Greek orthos - correct and epos - speech), the subject of research of which is the patterns of literary pronunciation. A branch of linguistics called phonetics is closely related to orthoepy.Phonetics(Greek phonetike from phone - sound) studies the sound means of language.

Maintaining uniformity in the pronunciation of sounds and stress placement is important. Spelling errors always interfere with the perception of the content of speech: the listener’s attention is distracted by various incorrect pronunciations, and the statement is not perceived in its entirety and with sufficient attention. Pronunciation that corresponds to orthoepic standards facilitates and speeds up the communication process. The standard pronunciation of words is recorded in spelling dictionaries.

Standard pronunciation of words, normative stress and intonation of speech are regulated by certain rules that must be adhered to in order not to go beyond the generally accepted, and therefore generally understandable, Russian literary language.

Pronunciation standards vowel sounds

The basic law of orthoepy in the field of pronunciation of vowel sounds of the Russian language islaw of reduction (weakened articulation) of all unstressed vowels.

In Russian speech, only stressed vowels are pronounced in full accordance with the phonetic norm. All unstressed vowels are pronounced with weakened articulation, less clearly and for a long time, and sometimes they are even replaced by other vowels, also reduced. Thus, the vowels A and O at the beginning of a word without stress and in the first pre-stressed syllable are pronounced as [a]:ravine- [a] enemy, autonomy - [a]vt[a]nomia, milk - Mol[a]ko.

In the remaining unstressed syllables (i.e., in all unstressed syllables except the first pre-stressed one), in place of the letters O and A after hard consonants, a very short (reduced) unclear sound is pronounced, which in different positions varies from a pronunciation close to [s], to a pronunciation close to [a]. Conventionally, this sound is designated as [ъ]. For example: head - g[a]lova, watchman - store [b]zh.

Akanye (i.e., the non-distinction in unstressed syllables of the sounds conveyed by the letters O and A) is a striking distinctive feature of Russian literary pronunciation. Pronunciation different from the literary one is found in territorial dialects (dialects). Thus, in Northern Russian dialects it is possible to use the sound [o] in unstressed syllables (in this case, the pronunciation coincides with the spelling of the letter O). This pronunciation is called okanye.

Difficult cases vowel pronunciation sounds

Pronunciation [o] without qualitative reduction

In the modern Russian literary language, cases are possible when, in place of the unstressed vowel O, it is pronounced not [a], but [o]. This applies to the pronunciation of some foreign words.

Borrowed words, as a rule, obey the orthoepic norms of the modern Russian literary language and only in some cases differ in pronunciation features. One of these features is the preservation of the sound [o] in unstressed syllables in pronunciation.

In the pre-shock position the sound[O] is preserved, for example, in words such asf[o]ye, p[o]et, [o]asis, d[o]e, and in foreign proper names:F[o]ber, Sh[o]pen. The same pronunciation [o] can also be observed in stressed syllables:kaka[O], radi[o], three[o]. However, most of the borrowed vocabulary, which is words firmly adopted by the Russian literary language, is subject to general pronunciation rules[O] and [a] in unstressed syllables:r[a]man(novel), b[a]cal(glass), suit(costume), r[a]yal(piano), office(cabinet), [a]rator(speaker), etc.

Pronunciation of sounds in place of the letters E and Z in pre-stressed syllables

The letters E and I in a pre-stressed syllable indicate a sound intermediate between[e] and [and] . Conventionally, this sound is indicated by the sign [and e]: nickel - p[ And uh ]okay, feather - p[ And uh ]ro.

Choosing a stressed vowel in place of the letters E and E after soft consonants

The pronunciation of the vowel sounds [e] and [o], indicated by the letters E and E after soft consonants, sometimes causes difficulty, since usually in print and in writing the letter E is depicted without dots. The pronunciation of a stressed vowel after soft consonants in place of the letters E and E has to be memorized. Remember the pronunciation of the following words:

E["e] Yo["o]

SCAM maneuvers

being newborn

guardianship sharp

sedentary solvent

Pronunciation of consonants sounds

Basic laws of consonant pronunciation

The basic laws of pronunciation of consonants are deafening and assimilation.

In Russian speech, there is a mandatory deafening of voiced consonants at the end of a word (for example:bread - bread[n], garden- sa[t], dividend - dividend[t]). This deafening is one of the characteristic features of Russian literary speech.

