Pronunciation Rules for Russian: A Systematic Approach for Converting Russian Spelling to Sound

Table of Contents

Contents Tables ............................................................................................................. 4 Rule-Blocks ................................................................................................... 5 Abbreviations ............................................................................................... 6 1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 7 1.0. Background ................................................................................... 7 1.1. To the Student .............................................................................. 8 1.2. Predicting the Pronunciation from the Spelling ....................... 9 1.3. “Contemporary Standard Russian” ......................................... 10 1.4. Some Features of This Textbook ............................................. 11 1.5. General Instructions for Using This Book .............................. 12 2. From Standard Orthography to Regularized Orthography ............. 13 2.0. The Standard Orthography of Russian ................................... 13 2.1. A Preliminary Classification of the Russian Letters .............. 14 2.1.1. The Consonant Letters (C) .............................................. 15 2.1.1.1. The Paired Consonant Letters (Cp) ............................ 15 2.1.1.2. The Unpaired “Hard” Consonant Letters (H) .......... 16 2.1.1.3. The Unpaired “Soft” Consonant Letters (S) ............. 16 2.1.2. The Vowel Letters ............................................................ 16 2.1.2.1. The “Basic” Vowel Letters (V) .................................... 16 2.1.2.2. The “Soft” Vowel Letters ............................................. 16 2.1.2.3. The Redundant Vowel Letters .................................... 17 2.1.3. The Soft and Hard Signs ................................................. 17 2.2. Inconsistencies in the Russian Standard Orthography .......... 17 2.3. Interpretation Rules .................................................................. 19 2.3.1. Interpretation Rules for the Redundant Vowel Letters................................................................................. 19 2.3.2. Interpretation Rules for the Hard and Soft Signs ....... 22 2.4. Characteristics of the Regularized Orthography ................... 23 2.5. Some General Conventions on Rule Interpretation ............. 26 2 CONTENTS 3. From Regularized Orthography to Phoneticized Orthography ....... 31 3.0. Introduction ................................................................................ 31 3.1. A Second Classification of the Russian Letters ...................... 31 3.2. Syntactic Units and Boundaries ................................................ 33 3.3. Consonant Deletions .................................................................. 39 3.4. Idiosyncratic Rules ..................................................................... 42 3.5. Voicing Assimilation .................................................................. 43 3.5.1. Specification of  .............................................................. 43 3.5.2. Devoicing Rules ............................................................... 45 3.5.3. Voicing Rule ..................................................................... 47 3.5.4. Despecification of  ......................................................... 48 3.6. Sequence Adjustment Rules .................................................... 49 3.6.1. Reflexives and the String с ........................................... 49 3.6.2. “Hushing” Assimilations ............................................... 51 3.6.3. The Letter  ....................................................................... 52 3.7. A Third Classification of the Russian Letters ......................... 53 3.8. Consonant Plus “Soft” Vowel Sequences ................................ 55 3.8.1. Disposition of “Soft” Vowel Letters .............................. 55 3.8.2. Palatalization before  and  .......................................... 57 3.9. Degemination .............................................................................. 58 3.10. Palatalization Assimilation ....................................................... 62 3.10.1. General Palatalization Rules and Extensions ............. 63 3.11. Vowel Reduction ........................................................................ 65 3.11.1. Specification of Vowel-Strengths ............................... 67 3.11.2. Reduction of o ............................................................... 71 3.11.3. Reduction of  and after Hard Unpaired Consonants .................................................................... 72 3.11.4. Vowel Reduction after “Soft” Consonants ............... 74 3.12. Syncope, Epenthesis and Lenition of  .................................... 79 3.13. Ad hoc formulae: Rule-block 3S ............................................... 81 4. From Phoneticized Orthography to Phonetic Transcription ........... 83 4.0. Introduction ................................................................................. 83 4.1. Phonetic Interpretation Rules for Vowel-Letters ................... 84 4.2. Phonetic Interpretation Rules for Digraphs ............................ 86 4.3. Phonetic Interpretation Rules for Single Consonants and ¸ 87 4.4. Deletion Rules for Superfluous Symbols ................................ 90 4.5. Further Phonetic Refinements ................................................. 90 4.6. Contrastive Table of Phonetic Symbols ................................... 92 CONTENTS 3 5. Extensions and Applications ................................................................ 95 5.0. Introduction ................................................................................ 95 5.1. Extension of Rules to Less Common Vocabulary .................. 95 5.1.1. Consonant Deletions (cf. 3B) .......................................... 96 5.1.2. “Hushing” Assimilations (cf. 3H) ................................. 97 5.1.3. Disposition of “Soft” Vowel Letters (cf. 3J, 3K) .......... 98 5.1.4. Degemination (cf. 3L) ...................................................... 99 5.1.5. Palatalization Assimilation (cf. 3M) .............................. 90 5.1.6. “Ad Hoc” Formulae: Rule-Block 5S .............................. 90 5.2. Stylistic Variations ................................................................... 101 5.2.1. Consonant Deletions (cf. 3B) ........................................ 102 5.2.2. The Idiosyncratic Rule г Æ (cf. 3C2) ........................ 103 5.2.3. Voicing Assimilation (cf. 3E) ........................................ 103 5.2.4. Reflexives (cf. 3G) .......................................................... 103 5.2.5. The Cluster (cf. 3M1) .............................................. 104 5.2.6. The Derivation and Pronunciation of (cf. 3H3) .... 104 5.2.7. The Change  Æ  (cf. 3H4) ........................................ 105 5.2.8. Initial  (cf. 3I) .............................................................. 105 5.2.9. Disposition of  after a Boundary (cf. 3J1) ................. 105 5.2.10. Degemination (cf. 3L) .................................................. 106 5.2.11. Palatalization Assimilation (cf. 3M) .......................... 106 5.2.12. Vowel-Reduction (cf. 3N, 3O, 3P, 3Q) ...................... 107 5.2.13. Other Stylistic Variations ............................................ 108 5.3. Remarks on Loanwords ......................................................... 109 5.3.1. Introduction ................................................................... 109 5.3.2. What Is a Loanword? .................................................... 111 5.3.3. Which Rules Apply? ..................................................... 111 5.4. Remarks on “Spelling Pronunciation” .................................. 114 Lexicon of Specified Words .................................................................... 117 Exercises .................................................................................................... 121 Bibliography .............................................................................................. 125 Synopsis of Rules (Chapters 2 and 3) .................................................... 127 ...