Why do we need to devide the consonants into the hard abd the soft? Why do we need the concept Soft Consonants?﻿---- Confusion over hard and soft consonantsI've just begun my Russian learning with its

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Why do we need to devide the consonants into the hard abd the soft?

Why do we need the concept Soft Consonants?

---- Confusion over hard and soft consonants

I've just begun my Russian learning with its alphabet. I think it's significant to make clear what sounds there are in Russian, what they sound like and how to articulate them. I have some confusion for present though. Pleaae check whether my analysis or understanding is wrong and give (detailed if you would like) explanation. Thank you very much.

1. if a soft consonant intails the vowel following it beginning with a semivowel /j/(this sound will make the tongue position for its preceding consonant move (from that for the normal one) more or less to the middle of your mouth), then we do not need the so-called soft consonants(or the soft sign) because the shift will automatically happen. And we have already had five Russian letters to indicate the vowels beginning with /j/, each for one vowel without, for example, the horizontally reversed R for A.

2. is the letter (soft sign) intended only for the soft consonants which do not have any vowels following(within a syllable in a word)? And >

3. how do you make the soft consonant /l(j)/ when it comes at the end of a word? It's awkward for the tongue tip because when you make /l/, it stays on the alveolar ridge, so it cannot touch the lower front teeth at the same time. And how about /g(j)/? And /r(j)/(the soft consonant indicated by the Russian letter P)?

9 Thg 01 2020 06:20

Bình luận · 6

Hi Auspicious,

Let me try to help you with that.

1. Honestly, I’m a bit confused about this part: “we do not need the so-called soft consonants (or the soft sign) because the shift will automatically happen”. You seem to confuse letters and sounds here.

<ul><li>the soft sign is a letter (it doesn’t have its own corresponding sound).</li><li>a soft consonant is a sound (there are no special letters for soft consonants, we use one letter for both the soft and the hard version)</li></ul>

If you mean how to pronounce syllables like «мя», «ре» and so on (consonant + one of the 5 vowels you’ve mentioned) – then you really don’t need the soft sign in this situation. The rule is that я, е, ё, ю, и make the preceding consonant soft.

2. There are situations, where you can see both a soft sign and a vowel.

for example: рыбья – fish (as an adjective)

The last syllable is pronounced as [b’ja]. The soft sign makes “б” soft and “я” is pronounced as [йа] - [ja].

Other examples include «скамья», «друзья», «варенье» etc.

3. Usually softness is marked by an apostrophe, so I’m not exactly sure what you mean.

1) If it’s just how to pronounce the soft “l” sound – then you just don’t need to touch the front teeth at the same time

2) If you mean things like «лья», «гья», «рья» - these are pronounced [l’ja], [g’ja], [r’ja] – here you make a soft “l” sound at the top of your mouth and then proceed to the “j” sound at the lower front teeth. One comes after another, not simultaneously. [j] here is more or less the same as in the English words “you”, “young”.

Hope this helps!

10 tháng 1 năm 2020

My knowledge of Russian is next to nothing, but still, the мягкий знак (soft sign, ь) isn't really a letter. I think it that as a modifier of the consonant preceding it, it's something like a diacritic similar to c / ç in French, n / ñ in Spanish and е / ё in Russian. It indicates that the preceding consonant is to be softened or palatalized. I can hear the difference with and without the ь, but being able to say the soft consonants is another matter. For example брат (brother) is different from брать (take / get). Russian phonology makes the distinction between palatalized and normal consonants, but rather than have separate letters for both versions of all consonants they use the мягкий знак to simplify matters.

13 tháng 1 năm 2020