Sounds 29

in two forms, with or without palatalization, like “l” sounds. It is convenient, following the Russian tradition, to refer informally to non-palatalized consonants as hard and palatalized consonants as soft. Non-palatalized consonants are written by a symbol with no additional mark; [z] is the non-palatalized voiced dental fricative that is the first consonant in, for example, pƒk ‘hall’. The set of non-palatalized consonants can be written as {C o}, or just C o, with a degree sign to emphasize absence of palatalization. Palatalization is indicated by adding a diacritic to the symbol used to represent the consonant. Various diacritics are

used: an acute accent ([z ] or [z]), an apostrophe or single quote ([z’]), or -- and this

⁄

is the practice adopted here -- a cedilla; thus [z˛] represents the palatalized “z” in dpz´k ‘he took’. The set of palatalized consonants can be represented {C¸}, or, more simply, as C¸. Palatalization, though a property of consonants, affects how vowels are pronounced. Palatalization is also relevant to morphology.

Stress functions on many levels. Phonetically, stressed vowels differ from unstressed vowels first and foremost by being longer. As a consequence, stressed vowels are more distinct in their pronunciation than unstressed vowels. Stress is relevant to the lexicon and to morphology. Each lexical word -- noun, verb, adjective, adverb -- has one syllable that is stressed. Accordingly, the number of stresses in an utterance is the number of major words in the utterance. (This excludes prepositions and particles such as ;t, which are written with spaces as separate orthographic words, but do not have a stressed vowel.) Stress is not assigned automatically to the same syllable in all words, such as the first syllable in Czech. Rather, different words can have stress on different syllables: vérf ‘torment’ but verƒ ‘flour’. Further, the place of stress can fall on different syllables in different inflectional and derivational forms of a word or word nest: thus, gen sg cnjhjyß ‘side’, nom=acc pl cnj´hjys; 1sg cvjnh/´ ‘I see’, 2sg cvj´nhbim; 1sg jnjhdé ‘I will rip off’, pst pl jnjhdƒkb, pst fem jnjhdfkƒ, psv msc sg jnj´hdfy; or nom sg ujkjdƒ, acc sg uj´kjde, dim ujkj´drf. Stress is then an ancillary marker of morphology (in verbs: §3.2, in nouns: §3.6).

Stress plays a crucial role in the prosody of phrases. Shifts in intonation contours occur on or around the stressed syllable (§7.2). To emphasize one word as opposed to others, the stressed syllable is made louder, more prominent (sometimes termed sentence stress). Thus operations that deal with the prosody of phrases are focused on stressed syllables.

2.2 Vowels

2.2.1 Stressed vowels

A word is organized in its phonetics around the one vowel that is stressed. That stressed vowel is normally longer than other vowels. Vowels far away from

30A Reference Grammar of Russian

the stressed vowel are very short. Vowels of the syllable immediately before the stressed syllable are intermediate in duration; they are shorter than stressed vowels, longer than other unstressed vowels. By virtue of being longer, stressed vowels have more extreme articulations; the tongue has the time to reach further to the perimeters of the vocal tract -- to be pronounced higher and further front, or higher and further back, or lower down. Unstressed vowels, in contrast, spend most of their modest duration in the transition away from a preceding consonant and the transition to the following consonant; they do not reach the same extremes of articulation (high or low, front or back) as stressed vowels. If stressed vowels can be located on the perimeters of the vowel space shaped like an inverted trapezoid, unstressed vowels form a smaller figure inside the space of stressed vowels. There are, evidently, five stressed vowel units in Russian capable of distinguishing meanings of words, and a smaller number of distinct unstressed vowels.

Vowels (and other sounds) can be classified both in terms of the articulatory gestures used to produce them and the acoustic signals produced by these gestures. To review the essentials of articulatory phonetics, vowels are produced by allowing the air to flow relatively freely through the oral cavity. The oral passage can be given different shapes primarily by changing the position of the tongue (and also by different positions of the lips and of the mandible), and different vowel sounds result, which can be classified as front vs. back, high vs. mid vs. low, and rounded (labialized) vs. unrounded (non-labialized). To review the essentials of acoustic phonetics, the irregular shape of the vocal tract leads to a myriad of harmonics of the fundamental frequency, F0. The harmonics tend to cluster within recognizable bands, or formants, measured at their centers in cycles per second, or Hertz (= Hz). The first formant (clustering of harmonics), or F1, is proportional to aperture. Thus [ƒ], the vowel produced with the widest aperture and lowest position of the tongue, has the highest value of F1, as high as 800 or 900 Hz, while [í ˝!ú], produced with the tongue close to the roof of the mouth, have the narrowest aperture and the lowest values of F1, around 250--400 Hz; mid vowels [†] and [ó] are intermediate. The second clustering of harmonics,

