Sounds 41

The “Leningrad” approach proceeds from a number of heterogeneous considerations to argue that [È] is a phoneme distinct from [i]. One argument is the fact that most suffixes begin with ≤b≥ (rather than ≤s≥) and cause “bare” softening (palatalization) of preceding paired consonants (here termed consonant grade Ci: §2.5.2). This distribution, however, derives from the diachronic artifact that suffixes began with i, not y. The fact that [È] (orthographic ≤s≥) is used in initial position in rendering exotic Asian place names (MÈqcjy in Korea) suggests only that [È] is distinct from [i] in this one context (word initially), and then only in a specialized lexical subsystem of not wholly assimilated lexical items.7 Over and above these concrete observations, the basic instinct driving the Leningrad analysis is a concern with the psychological reality of phonetics: [È] is phonemic, ultimately, because it is psychophonetically distinct from [i].

A compromise with respect to this nagging question of the status of [i] vs. [È] could be effected by adopting what amounts to a more radical version of the spirit of the Leningrad approach. One might take the point of view that speakers of Russian manipulate whole CV and VC sequences as conventionalized phonetic units. Localizing palatalization (or its absence) in the consonant alone is an oversimplification. For example, with respect to palatalized labials in word-final position, the palatalization in the consonant cannot be maintained or lost without the preceding vowel being affected: if the labial consonant of gjpyfrj´vmntcm ‘be acquainted!’ is pronounced without palatalization, as it often is in an infor-

mal register, the preceding vowel is also affected, hence [om] instead of [o5m˛]. Or

⁄ ⁄

when velars palatalized before [È] in the history of Russian, the change in the consonant was correlated with a change in the vowel -- [kÈ] changed to [k˛i].

What speakers manipulate, then, is templates of CV and VC sequences. Fine details of phonetics have psychological reality. Among the templates are [C¸i] and [C oÈ] but not [C¸È] or [C oi], or [C¸a5 ]⁄and [C oa] but not [C¸a] or [C oa5 ]⁄.8 If one works directly with phonetic templates, the question of whether [È] is a distinct phoneme fades in importance.

2.2.3 Vowel duration

Russian does not have a phonemic distinction of quantity in vowels; there are no words distinguished purely by (for example) a long [a ] as opposed to a short [a*]. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, vowels vary in duration in different contexts.9 The most salient factor is position with respect to stress, but it will be useful to mention some other factors, summarized in [1].

7“known to very few native speakers of Russian” (Gordina [1989:21], who also notes that Sccsr-rekm was changed to Bccsr-rekm in the 1930s).

8 Padgett 2001 sees the distinctive quality of [Ci- ] in the velarization of the preceding consonant. 9 Shcherba 1912.

42 A Reference Grammar of Russian

[1]Duration of vowels

a [ƒ] > [ó] > [† u]⁄> [í] > [˝!] b VR ≥ VZ ≥ VS ≥ VD ≥ VT

c V# ≥ VCV ≥ VCR(V) ≥ VCC(V)

Stressed vowels differ in their intrinsic duration, in proportion to the degree of aperture (acoustically, F1) ([1](a)). The most open, [ƒ], is the longest (about 200 milliseconds under stress). [Ó] is slightly longer than [†] and [u]⁄(duration around 155 ms.); [í] is shorter yet (140 ms.) and [˝!] the shortest of all (120 ms.).10 Unstressed vowels are appreciably shorter.

The duration of vowels varies depending on the adjacent consonants, particularly the consonants that follow the vowel. L. V. Shcherba (1912:126ff.) was able to document the effect of a number of factors. Before single consonants in the first, stressed, syllable of disyllabic words, vowels are shortest before voiceless stops (gƒgf ‘father’), a little longer before voiced stops (hƒlf ‘glad’), longer still before voiceless fricatives (hƒcf ‘race’), and the longest before voiced fricatives (gen sg hƒpf ‘time’); each successive difference along this hierarchy was on the order of 10 ms. for [ƒ] in slow speech. The motivation for these differences may be that absence of voicing requires an energetic gesture of opening the glottis, and making a complete closure requires more energetic gestures than producing fricatives.11 As in [1](c), vowels were found to be shorter before clusters of obstruents (gƒcnf ‘paste’) than before single consonants (gƒlfk ‘he fell’); however, a cluster composed of obstruent plus sonorant (gen sg gƒhyz ‘fellow’) allows almost the same duration in preceding vowels as singleton obstruents. Vowels are longer when no consonant follows than when a consonant follows, and longer when no consonant precedes.

These constraints on duration ([1]), familiar from other languages, suggest the principle that consonants have negative valence: increasing complexity of consonant articulation removes duration from vowels.12

2.2.4 Unstressed vowels

Above all, the duration of vowels depends on stress. If one compares the vowel that appears after hard consonants for orthographic ≤f≥ and ≤j≥ to stressed [ƒ], the differences are striking. If stressed [ƒ] has a duration on the order of 200 ms., the [ ] that appears in the first pretonic syllable is only half that, while the [´] that appears in other unstressed positions is shorter yet, on the order of 80 ms. or less.13

10Matusevich 1976, who does not indicate what kind of syllables were used in the measurements.