In combinations of voiced and voiceless consonants or voiceless and voiced, the first of them is likened to the second, i.e. Either the first sound is deafened (for example:cork - pro[p]ka, leg - but[sh]ka), or its voicing (for example:change - [h]dacha, ruin - [z] destroy). Before the consonants [l], [m], [n], [p] and [v] there is no assimilation. Words are pronounced as they are written:sve[tl] O, [sw] dig.

Pronunciation of the sound in place of the letter G

In place of the letter G, different sounds can be pronounced: [k], [g], [y], [x] or [v]. The choice of sound depends on its position in the word and the influence of neighboring sounds.

[To] pronounced at the end of a word, for example:lay down - le[k], threshold - poro[k], meadow - onion]

[G] A voiced plosive consonant is pronounced in front of vowels and voiced consonants, for example:But[G] A , for[G] cash,[G] valt

[X] pronounced in combinations of GC and GC, for example:soft - me[hk] O , easier - le[hh] e, and in the word God - Bo[X]

Letter G

[γ] The fricative back-lingual consonant is part of dialect speech and is characteristic of southern Russian dialects. In a literary language, it is permissible in a few words of Old Slavonic origin:God- bo[γ]a, God - [γ] God bless - bla[γ]o - and derivatives from them

[V] pronounced in endings-wow, -him(For example: red - red[in, first - first[in]oh, he has - have not[V] O), and also in the word Today - se[V] alone.

Pronunciation of combinations CHN and CHT

There are fluctuations in the pronunciation of words with the combination of CNs.

CHN is pronounced [chn] in most words of the Russian language. This especially applies to words of book origin.(greedy, careless) as well as to words that appeared in the recent past(camouflage, landing).

CHN is pronounced [shn] in the following words:of course, boring, scrambled eggs, on purpose, birdhouse, trifling, laundry, mustard plaster and some others, as well as in female patronymics on-ichna (Lukinichna, Fominichna).

Some words with the combination CN in the modern Russian literary language have pronunciation options:bakery And bul[sh]aya(obsolete), kopeck And kopeck(obsolete).

The combination CHT in modern Russian is pronounced like [sht] in the wordWhat and its derivatives(nothing, something, to, anything and similar), except for the wordsomething [Thu]. In all other cases, the spelling CHT is always pronounced as [cht]:dream, mail, insignificant.

Pronunciation of foreign words with the letter E after a consonant

In most borrowed words, in accordance with the rules of pronunciation, the consonants before E are softened:ka[T"] no , pa[T"] ephon,[With"] eria,[p"] ektor.

The back lingual consonants G, K, are always softened before E.X: pa[To"] no,[G"] Duke, s[X"] ema. The sound [l] is also usually pronounced softly in this position:[l"] eat, mo[l"] ekula, ba[l"] no etc.

However, in a number of words of foreign origin, the firmness of the consonants before E is preserved: o[t]el,co[d] ex, biz[n] eu,[T] eats, boo[T] erbrod, svi[T] er etc.

In some words of foreign origin, the consonant before the letter E can be pronounced in two ways. Thus, a variant pronunciation should be considered the pronunciation of soft and hard consonants in wordscongress - Kong[p] ess And Kong[p"] ess, consensus - con[With] ensus And con[With"] ensus. There are also two pronunciation options for wordsgangster, depression, management, manager, pace, dean, dean's office, pool, crater, terror, terrorist. In many such cases, the hard pronunciation becomes obsolete and the soft pronunciation of the consonant is preferable: [t"]emp,[d"] ekan etc.

In some cases, a violation of spelling norms occurs as a result of inserting an extra vowel or consonant sound into a word.

Pay attention to the correct pronunciation and spelling of the following words:

Unprecedented n[b]yuan

The future one will slip

Derma[n]tin on [d]slap

Wild[o]image precedent[n]dent

Thirsty extreme

Compromise legal[t]consultation

Competitive[n]capable in[e]rebrenik

establish[n]establishment

Remember standard pronunciation of these words.

