Paired and unpaired table. Voiced and voiceless, hard and soft consonants

01.06.2020

When pronouncing voiced consonant air flow creates vibrations of the vocal cords. If the vocal cords are not involved, then the sound is considered deaf.

But in Russian, a voiced letter does not always mean a voiced sound (and vice versa: a voiceless consonant does not always mean a voiceless sound). It depends on the position of the letter in the word.

Voiced consonant often stunned at the end of a word. For example, in the word "colander" we read "k" at the end, because the sound is in a weak position. Can also be stunned before a voiceless consonant. For example, we pronounce the word "gait" as "plowing".

To determine which letter will be written correctly, the letter must be placed in a single-root word in a strong position (that is, before a vowel or consonants M, L, N, R).

For example: “boat” - “boat”, “mushroom” - “mushroom”.

table

Paired	voiced	Deaf
	B
		F
	G
		T
	F
		WITH
Unpaired	L, M, N, R, Y (sonor)

Also paired in deafness / voicedness are pairs of soft consonants, from those indicated in the table. For example: "b' - p'", "v' - f'".

Hard and soft

In words, the same letter can mean both solid and soft sounds. This is due to the influence of subsequent consonants on softness/hardness. Before A, O, U, S, E sound hard consonants, before I, E, E, Yu, I - soft.

table

Paired Before A, O, U, S, E - solid. Before I, E, Yo, Yu, I are soft.	Solid		Soft
		b	b‘	White
	vase	v	v‘
			G‘
		d	d‘	uncle
	ash	h	h‘
		To	To‘	brick
	varnish	l	l‘
		m	m‘	peace
	our	n	n‘
		P	P‘	song
	the Rose	R	R‘	thread

Usually, children do not have serious difficulties in understanding the difference between vowels and consonants. But on hard and soft consonants, you should dwell in more detail.

How to teach children to distinguish between hard and soft consonants

The very first thing to teach a child is that consonants can be hard and soft, but not letters.

Typical mistake:
Children confuse sound and letter. Remember that a sound is a sound, and a letter is an icon, it is written. A letter cannot be hard or soft, only a consonant sound can be hard or soft in pronunciation.

Sometimes children can easily learn to distinguish between soft and hard sounds by ear.
But it happens that this is difficult, and in this case, signs will come to the rescue by which one can distinguish hard sounds from soft ones.

Distinctive features of soft and hard sounds

What sound comes after the consonant:

If after the consonant there is a vowel a, o, u, e, s, then the consonant is solid.
If after the consonant there is a vowel and, e, u, i, then the consonant is soft.

Working with examples:
In the words "mother", "nora" - solid consonants, because after them come "a" and "o".
In the words "fly", "nanny" - consonants are soft, because after them come "e", "and", "I".

If another consonant sounds after a consonant, then the first consonant will be hard.
There are sounds that can only be hard and sounds that can only be soft, no matter what sound is heard and what letter is written after them.

Always solid sounds - w, w, c.
Always soft - th, h, u.
A common way to learn these sounds is a simple technique: we write the letters that convey these sounds in a line, and underline "th, h, u". The underline symbolizes the pillow on which soft sounds sit. The pad is soft, so the sounds are soft.

Soft sign and hard sign

If the consonant is at the end of the word, and after it is the letter “b”, then the consonant is soft.

This rule is easy to apply if the child sees the written word, but it will not help if the child performs the task by ear.

Movement of the tongue when pronouncing soft and hard sounds

When pronouncing a soft sound, the tongue moves slightly forward, approaching the palate (or touching it) with its middle.
When pronouncing solid sounds tongue does not move forward.

Table of signs of hard and soft sounds

Solid:

Before a, o, u, uh, s.
At the end of a word before a consonant.
Zh, c, sh.

Soft:

Front vowels e, e, and, yu, i.
If after a consonant is soft sign(dust, measles).
Y, h, sh.

Showing a picture or just a list thematic words, and the task is given to choose words with soft or hard consonants. For instance:

Voiced and voiceless consonants

There are 11 pairs of voiced/voiced consonants in Russian.
The phonetic difference between voiced and voiceless consonants lies in the tension of the vocal cords. Deaf sounds are pronounced with the help of noise, without tension of the ligaments. Voiced sounds are pronounced with a voice, are caused by the vibration of the vocal cords, because. noisy air comes out of the larynx.