11See de Jong 1991 on stops and fricatives, Kniazev 1989 on voicing.

12On variation in duration, see Bondarko, Verbitskaia, and Zinder 1960.

13Matusevich 1976:100--1.

Sounds 43

Because unstressed vowels are shorter than stressed vowels, there is less time for the tongue to reach the articulatory positions of stressed vowels. Thus a great proportion of the duration of unstressed vowels is spent in transition to adjacent consonants. Unstressed vowels do not reach the articulatory extremes of stressed vowels. They are neither as high nor as low, and neither as far front nor as far back as stressed vowels. Acoustically the centralization of unstressed vowels shows up as less extreme values for both F1 (reflecting vowel height) and F2 (reflecting frontness vs. backness).14 The set of unstressed vowels occupies a smaller portion of the vowel space than the set of stressed vowels. As an indirect consequence of the reduced size of the vowel space, unstressed vowels tend to merge. “Vowel reduction,” then, means a reduction in the duration of unstressed vowels, and as a consequence, a reduced vowel space, and ultimately a reduced number of distinctions made among unstressed vowels.15

Since vowels merge in unstressed position, it is something of a fiction to assert that a given unstressed vowel derives from [ƒ] or [o]⁄or [†]: once a vowel is unstressed, and has been for at least five hundred years, in what sense is it derived from [ƒ] or [†]?16 We rely on various kinds of indirect evidence such as etymology, orthography, and related word forms. The fiction, however, is unavoidable. In the following, stressed vowels and the unstressed vowels that derive from them historically are written in curly braces as a set of vowels, termed a s e r i e s . There are three basic positions: stressed, unstressed position after hard consonant, and unstressed after soft consonant. (Sometimes it is necessary to

add a fourth position, position after hard immutable consonant S [s z].) In

ˇo=

‹‹

this way, for example, the series of vowels that includes stressed [ƒ] would be {ƒ Co C¸ì} or, more simply, {ƒ ì}. As a shorthand for the whole, we can generally write simply {a} and refer to the set as the series {a}, meaning stressed [ƒ] with its variants and the unstressed vowels that are related to stressed [ƒ] in orthography, in other word forms, by etymology.

It is conventional to distinguish two degrees of reduction, defined by position relative to stress. F i r s t d e g r e e o f r e d u c t i o n -- a milder degree of reduction -- occurs in the first pretonic syllable and in word-initial position

14Bondarko 1977:111ff.

15The relationship is not deterministic. Different dialect systems of Russian have different phonetic implementations of vowels and different mergers, showing that reducing the phonetic space does not lead automatically to a unique pattern of mergers.

16Most models inevitably ascribe some primacy to the stressed vowel, and treat the unstressed vowel as derivative. The suggestion here is that speakers learn unstressed vowels as part of a word form, no less than they learn the identity of a stressed vowel. For example, ptvkz´ ‘land’ is learned as [z˛ì] with its unstressed vowel in place. Support for the autonomy of unstressed vowels can be seen in the fact that they can be manipulated analogically (§2.2.6). Certain analogies of stressed vowels evidently rely on an identity of unstressed vowels: unstressed [ì] in ctré ‘I cut’, analogous to [ì] in ytcé ‘I carry’, motivates stressed c=r, analogous to y=c.

44A Reference Grammar of Russian

(when there is no preceding consonant to cut into the duration of the vowel). Vowels not in first pretonic position (and adjacent to consonants) -- in second or more pretonic or in post-tonic position -- are subject to more extreme, or s e c o n d - d e g r e e , reduction. There may be slight differences among seconddegree contexts -- post-tonic vowels are perhaps longer (though less loud) than pretonic vowels two syllables from the stress17 -- but these are fine details ignored in transcription.

Series {i u}: Vowels of series {i u} are affected in a less obvious fashion than other vowels. Not all transcriptions write symbols for unstressed, reduced high vowels distinct from the stressed vowel letters (Avanesov does not).18 One might use small caps [i i- υ] or, as here, (modified) Greek letters: [ì ï √].19 No sources distinguish between first and second degrees of reduction among high vowels. In non-allegro style, the rounding of {u} is preserved in unstressed [√] (gen sg gen∫ [p√t˛í] ‘journey’), and the backing of {i} is still audible in unstressed [ï] (fem pst ,skƒ [bïlƒ] ‘she was’).

Series {e a (o)} after soft consonants: After palatalized consonants, series {e} and {a} fall together. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, the resulting unstressed vowel was pronounced with ekan e, that is, as a mid vowel or an upper mid vowel with [e]-coloring, transcribed [bt] in Cyrillic, [ìε ] in Latin. In

the twentieth century, the vowel has merged with the slightly reduced vowel

of series {í}: thus the first-pretonic vowels of ,bk´tn ‘ticket’ [b˛ìl˛e5 t] and [b˛ìl˛e55t˛]

⁄ ⁄

,tk´tnm ‘become white’ are now identical. This complete merger of vowels from the non-high series {e a} with {i} is termed ikan e.