Consonant Consonant

pronounced softly: pronounced firmly

academy [de] antithesis [te]

devaluation [de] genesis [ne]

decade [de] dispensary [se]

demon [de] interview [te]

cream [re] cottage [te]

coffee [fe] lottery [te]

museum [ze] mayonnaise [ne]

Odessa [de] hotel [te]

patent [te] pathetic [te]

pioneer [not] service [se]

press [re] thesis [te]

press conference [re] timbre [te]

press secretary [re] trend [te, de]

session [se] dash [re]

topic [te] phonetics [ne]

tenor [te] highway [se]

term [te] eczema [ze]

overcoat [not] external [te]

jurisprudence [de] esthete [te]

Please pay attention to the hardness or softness of the consonant before the vowel indicated by the letter E.

adequate

[te]

antithesis

[de], [te]

detective

[pe]

chapel

[le]

collegium

[re]

cream

[te]

criterion

[te]

computer

[those]

patent

[Not]

overcoat

Stress norms

Among orthoepic norms, a special place is occupied by norms related to the correct placement of stress in words.

Accent - this is the selection of one of the syllables in a word by strengthening the voice. Mastering correct stress is associated with a number of difficulties, explained by its peculiarities in the Russian language.

The first feature of Russian stress is that the stress in Russian words is not attached to a specific syllable in the word (as, for example, in other languages: in French it falls on the last syllable of the word, in Polish - on the penultimate syllable, in Czech and Hungarian - to the first one). This stress is calledfree, it can be on any syllable of the word: the first(will, city, sharp), second (freedom, nature, write, beautiful), third (young, milk, watchmaker) etc.

The second feature of the Russian accent is itsmobility, the ability to change its place depending on the form of the word. For example, verbunderstand in the indefinite form the stress is on the second syllable; in the masculine past tense it moves to the first syllable -Understood, and in the feminine gender - to the last -Understood". There are many such words with shifting stress in the Russian language. Typically, stress transfer is associated with the use of a certain grammatical form.

Something to remember words with fixed stress:

hospital - they were hospitalized; soil - soils; quart"l - quart"ly; matchmaker - matchmaker.

The third feature of the Russian accent is itsvariability over time. In the works of Krylov, Griboyedov, Pushkin, Lermontov you will find many words with a completely different emphasis than now. Compare:

The bright light of the day went out;

The evening fog fell on the blue sea (A. Pushkin).

We old people don't dance anymore,

Music's thunder doesn't call us (A. Pushkin).

Words ghost, symbol, autograph, bus, agent, agony, epigraph, plowing, disarm, shop, case and many others inXIXcentury had a different emphasis.

The process of changing stress continues in our time. As a result of this process, some words have two stress options. Word variants that differ in stress placement can be equal or unequal.

Equal options equally correct and normative:loop - loop", ba" rust - barge, tvo "horn - cottage cheese "g, te" butterflies - meatballs. There are few such equal options in modern Russian.

Unequal options There are two types. In the first case, one option is recognized as the main, preferable one, and the second is assessed as additional, less desirable, but still within the bounds of the literary language. These acceptable options are used colloquially or are obsolete. For example:kulina "riya"- additional cookery"I(colloquial), give "l- additional o"tdal(colloquial); Ukrainian- additional Ukrainian(obsolete), industry- additional industry(obsolete), gathered- additional got ready"(obsolete).

It should be borne in mind that words with a colloquial accent are unacceptable in official speech and formal communication situations. Compare, for example, optionsagreements, agreements (lit., used in various communication situations) andbefore "agreement, agreement" (colloquial, unacceptable in official speech).

The second type of unequal options concerns cases when one option is literary, standardized, and the second is outside the literary norm. Non-literary (irregular) accents are colloquial and slang variants. For example:document - document(simple) quarter - quarter(simple) begin - begin(simple).

The category of non-literary includes variants in which a specific emphasis is traditionally accepted only in some narrow professional environment. In any other situation, such options are perceived as a mistake. For example:spark - spark"(from engineers) epilepsy - epilepsy(from doctors) compass - compass(for sailors) chassis" - chassis(for pilots).

Stress in the Russian language in some cases has a semantic-distinguishing function. Wed:armor - securing someone. for someone, as well as a document for such assignment (reservation for a train ticket);armor" - durable protective shell (tank armor) orlock - palace and fortress of the feudal lord (medieval castle);lock - a device for locking something. key (door lock). Wed. Also:language - relating to language as a means of human communication and human speech activity;linguistic - relating to a physical organ of a person or animal or to a specific food.

Questions for discussing theoretical material

What is called the norm of literary language?

List the types of norms of the Russian literary language. What rules does each type of norm govern?

What is included in the concept of “orthoepic norms”? What types of spelling norms exist?