Mnemonic technique for memorizing deaf sounds:
Memorize the phrase: “Stepka, do you want a cabbage? - Fi! All consonants here are deaf.

Examples of tasks for children

Tasks for training the difference of paired consonants can be compiled for each pair according to the following principle (using the example of the D/T pair):

Tasks for the difference between a pair of consonants Г/К

Homework: transcribe a poem by A.S. Pushkin
I remember a wonderful moment
You appeared before me
Like a fleeting vision
Like a genius of pure beauty.

In the languor of hopeless sadness,
In the anxieties of noisy bustle,
A gentle voice sounded to me for a long time
And dreamed of cute features.

Years passed. Storms gust rebellious
Scattered old dreams
And I forgot your gentle voice
Your heavenly features.

In the wilderness, in the darkness of confinement
My days passed quietly
Without a god, without inspiration,
No tears, no life, no love.

The soul has awakened:
And here you are again
Like a fleeting vision
Like a genius of pure beauty.

And the heart beats in rapture
And for him they rose again
And deity, and inspiration,
And life, and tears, and love.

In Russian 6 vowels:a, o, u, i, s, uh. Vowel sounds are characterized as stressed and unstressed. The basis of vowel sounds is the voice.
Consonants classified as deaf - voiced and hard-soft.Consonant sounds can have pairs according to these characteristics (paired sounds) and not have them (unpaired).
Unpaired voiced sounds (sonor): [l], [l "], [m], [m"], [n], [n "], [r], [r "], [th"].
Unpaired deaf: [x], [x "], [c], [h "], [u"].
Pair voiced:[b], [b "], [c], [c"], [g], [g "], [d], [d "], [g], [h], [h "].
Pair deaf:[n], [n "], [r], [r "], [s], [s"], [t], [t"], [f], [f "], [w], [ k], [k "].

Unpaired hard sounds: [c], [g], * (although in the words reins, yeast - w is a soft sound), [w].
Unpaired soft sounds: [h "], [u"], [th"].

For the record sounding speech used phonetic transcription, which is built on the principle of a one-to-one correspondence between sound and its graphic symbol.
Transcription is enclosed in square brackets, in words of two or more syllables stress is indicated. If two words are united by a single stress, they make up one phonetic word, which is written together or with the help of a league: in the garden [fsat], [f sat].
It is not customary to write in transcription capital letters and put punctuation marks (for example, when transcribing sentences).
Words with more than one syllable are stressed.
The softness of a consonant sound is indicated by an apostrophe: sat [s "el].

The transcription does not use iotized vowels i, u, e, e. Uses to indicate unstressed vowels transcription icons[a], [s], [and], [y], [ie] (“and, prone to e”), [ye] (“s, prone to e”), [b] (“er”) , [b] ("er").

When are the sounds [a], [ye] and [b] pronounced, and when [ie] and [b]?
Their distinction depends on the position in relation to the stress and to the beginning phonetic word. So, in the first pre-stressed syllable (the syllable before the stressed vowel) and in the position of the absolute beginning of the word, the unstressed vowel is longer than in the other unstressed syllables (non-first pre-stressed and post-stressed); it is in these positions that the vowels [a], [ye] and [ie] are pronounced.

First pre-shock sound oh oh denoted by alpha (or house).

The sounds [a] and [ye] are found after solid consonants ([ye] - only after [g], [w], [c]) and are indicated in writing by the letters a (sama [sama, horses [lyshyed "ej"]) , o (catfish [herself]), e (turn yellow [zhyelt "et"]).

The sound [ie] occurs after soft consonants and is denoted by the letters e (blizzard [m "iet" el "), a (hours [h" iesy]), i (row [r" iedok]).

Sound [b] pronounced after solid consonants in the non-first pre-stressed and stressed syllables and is denoted by the letters a (locomotive [pravos]), o (milk [málako]), e (yellowness [zhlt "izna]).