Ikan e begins to be acknowledged as an acceptable pronunciation around the transition from the nineteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1912 the Leningrad phonetician L. V. Shcherba (1880--1944) described a generational split: his mother distinguished fem pst vtkƒ ‘she swept’ from pv fem vbkƒ ‘pleasant’, presumably [m˛ìε lƒ] vs. [m˛ìlƒ], while he merged them, presumably [m˛ìlƒ]. At the same time, R. Koˇsuti´c (1919:39) recommended ekan e, but conceded that “all the young people” use ikan e. Ekan e was still the pronunciation that R. I. Avanesov (1972:66) recommended as recently as the last half of the twentieth century. However, sources after Avanesov treat ekan e as conservative and outmoded, and assume that there is no longer any distinction among vowels in the position after palatalized consonants.

17Bondarko 1977:156.

18Now SRIa 1 uses [bэ ] for unstressed {i} and {e a} after soft consonants.

19Also approximately as in Jones and Ward 1969.

Sounds 45

If one posits {o} as the series vowel where e changed to o under stress -- for example, if {o} is said to be the vowel not only in y=c [n˛o5 s⁄] ‘he carried’ but also in ytckƒ [n˛ìslƒ] ‘she carried’ -- then one could say that series {o} is merged with series {a} and {e} and ultimately series {i} after soft consonants.

Series {a o} after hard consonants: Unstressed vowels belonging to series {a} or {o} -- that is, unstressed vowels spelled with the hard-vowel letters ≤f≥ or ≤j≥ that would be pronounced as [ƒ] or [o]⁄if they were stressed -- merge with each other. Under first degree of reduction (first pretonic position, position not after consonant), the unstressed vowel is pronounced as a central, non-high, moder-

ately open vowel, written as [ ]:20 lfdyj´ [d vno] ‘long ago’, ljk;yj´ [d lznó] ‘must’,
⁄	‹

msc gen sg jlyjuj´ [ dn vo]⁄‘one’, ghbjndjh∫nm [pr˛ì tv r˛í5t˛] ‘open somewhat’. Under second degree of reduction, the unstressed vowel is [´], a vowel shorter

and less open than [ ]: second pretonic yfuhe;ƒnm [n´gr za5 t˛] ‘burden’, gjlhfcnƒnm

‹⁄

[p´dr stƒt˛] ‘nurture’; post-tonic vƒvjxrf [mƒm´c˛k´] ‘mommy’, ´,kfxrj [obl´c˛k´]
‹	⁄	‹

‘cloud’, dtl=hjxrj [v˛ìd˛o5 r´c˛k´] ‘bucket’. The merger of {o} with {a}, and the pro-

⁄ ‹

nunciation of the resulting vowel as an unrounded central vowel, is termed akan e.

ˇo	ˇo
Series {e a o} after S	(=[ˇs z])ˇ : For historical reasons, non-high vowels after S

have unusual behavior. During the time when [s z] were still soft, original e was

‹‹

raised to [Se˛‹], later [S˛‹ìe], as it was after any soft consonant. When these consonants lost palatalization, the vowel was backed to [S‹oεï], later [S‹oïε ]. In the twen-

tieth century, the vowel has merged with [ï] from series {i}: ;tk†pysq [zïl˛†5znïiü]

‹

‘iron’, ;bk†w [zïl˛†5 c] ‘lodger’.21 The same vowel is pronounced for {e} in borrow-

‹

ings after mutable consonants if they remain hard: vjltk∫hjdfnm [m´dïl˛ír´v´t˛]

‘model’ (cf. vjl†km [m de5l˛] ‘model’).

⁄

For {a o}, there are two possibilities: an inherited pronunciation [ï] or a newer pronunciation [ ]. How these two variants are distributed is complex (Table 2.3;

§2.2.5).
		ˇo	, vowels from the non-high series
Under second degree of reduction after S
{e a	o} are pronounced as a central vowel [ï]: ;tktpƒ [zïl˛ìz‹ ƒ] ‘gland’, bp ifkfiƒ
[ìs ïl sƒ] ‘out of the cabin’, itkrjd∫wf [sïlkov˛íc´] ‘mulberry’.
‹	‹	‹

In absolute initial position the vowel spelled ≤э≥ in foreign borrowings is raised though not backed (there is no preceding hard consonant), and is merged with [ì]: эnƒ; [ìtƒs]‹‘storey’, эrhƒy [ìkrƒn] ‘screen’, identical to buhƒ [ìgrƒ] ‘game’.22

20The vowel is glossed as raised and backed [a] by Jones and Ward (1969).

21In Avanesov’s conservative norm, [zï‹ε l˛], not quite identical to [zïl˛‹].

22According to SRIa 1.103--4.