What are the basic laws of pronunciation of vowel sounds?

What are the difficulties in pronouncing vowel sounds?

What are the basic laws of pronunciation of consonants?

What causes difficulties in pronouncing consonants?

What dialectal features of the pronunciation of vowels and consonants do not correspond to literary norms?

What is an accent?

10. What are the features of Russian accent?

11.What is the role of stress in a word?

12.What are the possible variants of words that differ in stress placement?

13.What are equal and unequal stress options? What stress options are outside the literary norm?

PHONETICS. Classification of vowels and consonants

Speech sounds are divided into vowels and consonants. Vowels are made up of voice. When they are formed, air passes freely through the vocal tract without encountering obstacles. There are 6 vowel sounds in the Russian language. These are a, o, y, and, uh, s.

A vowel found in a stressed syllable is called stressed, and a vowel in an unstressed syllable is called unstressed.

The strong position (the sound is clearly distinguished) for vowel sounds is the position under stress, the weak position (the sound is not distinguished) is unstressed.

Consonants consisting of noise and voice are called voiced; consonants consisting only of noise are called voiceless. Most voiced and voiceless consonants form pairs: b-p, b′-p′, d-t, d′-t′, v-f, v′-f′, g-k, g′-k′, zh- w, z-s, z′-s′ (11 pairs in total). Sonorant pairs r, l, m, n, r′, l′, m′, n′, y’, voiceless x, x′, ch’, shch’, c do not have pairs.

Consonant sounds are divided into soft and hard. Most form pairs: b-b′, c-c′, g-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′ (15 pairs in total).

They do not have a pair and are always solid w, w, c; always soft - h, sch, th.

ORTHOEPY. Pronunciation of sounds and their combinations in Russian

Pronunciation of vowel sounds

The pronunciation of vowels in Russian is based on the phonetic law of vowel reduction. Due to reduction, unstressed vowels change qualitatively. The unstressed vowels a, o, e are subject to qualitative reduction. So, in place of the letters a, o in the FIRST pre-stressed syllable, [Λ] is pronounced: water [water"], grass [trΛva"]. In place of the letters i, e, e in the FIRST pre-stressed syllable it is pronounced after hard consonants [s]: price ts[s]na′, after soft-[i]: I carry n[ and ]su′, meat m[ and ]sno′ y. In other unstressed syllables, b is pronounced after hard consonants, and b is pronounced after soft consonants.

In place of the letter I, after the unpaired hard hissing Zh, Sh and C, the sound Y is pronounced.

In the place of the letter I at the beginning of a word, when the pronunciation of this word merges with the previous one, which ends in a hard consonant, as well as in the place of the union I, under certain conditions, the vowel [s] is pronounced.

The transition [and] to [s] occurs: 1) at the junction of a consonant prefix and a root beginning with the sound [and] (a second prefix with an initial [and] is also possible): sub-[s]kat, notorious ; 2) when pronouncing two independent words connected by the conjunction I, not delimited by a pause, if the first word ends and the second begins with a solid consonant: table and house [table-y-dom], as well as in phrases if the first word ends with a solid consonant, and the second begins with [and]: son Ivan [son-yvan], but daughter Ivan before [h"i]van; 3) after prepositions, which are usually included in the following word: to Ivan [k -yvanu], from the game [iz-game]; 4) at the junction of parts of compound words: Politizdat poli[you]zdat.

The main feature of Russian literary pronunciation in the area of ​​vowels is the different sound of vowel sounds in stressed and unstressed syllables: in unstressed syllables, vowels are subject to reduction - a weakening of the articulation of the sound and a change in its sound:

• quantitative reduction (decrease in longitude and sound intensity when

maintaining the characteristic timbre): [and, ы, у],

• qualitative reduction (change in sound quality, its timbre): [a, o, e].

Vowels in the first pre-stressed syllable undergo less reduction, and more in all other syllables:

1. In place of the sounds o and a after hard consonants, including hissing w, sh, it is pronounced ]lash.L]kno, sh[L]da, [L]: in with the overtone [e] - [ee]: pozh [ye]ley, flat [ye]de`y, twenty [ye]ti;

b) The unstressed sound [o] is pronounced in conjunctions but and that, and is also allowed in some foreign words: b[o]mond, b[o]a.