Sound [b] pronounced after soft consonants in the non-first pre-stressed and stressed syllables and is indicated by the letters e (transition [p "bp" ihot]), i (ordinary [r" davoj "]), a (hourly [h" bsavoj "]).

In this article, we will talk about consonant sounds, their number, types (soft, hard, deaf and voiced) and other features and interesting facts.

There are 33 letters in Russian, of which 21 are consonants:

b - [b], c - [c], d - [g], d - [d], f - [g], d - [d], h - [h],
k - [k], l - [l], m - [m], n - [n], p - [p], p - [r], s - [s],
t - [t], f - [f], x - [x], c - [c], h - [h], w - [w], u - [u].

All named consonants represent 36 consonant sounds.

Russian also has 10 vowels and only 6 vowels.

A total of 33 letters (10 vowels + 21 consonants + "b" and "b"), denoting 42 sounds (6 vowels and 36 consonants), far from all speech sounds, but only the main ones.

The difference between the number of letters and sounds is due to the peculiarities of Russian writing, because, for example, hard and soft consonants are indicated by one letter.

The consonants are divided into:

voiced and deaf
hard and soft
paired and unpaired.

There are 36 different combinations of consonants in terms of pairing-unpairing of hard and soft, deaf and voiced: deaf - 16 (8 soft and 8 hard), voiced - 20 (10 soft and 10 hard).

Hard and soft consonants

Consonants are divided into hard and soft, such a division is due to the difference in the position of the tongue during their pronunciation. When we pronounce soft consonants, then the middle back of the tongue is raised to the hard palate. We also note that in addition to the fact that consonants are divided into hard and soft, they can be paired and unpaired.

For example, the letter “k” can mean both a hard sound [k], for example, in the word cat, and a soft sound [k`], for example, in the word glasses. We get that sounds [k] and [k '] form a pair of hardness-softness. For consonants that have a pair of hardness and softness, the following rule is true:

a consonant sound is solid if it is followed by vowels: a, o, y, s, e;
and is soft if it is followed by vowels: e, e, i, u, i.

In Russian, there are letters in which the sound that they designate can only be hard ([w], [g], [c]), or only soft ([y], [h`], [w`]). Such sounds do not belong to paired sounds, but are unpaired.

Voiceless and voiced consonants

Consonants are divided into voiced and deaf sounds. At the same time, deaf consonants are pronounced practically with a covered mouth and the vocal cords do not work when they are pronounced. Voiced consonants require more air, and when they are pronounced, the vocal cords work. That is, voiced consonants consist of noise and voice, and deaf consonants consist only of noise.

Life hack for determining the deafness or sonority of consonants for schoolchildren

To determine whether the sound encountered is deaf or sonorous, and children often have difficulty with this, one should plug their ears with their hands and pronounce the sound. When pronouncing deaf sounds somewhere in the distance, they will be heard, and when pronouncing voiced sounds in the ears, they will ring straight! So you can determine what sound met. Especially during phonetic parsing words.

Some consonants are similar both in their sound and also in the way they are pronounced. However, such sounds are pronounced with different tonality, that is, either deafly or sonorously. Such sounds are combined in pairs and form a group of paired consonants. There are 6 such pairs in total, each of them has a voiceless and voiced consonant sound. The rest of the consonants are unpaired.

paired consonants: b-p, v-f, g-k, d-t, s-s, f-sh.
unpaired consonants: l, m, n, p, d, c, x, h, u.

Sonorous, noisy, hissing and whistling consonants

In Russian, sonorous, noisy, as well as hissing and whistling consonants are also distinguished. We give a definition of each of the named types of consonants, and also list which consonants belong to one or another type.

Sonorant consonants

Sonorant consonants are voiced unpaired consonants.

In total there are 9 sonorous sounds: [th '], [l], [l '], [m], [m '], [n], [n '], [p], [p '].

noisy consonant sounds

Noisy consonants are divided into voiced and voiceless. 16 sounds belong to deaf noisy consonants: [k], [k '], [p], [n '], [s], [s '], [t], [t '], [f], [f '], [x], [x '], [c], [h '], [w], [u '], and noisy voiced consonants include 11 sounds: [b], [b '], [ c], [c'], [g], [g'], [e], [e'], [g], [h], [h'].