F2, can be taken as a measure of the position of articulation on the horizontal axis, as front (high F2) or back (low F2).3 Thus [ú], the furthest back and most strongly labialized vowel, has the lowest F2 (around 600 Hz); the value increases as one goes around the vowel space to [ó] (700--900 Hz), [ƒ] (1000--1400 Hz), [†] (1600--1800 Hz), and [í], with a value of 2000 Hz or more. [Ó] tends to slight diph-

thongization: [	u	o´] (or [ o´	] after soft consonants). F2	, incidentally, is what people
		u

respond to when they perceive vowels with synaesthesia and characterize, for

3A more refined view is that the perception of frontness depends also on F1 and F3, according to the formula F2 + 0.5 (F3 − F2)(F2 − F1)/(F3 − F1) (Carlson et al. 1970).

									Sounds 31
Table 2.1 Properties of stressed vowels
		CoVCo		CoVC¸		¸VCo		¸VC
		F1	F2	F1	F2	F1	F2	F1	F2
[í]	10 ms.					312	2017	317	2020
	30%					316	2065	346	2114
	50%					313	2121	339	2355
	70%					293	2175	273	2324
	−10 ms.					261	1994	210	2061
[í-]	10 ms.	404	1242	380	1136
	30%	393	1563	364	1787
	50%	392	1925	352	2094
	70%	383	1950	346	2144
	−10 ms.	337	1650	260	2050
[†]	10 ms.	599	1361	570	1386	332	2197	348	2133
	30%	723	1718	567	1824	401	2216	384	2334
	50%	702	1770	548	1947	506	2000	417	2307
	70%	704	1644	488	1955	569	1744	440	2258
	−10 ms.	577	1547	442	1916	468	1564	304	2102
[ƒ]	10 ms.	815	982	801	1154	432	2011	485	1979
	30%	922	1285	895	1306	770	1871	833	1887
	50%	941	1346	886	1415	979	1662	912	1768
	70%	896	1443	850	1560	924	1560	881	1792
	−10 ms.	551	1622	494	1839	602	1579	521	1931
[j´]	10 ms.	560	694	402	1430	354	1985	338	1876
	30%	535	738	493	1319	426	1678	437	1847
	50%	595	809	518	1213	571	1219	482	1474
	70%	534	905	510	1066	566	1054	451	1418
	−10 ms.	458	1297	347	1745	465	1334	323	1734
[ú]	10 ms.	425	795	435	854	360	2024	208	1871
	30%	410	626	437	856	346	1696	283	1833
	50%	401	555	433	914	383	1295	309	1662
	70%	386	881	446	1147	386	1100	307	1439
	−10 ms.	374	1164	490	1730	392	1483	256	1789

10 ms. = measurement 10 ms. after beginning of vowel −10 ms. = measurement 10 ms. from end of vowel

30% (50%, 70%) = measurement at a point 30% (50%, 70%) of the duration of the vowel

32A Reference Grammar of Russian

example, [ó ú] as dark or gloomy vowels -- they have a low F2 -- and [† í] as bright or red or cheery vowels -- they have a high F2. Specifying the values of F1 and F2 goes a long way towards defining a vowel.

It takes a little time for each vowel to reach its target position, and some of the duration of vowels is spent in transition from the preceding to the following consonant. Different places of articulation (labial, dental, alveo-palatal, velar) have characteristic effects on vowels, specifically on F2. Labial consonants ([p] or [m]) depress the value of F2 in the transition to the vowel; dentals ([t s]) raise F2, and velars ([k g x]) are intermediate in their effect on F2. These effects are similar across languages. What sets Russian apart is the way in which vowels interact with palatalization in consonants. It is customary to define four contexts depending on the adjacent consonants: after a hard consonant before a hard consonant (= CoVCo), after a hard consonant before a soft consonant (= C oVC¸), after a soft consonant before a hard consonant (= ¸VCo), and position between soft consonants (= ¸VC). One could in principle distinguish additional contexts in which there is no consonant either before or after the vowel. A context with no consonant is usually equivalent to a consonant with an initial hard consonant: VCo ≈ CoVCo, VC¸ ≈ CoVC¸. (The exception is [í] -- see below.) And a context with no following consonant is similar to a context in which the vowel is followed by a hard consonant: CoV ≈ CoVCo, C¸V ≈ ¸VCo.