2. After the hard hissing w, w, c, in place of e the sound [s] is pronounced with the overtone [e] - [ie]: zh[ye]rdey, sh[ye]steenteen, pots[ye]luy.

3. After soft consonants in place of the letters e, ya, as well as after soft hissing ch and sch in place of a, a weakened sound [i] is pronounced with the overtone [e] - [ie]: r[ie]ka, p[ie]tak , h[ie]ruet, sh[ie]ka.

4. In place of e, i at the beginning of the word the sound [ie] is pronounced in combination with the preceding [th]: [ie]lovy, [ie]ytso.

5. At the absolute beginning of the word, in place of the letters a, o, a weakened sound is pronounced [a] - ]dormitory.L]bus, [L]kno, L]: and [s], a very short sound, designated conventionally [ъ] (er ): p[b]lie, they say[b]d[b]est.

7. After soft consonants in unstressed syllables, except for the 1st pre-stressed syllable, in place of a/ya and e, a reduced short sound, average in sound between [i] and [e], is pronounced, denoted [b] (er): p[ b]car, choose [b]ru, h[b]owl.

8. In a number of borrowed words, in unstressed position it is pronounced

• sound [ uh] after vowels and at the beginning of a word: duelist, poetic, evolution, exotic, economy, Evenk, screen, expansion, experiment, ecstasy, element, embargo, energy, enthusiasm, encyclopedia, epigraph, episode, era, floor, effect etc.;
• sound [o] in book speech: adazi[o], b[o]a, b[o]mond, kaka[o], radio[o].

Note. Optional pronunciation of unstressed [ O] in the words: sonnet, poet, veto, credo, foyer etc., as well as in foreign names: Voltaire, Flaubert, Zola, Chopin.

9. Vowel And at the beginning of the root after a prefix or preposition to a hard consonant is pronounced like the sound [ s]: background, with [s]engineer.

10. You should remember a number of words pronounced

• with sound [ uh] in place of the letter e: scam, spineless, bluff, being, icy conditions, firebrand, grenadier, stout, hagiography, foreign, pronominal, non-existence, perplexed, worthless, simultaneity, guardianship, settled life, glider, successor, modern, yoke, barley etc.;
• with the sound [o] (written with the letter e): hopeless, whitish, faded, engraver, mockery, priest, mercenary, convicted, brought in, transferred, sturgeon, edge, fable, faded, hooked, laid down, brought, brought, brought, scrupulous, belt, smart, tesh, fur, click, etc.

Note. Acceptable pronunciation options for words depending on their meaning: perfect (work) - perfect (action), maneuver - maneuver, bile - bile etc.

Assignments for practical work

Orthoepic norms of the Russian language- this is a whole set of rules that regulate pronunciation. It is thanks to orthoepic norms that a language acquires beauty, sonority and melody. Orthoepy (Greek orthos - correct, epos - speech) is not only a section of language that regulates and classifies everything spelling standards, these are also the very norms of the language that have developed over many centuries.

The Russian language that we first heard in childhood became so relatively recently, since modern language norms formed by the middle of the 17th century, and they were based on the norms of the Moscow urban colloquial language. Since that time, despite the constant development of the Russian language, orthoepic norms have undergone relatively minor changes.

Orthoepy is a section that is required to study, as to know spelling standards It is necessary not only for future poets and writers - it is necessary in everyday life. Man admitting spelling errors, can cause misunderstanding of others, or, worse, indignation and irritation. On the other hand, correct pronunciation indicates the level of education of the speaker. So, let's look at the basic rules of ideal literary pronunciation.

Pronunciation of vowel sounds.

In the Russian language, only those vowels that are located are pronounced clearly and distinctly under stress. The pronunciation of other sounds in a word is regulated law of reduction (lat.reduce - to reduce). This law explains the less clear and distinct pronunciation of unstressed vowels in a word. Let us consider the manifestation of the law of reduction.

Sounds [O] And [A] pronounced like [A] in case they are at the beginning of the word, but in an unstressed position: d[a]horns, [a]laziness, [a]gon. In other cases, when the letter "O" is in an unstressed position and follows a hard consonant, it is read as a short, unclear reduced sound, something between [s] And [A](depending on position): head, side, side, fiber. It's the sound [ъ] in transcription this reduced sound is conventionally designated. If there is a soft consonant at the beginning of a word , then the letters following it "A" , "e" and "i" reads like something between [e] And [And](the lips stretch as if to pronounce [And], but pronounced [e]): p[i e ]ro - feather, s[i e ]ro - grey, [i e ]zyk - tongue.

