 | This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Russian on Wikipedia. It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Russian in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. |
The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Russian pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.
Russian distinguishes hard (unpalatalized or plain) and soft (palatalized) consonants (both phonetically and orthographically). Soft consonants, most of which are denoted by a superscript ⟨ʲ⟩, are pronounced with the body of the tongue raised toward the hard palate, like the articulation of the y sound in yes. In native words, /j, ɕː, tɕ/ are always soft, whereas /ʐ, ʂ, ts/ are always hard.[1]
See Russian phonology and Russian alphabet for a more thorough look at the sounds of Russian.
| Consonants | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hard | Soft | |||||
| IPA | Examples | English approximation | IPA | Examples | English approximation | |
| b | ; апде́йт[2] | boot | bʲ | , | beautiful | |
| d | ; [2] | do | dʲ | ; ; [2] | media | |
| dʐ[3] | jug | dʑ[3] | начди́в; [2] | jig | ||
| dz[3] | [2] | lads | dzʲ[3] | дзюдо́[1] | lad's young | |
| f | ; ;[2] [4] | fool | fʲ | ; ; [4] | few | |
| ɡ | ;[5][6] [2] | good | ɡʲ | argue | ||
| ɣ | ; ;[5] Бог даст; дух бодр[2] | loch (Scottish) but voiced | ɣʲ | двухдверный[2] | Loch Ewe (Scottish) but voiced | |
| — | j | [je-]; [jɵ-]; [ju-]; [ja]; [7] | yes | |||
| k | ; ;[2] [4] | scar | kʲ | ; секью́рити | skew | |
| l | [8] | pill | lʲ | ; | failure | |
| m | moot | mʲ | ; | mute | ||
| n | noon | nʲ | ; ; [9] | vinyard | ||
| p | ; ;[2] [4] | span | pʲ | ; ; [4] | spew | |
| r | American atom | rʲ | ; | American catty | ||
| s | ; ;[2] [4] | soup | sʲ | ; ; ; ;[2] [4] | assume (RP) | |
| ʂ | ; ;[2] ;[4] [10] | rush | ɕː | ; ; [2][11] | wish sheep | |
| t | ; ;[2] [4] | stand | tʲ | ; ; ; [4] | stew (RP) | |
| ts[3] | ; | cats | tsʲ[3] | Цю́рих[1] | cat's young | |
| tʂ[3] | [4] | chop | tɕ[3] | ; | chip | |
| v | ; его́;[6] афга́н[2] | voodoo | vʲ | ; | view | |
| x | ; [5] | loch (Scottish); ugh | xʲ | ; Хью́стон; [5] | huge (for some dialects) | |
| z | ; [2] | zoo | zʲ | ; резьба́; ; [2] | presume (RP) | |
| ʐ | ; кешбэ́к[2] | pleasure | ʑː | ;[12] вещдо́к[2] | prestige genre | |
| Stressed vowels | ||||||
| [-soft] | [+soft] | |||||
| IPA | Examples | English approximation | IPA | Examples | English approximation | |
| a | father (Australian English) | æ | ; [13] | pat | ||
| ɛ | ; | met | e | ; [13] | mace | |
| ɨ | ; ; с и́грами | roses (for some dialects) | i | ; | meet | |
| o | ; | chore | ɵ | ; [13] | foot | |
| u | cool | ʉ | ; [13] | choose | ||
| Unstressed vowels | ||||||
| [-soft] | [+soft] | |||||
| IPA | Examples | English approximation | IPA | Examples | English approximation | |
| ə | ; ; ; [14] | about | ə | ; ; [15] | lasagna | |
| ɐ | ; ; ; [14] | bud | ɪ | ; ; ; ; [16] | bit | |
| ɛ | тетра́эдр; поэте́сса[17] | met | ||||
| ɨ | ; ; ; ; к Ива́ну | roses (for some dialects) | ||||
| o | ; поэте́сса[17] | chore | ɵ | ма́чо; сёрфинги́ст[13][18] | foot | |
| ʊ | pull | ʉ | ; [13] | youth | ||
| Suprasegmental | ||||||
| IPA | Example | Explanation | ||||
| ˈ | [tɕɪˈtɨrʲɪ] | stress mark, placed before the stressed syllable | ||||
| ː | [ˈzːadʲɪ][2] | consonant length mark, placed after the geminated consonant | ||||
- ^ a b c Even though /ts/ and its voicing [dz] are considered to be exclusively hard consonants, they may be palatalized in certain words of foreign origin.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Consonants in consonant clusters are assimilated in voicing if the final consonant in the sequence is an obstruent (except [v, vʲ]). All consonants become voiceless if the final consonant is voiceless or voiced if the final consonant is voiced (Halle 1959:31).