The vowels [ƒ ó ú] respond to adjacent consonants in a similar way. Measure-

ments of F1 and F2 at different points in the duration of the vowel are recorded in Table 2.1 (one token of the speech of one speaker, reading list style).4 The

behavior of [ƒ], illustrated in Fig. 2.1, can be taken as representative of [ƒ ó ú]. While [ƒ ó ú] differ in absolute values of F1 and F2 (see the numbers in bold italics in Table 2.1), their contours are similar.

C O N T E XT 1: C oVC o (#VC o): The basic allophone is a central vowel, written without diacritics as [ƒ], which occurs between hard consonants, CoVCo (and in initial position, VC o). As in vƒn ‘checkmate’ [mƒt] (Table 2.1 and Fig. 2.1), F2 starts low (1100 Hz) after the hard labial [mo] and gradually rises throughout the vowel,

in anticipation of the final hard dental [to]. Vowels [j´] and [ú] are similar (vj´lf ‘fashion’ [mód´], gécnj ‘empty’ [púst´]).

C O N T E XT 2: C oVC¸: After a hard consonant, before a soft consonant, as in

vƒnm ‘mother’ [ma5t˛], [ƒ] begins with a similarly low F . In anticipation of the

⁄ 2

final palatalized consonant, F2 is higher than with vƒn already at the midpoint (1490 Hz) and then rises sharply to a much higher value in the final transition

4 Pictures from Kay’s Computerized Speech Laboratory; measurements prepared with Praat, the phonetics program developed by Paul Boersma. Polina Barskova was kind enough to serve as native speaker. Bondarko 1977 and Matusevich 1976 have comparable though less specific data.

C O N T E XT

Sounds 33

Fig. 2.1 vƒn ‘checkmate’ [mat]

⁄

(1850 Hz) (Fig. 2.2). This rise in F2 is written here with a directional subscript indicating fronting: [ƒö]. Because [ó] and [u]⁄have lower values of F2, the rise of F2 is quite precipitous in anticipation of the palatalized consonant of j vj´lt

‘about fashion’ [ mj´öd˛ì], ,éhz ‘storm’ [bu5r˛´].

⁄

C O N T E XT 3: ¸VC o: In the third context -- after a soft consonant before hard, as in vz´n ‘crumpled’ [m˛a5 t⁄] (Fig. 2.3) -- F2 in the initial transition rises very quickly from the previous labial to an early peak of more than 2000 Hz, and then dips to a minimum after the vowel’s midpoint, rising slightly at the end in anticipation of the final hard dental. With [o]⁄(v=l ‘honey’) and [u]⁄(,÷cn ‘bust’), whose F2 values are lower, the dip and the corresponding rise at the end are more extreme.

4: ¸VC: In the context ¸VC, illustrated here by vz´nm ‘crumple’ [m˛a55t˛]

⁄

(Fig. 2.4), F2 has a similar contour to the context ¸VCo, but F2 rises to 2000 Hz

or more at the end. With [o] and [u], as in j v=lt ‘about honey’ [øm˛o55d˛ì], j ,÷cnt
⁄	⁄	⁄

‘about the bust’ [øb˛u55s˛t˛ì], the dip and subsequent rise are quite significant.

⁄

The vowel [†] has a generally similar behavior, except that its natural value

for F is higher than with [ƒ o u]. C oVC o: After a hard consonant before a hard

2 ⁄⁄

consonant, as in v…h ‘mayor’ [m†r], ;tcn ‘gesture’ [z†st], [†] is a relatively open mid

‹

front vowel, with F1 on the order of 600--700 Hz and F2 approximately 1600--1800

34 A Reference Grammar of Russian

Fig. 2.2 vƒnm ‘mother’ [ma5t˛]

⁄

Fig. 2.3 vz´n ‘crumpled’ [ m˛a5 t⁄]

Sounds 35

Fig. 2.4 vz´nm ‘crumple’ [m˛a55t˛]

⁄

(Table 2.1).5 [É] in initial position, as in …´nj ‘this’ [†t´], is similarly open. Co VC¸: After a hard consonant but before a soft consonant, [†] is raised and fronted, especially in its final transition, as can be seen from the lower F1 and higher F2 in j v…´ht ‘about the mayor’ [m†ör˛ì]. The effect of a palatalized consonant on [†] can be written as [†ö], with the same diacritic as with [ƒö], although with [†] the effect involves raising (lowering of F1) as well as fronting (raising of F2). ¸VCo: After a soft consonant, [†] has a front, high transition (with an F2 in the vicinity

of 1800--2000 Hz): n†kj ‘body’ [t˛e5 l´], v†nrf ‘mark’ [m˛e5	tk´].	¸VC: Between soft
⁄	⁄

consonants, [†] remains fronted and high throughout: v†nbnm ‘aim’ [m˛e55t˛ìt˛], with

⁄

a low F1, around 350--450 Hz, and a high F2, around 2100--2300 Hz.