After a solid consonant, preposition, or in a continuous phrase, the letter "And" pronounced with a sound [s]: laughter[s]tears - laughter and tears, pedagogical institute - pedagogical institute, to [s]van - to Ivan. In the case of the phrase “laughter and tears” "And" can also be pronounced like [And], if the phrase is not pronounced together, but an intonation pause is made at the place of the conjunction.

Orthoepic norms for the pronunciation of consonants.

When pronouncing consonants, other laws apply as orthoepic norms: likening And stun. So, if a voiced consonant is at the end of a word or before a voiceless one , then he is stunned: friend[k] - friend, hand[f] - sleeve, smo[x] - smog. As you can already understand, as a result of stunning [G] pronounced like [To], [b] How [n], [V] How [f], [h] How [With]. In combinations “gk” and “gch” [g] is read as [X]: le[hk]o, le[hh]e. If the situation is radically opposite, that is, there is a voiceless consonant in front of a voiced consonant, then it, on the contrary, becomes similar to the corresponding voiced vowel: about[z"]ba, [give.

Separately, it is necessary to say about the combination "chn". This combination in Old Moscow pronunciation always sounded like [shn]. Today, in most cases it is pronounced the same as [chn], but there are a few exceptions:

1. In female patronymics: Lukini[sh]a, Kuzmini[sh]a.
2. In single words: starling[shn]ik, sku[shn]o, eggs[shn]itsa etc.

Consonant pronunciation [h] in the words “what” and “something” is usually considered a sign of some dialect, because normally "h" is stunned and replaced by [w]. Also changing "G" on [V] in the words “whom”, “what”, “some”, etc. To the sound [ cc] the ending of the verbs “-tsya” and “-tsya” changes: dare[ts]a, return[tss]a.

Words of foreign origin.

Orthoepic norms of literary language if the word is of foreign origin, for the most part they remain the same as in the case of native Russian words. But there are still some features of the pronunciation of borrowed words:

• No sound reduction [O]: model, [o]asis.
• Despite the softening of most consonants before "e", in some words the softening does not occur: ant[e]nna, genetic[e]tika.
• In some words of foreign origin, both options are allowed - both softening the consonant and no softening: therapist, terror, claim, etc..

Accent in Russian is not static and can change due to changes in the form of the word, case and much more. In order to find out the correct pronunciation of a particular word, as well as find out which syllable will be correctly emphasized, you can look at Russian spelling dictionary. Such dictionaries can become real helpers for those who want to learn to speak correctly and beautifully.

There are only six vowel sounds in the Russian language: [A, O, U, Y, I, E].
It must be remembered that vowels are pronounced clearly and purely only under stress; in all other cases they change (reduction occurs). They become shorter and less articulated, so it is very difficult to distinguish them. This process is absolutely natural for residents of central Russia and is not wrong. A person who clearly pronounces all vowels, regardless of their position in the word, will look illiterate.

Note. In Russia, printing the letter E is mandatory only in textbooks on the Russian language and books for children; in other printed publications and documents, E may be printed instead. In order not to make mistakes in the pronunciation of words, see the dictionary attached to this section.

At the beginning of a word, after a soft sign and after vowels, these letters represent two sounds [YE, YO, YU, YA], respectively.

Note. In some words, the pronunciation of E may have a double norm: this letter can be pronounced as ['E, YE], or maybe as [E]. More often this concerns foreign words: pro[e]kt, d[e]mping, design[’e]r and design[e]r, etc. If in doubt, it is better to check the dictionary.

2. Before the vowel sound [I], all consonants, except Ш, Ц, Ж, are pronounced softly.

3. After the consonants Zh, Ts, Sh, the letters E, E, Yu, I stand for [E, O, U, Y], respectively.

Note. There are words in which the letters Y, I soften the consonants Zh, Ts, Sh. This is due to the history of words, as a rule, these are foreign proper names [Zh'u]venal, [Zh'u]l, [Ts'u]rikh , [Ts'ya]vlovsky, [Sh'a]uliai, as well as the jury, brochure, parachute. The pronunciation and spelling of such words must be memorized.

4. The combination of vowels in the flow of speech OA, OO, AO, AA are pronounced as long [A] = [AA]