- ^ a b c d e f g h The affricates [ts], [tɕ], and [tʂ] (and their voiced counterparts [dz], [dʑ], and [dʐ]) are sometimes written with ligature ties: [t͡s], [t͡ɕ], and [t͡ʂ] ([d͡z], [d͡ʑ], and [d͡ʐ]). Ties are not used in transcriptions on Wikipedia (except in phonology articles) because they may not display correctly in all browsers.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k The voiced obstruents /b, bʲ, d, dʲ, ɡ, v, vʲ, z, zʲ, ʐ/ are devoiced word-finally unless the next word begins with a voiced obstruent (Halle 1959:22).
- ^ a b c d ⟨г⟩ is usually pronounced [ɣ] or (word-finally) [x] in some religious words and colloquial derivatives from them, such as Госпо́дь [ɣɐsˈpotʲ] and [box], and in the interjections , , , , and also in [bʊˈɣaltʲɪr] (Timberlake 2004:23). /ɡ/ devoices and lenites to [x] before voiceless obstruents (dissimilation) in the word roots -мягк- or -мягч-, -легк- or -легч-, -тягч-, and also in the old-fashioned pronunciation of -ногт-, -когт-, кто. Speakers of the Southern Russian dialects may pronounce ⟨г⟩ as [ɣ] (soft [ɣʲ], devoiced [x] and [xʲ]) throughout.
- ^ a b Intervocalic ⟨г⟩ represents /v/ in certain words (, , итого́ ), and in the genitive suffix -ого/-его (Timberlake 2004:23).
- ^ The soft vowel letters ⟨е, ё, ю, я⟩ represent iotated vowels /je, jo, ju, ja/, except when following a consonant. When these vowels are unstressed (save for ⟨ё⟩, which is always stressed) and follow another vowel letter, the /j/ may not be present. The letter ⟨и⟩ produces iotated sound /ji/ only after ь.
- ^ /l/ is often strongly pharyngealized [ɫ], but that feature is not distinctive (Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996:187-188).
- ^ Alveolo-palatal consonants are subjected to regressive assimilative palatalization; i.e. they tend to become palatalized in front of other phones with the same place of articulation.
- ^ Most speakers pronounce ⟨ч⟩ in the pronoun что and its derivatives as [ʂ]. All other occurrences of чт cluster stay as affricate and stop.
- ^ ⟨щ⟩ is sometimes pronounced as [ɕː] or [ɕɕ] and sometimes as [ɕtɕ], but no speakers contrast the two pronunciations. This generally includes the other spellings of the sound, but the word счи́тывать sometimes has [ɕtɕ] because of the morpheme boundary between the prefix ⟨с-⟩ and the root ⟨-чит-⟩.
- ^ Geminated [ʐː] is pronounced as soft [ʑː], the voiced counterpart to [ɕː], in a few lexical items (such as дро́жжи or заезжа́ть) by conservative Moscow speakers; such realization is now somewhat obsolete (Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015:224)).
- ^ a b c d e f Vowels are fronted and/or raised in the context of palatalized consonants: /a/ and /u/ become [æ] and [ʉ], respectively between palatalized consonants, /e/ is realized as [e] before and between palatalized consonants and /o/ becomes [ɵ] after and between palatalized consonants.
- ^ a b Unstressed /a/ and /o/ regularly lose their contrast, being pronounced [ɐ] in word-initial position, as well as when in a sequence, and [ə] in posttonic position (i.e. after the stress); in non-initial pretonic position (i.e. before the stress) they are reduced to [ɐ] only immediately before the stress, being realized [ə] otherwise.
- ^ Only in certain word-final morphemes (Timberlake 2004:48-51).
- ^ Unstressed /a/ is pronounced as [ɪ] after ⟨ч⟩ and ⟨щ⟩ except when word-final.[citation needed]
- ^ a b In the careful style of pronunciation unstressed /e/ and /o/ in words of foreign origin may be pronounced with little or no reduction.
- ^ Unstressed [ɵ] only occurs in words of foreign origin.