Among high non-rounded vowels, the variant that occurs in initial position is [í] (∫df ‘willow’ [ív´]) -- about the same vowel that occurs in the context ¸VCo, after a soft consonant before a hard consonant (¸VCo: v∫nhf ‘mitre’ [m˛íötr´]). In this context, F2 begins and remains high throughout, but tails off a little in the final transition to a hard consonant (Fig. 2.5). ¸VCo: Before a following soft

5 [É] occurs after a hard consonant only if the consonant is unpaired or the word is a borrowing. For this reason, Avanesov takes the position after soft consonant as basic. But the measurement recorded in Table 2.9 shows that there is a distinct, overt transition from 2000 Hz after a soft consonant to a target 400 or 500 Hz lower, and that transition is similar to the transition that occurs from a palatalized consonant to other vowels such as [ƒ].

36 A Reference Grammar of Russian

Fig. 2.5 vb´nhf ‘mitre’ [m˛´ıtrə]

consonant, as in v∫nbyu ‘meeting’ [m˛íö¸tìnk], the vowel has a higher value of F2 throughout its duration (Table 2.1, Fig. 2.7).

C oVC o: After a hard consonant, the vowel that appears is [˝!] instead of the unadulterated front vowel [í]. When the consonant following [˝!] is hard, the F2 of [˝!] starts in the vicinity of 1100--1200 Hz, a value like that of the central vowel [ƒ], while its F1 is similar to that of [u]. F2 then rises rapidly to a peak higher than 2000 Hz two-thirds of the way through the vowel before falling again (see Fig. 2.6, vßn ‘washed’ [m˝!t]). The peak value of F2 of [˝!] is nearly as high as that of [í]. Accordingly, the increment of change in F2 over the life of the vowel is greater than for any other stressed vowel. In this rapid and extreme change in F2, there is some justification for the longstanding claim that [˝!] is diphthongal. C oVC¸: Before a soft consonant, as in vßnm ‘wash’ [mÈ5t˛], F2, after its initial rise, remains high (Fig 2.8).

The stressed vowels of Russian can be graphed as in Fig. 2.9, where the vertical axis is the inverse of F1 and the horizontal axis is the inverse of F2. The vowels [í ˝!] are represented by two contextual variants each, the other vowels by four. Fig. 2.9 reflects static, single measurements from Table 2.1 for each vowel and context at the midpoint. Accordingly, Fig. 2.9 cannot do justice to changes over the life of the vowel, which are especially significant for [˝!]. Despite limitations, from Fig. 2.9 it is possible to see how the acoustic properties of values correlate

Sounds 37

Fig. 2.6 vs´n ‘washed’ [m˝´t]

Fig. 2.7 vb´nbyu ‘meeting’ [m´ı˛5t˛…ìnk]

38 A Reference Grammar of Russian

Fig. 2.8 vs´nm ‘wash’ [m˝´5t]˛

0

100

200

F1

300	[í[i]
	´
400	[[í1]
	[e][e]
	´
500	´ ´
	[a][a]
600	´ ´
	[o][o]
700	´ ´
	[u][u]
800

900
1000
	2500	2000	1500	1000	500
			F2

Fig. 2.9 Midpoints of stressed vowels, contexts ¸VC¸ / ¸VC o / C oVC¸ / C oVC o

Sounds 39

Table 2.2 Transcriptions of stressed vowels

Context

Avanesov

Panov

Jones & Ward

Current explicit

Current simplified

C ofC o

f

f

f

ƒ

ƒ

C otC o

э

э

ε

†

†

C

o

ÈC

o

s

s

È

-

-

í

í

C ofC¸

f˙

f˙

f

a5⁄

ƒ

C otC¸

ˆэ

˙э

t

e5⁄

†

C

o

ÈC¸

s

s

È

-

-

ˆ

í5

í

C¸fC o

f˙

f˙

f

a5 ⁄

ƒ

C¸

t

C

o

t

э

6

e5

⁄

†

˙

ε (ε )

¸iC o

b

b

î

í

í

C¸fC¸

f¨

f¨

æ/o/¨u¨

a55

⁄

ƒ

C¸tC¸

ˆt

¨э

t

e55

⁄

†

¸iC

bˆ

b

î

í5

í

with articulatory definitions; for example, [í], a high front vowel, has a low F1 and high F2, and so on. As the lines connecting related sounds in Fig. 2.9 make clear, the four contexts form a generally linear progression in the value of F2 from low to high: CoVCo < CoVC¸ ≤ ¸VCo < ¸VC. The distribution of the points and lines suggests how it is possible for vowels to vary quite significantly depending on the consonantal context and yet remain distinct from each other.