Hissing consonant sounds

In total, there are 4 hissing consonants in Russian: [g], [h '], [w], [sh']. All of them sound like hissing, which is why they are called hissing consonants.

whistling consonant sounds

Whistling consonants [s] [s ’] [s] [s ’] [ts] are in their pronunciation anterior lingual, fricative. When articulating solid sounds [z], [c] and [c], the teeth are exposed, the tip of the tongue leans against the lower teeth, and the back of the tongue slightly arches, the lateral edges of the tongue are pressed against the upper molars. Air passes through, creating friction noise.

When articulating soft sounds [s ’] and [з `], the same happens, however, the back of the tongue rises to the hard palate.

When pronouncing voiced sounds [з] and [з`], the vocal cords are closed and vibrate, but the palatine curtain is raised.

In Russian, there are voiced and deaf consonants. When studying phonetics (the science of speech sounds) and graphics (the science of the letters of the alphabet), it is necessary to clearly know which sound is deaf and which is voiced.

What is it for?

The fact is that in Russian it is not necessary that the letters denoting voiced consonants will be read loudly in all cases. There are also cases when letters denoting deaf sounds are read loudly. The correct correlation of letters and sounds will greatly help in learning the rules for writing words.

Let us examine in more detail what the concepts of deafness and sonority mean. The formation of voiced consonants occurs due to noise and voice: the air stream not only overcomes the obstacle in the oral cavity, but also vibrates the vocal cords.

The voiced sounds include the following sounds: b, c, d, d, f, s, l, m, n, p, d.
However, in phonetics, from this series of sounds, the so-called sonorants are also distinguished, which are as close as possible in their characteristics to vowel sounds: they can be sung, extended in speech. These sounds include th, r, l, n, m.

Deaf consonants are pronounced without the participation of the voice, only with the help of noise, while the vocal cords are relaxed.

These letters and sounds include the following: k, p, s, t, f, x, c, h, w, u. In order to make it easier to remember all the deaf consonants in Russian, you need to learn the phrase: “Stepka, do you want a cabbage?” - "Fi!" All consonants in it are deaf.

Pairs of voiced and voiceless consonants

Voiced and deaf sounds and the letters denoting them are opposed in Russian and form pairs:

b-p,
w-f,
g-k,
dt,
s-s,
f-sh.

If we take into account that the consonants in these pairs can also be soft (except w-w), then in total there will be 11 opposed pairs of deafness-voicedness. These sounds are called paired. The remaining voiced and deaf sounds do not have pairs. The voiced unpaired ones include the above sonorants, and the deaf ones - x, c, h, u. The table of consonants presented on our website will help you to study these sounds in more detail.

Click on the picture to print the table with voiced and voiceless consonants

How is it that letters in the Russian alphabet can represent several sounds?

The pronunciation of a sound is often predetermined by its position in a word. So, a voiced sound at the end of a word is deafened, and such a sound position is called “weak”. Stunning can also occur before the next deaf consonant, for example: pond, booth. We write voiced consonants, but we pronounce: rod, but ka.

Conversely, a deaf consonant can become voiced if it is followed by a voiced sound: threshing, but we pronounce malad ba. Knowing this feature of Russian phonetics, we check the spelling of consonants at the end and middle of a word using test words: hammer - thresh, pond-ponds, booth - booth. We select the test word so that after the doubtful consonant there is a vowel.

In order to remember what a sound is according to its characteristics, it is necessary to associate the sound with some object, event or natural sound in the mind. For example, the sound sh is similar to the rustling of leaves, and the sound j is like the buzzing of bees. The association will help you get your bearings in time. Another way is to create a phrase with a specific set of sounds.

Thus, knowledge of the relationship between letter and sound is extremely important for spelling and correct pronunciation. Without studying phonetics, it is impossible to study and correctly perceive the melody of a language.

Video lesson about voiced and voiceless consonants:

Tralik and Valik about voiced and voiceless consonants

Another video lesson for children with riddles about voiced and deaf consonants