Stressed vowels, then, are affected by adjacent consonants in a consistent fashion. Before a following palatalized consonant, all vowels are fronted and/or raised, in the last third of the vowel and especially in the final transition. After a soft consonant, vowels are fronted and/or raised in the first third. Between soft consonants, vowels are fronted and raised in both transitions and, in an additive fashion, in the middle of the vowel as well. The vowels [í ˝!] are in one sense an exception, but a motivated exception. Inasmuch as [í] is already front (for example, in word-initial position when no consonant precedes), it is not appreciably fronted by a preceding soft consonant; instead, the central [˝!] vowel appears after a preceding hard consonant. The generalization that covers all vowels is that, in relative terms, transitions to adjacent soft consonants are further front (higher F2) and/or raised (lower F1) than are transitions to adjacent hard consonants.

Different systems are in use for transcribing stressed vowels in context

(Table 2.2). In the system of Avanesov 1972, for [ƒ o u], the effect of an adjacent

⁄⁄

palatalized consonant on the vowel is indicated by a dot (a half-umlaut) above the vowel positioned on the side of the palatalized consonant; position between soft consonants merits a full umlaut. For [† í], the raising effect of a following

40 A Reference Grammar of Russian

soft consonant is marked by a circumflex; the effect of a preceding hard consonant is indicated by using the hard-vowel letter of Cyrillic (≤э≥ and ≤s≥). Avanesov’s system can be easily Romanized, by using ≤È≥ for Cyrillic ≤s≥ and some distinction for Cyrillic ≤t≥ vs. ≤э≥, such as ≤t≥ vs. ≤ε≥. The Cyrillic tran-

scription of Panov 1967, which treats [†] together with [ƒ o u], transcribes the

⁄⁄

position between two soft consonants with an umlaut and does not distinguish ¸VCo and CoVC¸, the two environments in which a vowel is adjacent to a single palatalized consonant on one or the other side; both are marked with a centered dot. Jones and Ward 1969 recognizes the position between soft consonants as dif-

ferent in kind from the other three positions for [ƒ o u]; this position of extreme

⁄⁄

fronting is marked with an umlaut for [o u] and the digraph [æ] in the case of [ƒ].

⁄⁄

The basic symbol without diacritic is used for the other three positions. In the system used here, in its most explicit form, the effect of palatalized consonants

is marked by a symbol subscripted to the vowel letter for [† ƒ o u], to the left side

⁄⁄

after a palatalized consonant, to the right side before a palatalized consonant, and with double symbols between palatalized consonants. As is conventional, the vowel corresponding to [í] after a hard consonant is transcribed as a distinct symbol [˝!]. There is an obvious redundancy in these transcriptions; the diacritics reflect the contexts in which vowels can occur. Unless there is some reason for pointing out the character of the transition to an adjacent consonant, it is often sufficient to omit the diacritics and transcribe with the simplified system of

[ƒ o u † í], with, additionally, [˝!] used after hard consonants.

⁄⁄

2.2.2 Phonemic status of [È]

The exposition above has in effect followed the “Moscow” approach in positing five stressed vowels and in treating [˝!] as related to [í]. The incontrovertible fact is that [˝!] is pronounced whenever [í] is put next to a hard consonant in a novel combination, such as when a word beginning with [í] is preceded by a preposition, jn ∫vtyb [t˝!] ‘from the name’, or independent lexeme, xbnƒk bv [lï] ‘he read to them’. The fact that [˝!] is pronounced instead of [í] in these instances is parallel to the fact that the vowel pronounced for ≤э≥ after prepositions is not

fronted and raised: d …´njn [v†t´t], not [v˛e5 t´t]. Historically, whenever a consonant

⁄

has lost softness (as have c, ˇs, and ˇz), the following vowel changed from [i] to [È], as would be indicated by occasional innovative spellings in texts of ≤s≥ instead of traditional ≤b≥. Thus, after consonants [È] and [i] are distributed complementarily, suggesting that they are related sounds: they are allophones of a single phoneme, in a phonemic analysis.6

6 Discussion in Panov 1967:58ff.