Vowel reduction in Russian differs in the standard language and dialects, which differ from one another. Several ways of vowel reduction are distinguished. There are five vowel phonemes in Standard Russian. Vowels tend to merge when they are unstressed. The vowels and have the same unstressed allophones for a number of dialects and reduce to an unclear schwa. Unstressed may become more central and merge with. Under some circumstances,,, and may all merge. The fifth vowel,, may also be centralized but does not typically merge with any of the other vowels. Other types of reduction are phonetic, such as that of high vowels, which become near-close so игра́ть is pronounced, and мужчи́на is pronounced. Russian orthography does not reflect vowel reduction, which can confuse foreign-language learners.
General description
The five Russian vowels in unstressed position show two levels of reduction:
The first degree reduction in the first pretonic position.
The second degree reduction in other than the first pretonic position.
The allophonic result of the reduction is also heavily dependent on the quality of the preceding consonant as well as the lack of it thereof. Thus the reduction is further grouped into three types according to the environment:
The unstressed vowels also may be grouped in series, reflecting similar patterns of the reduction:
High and .
Non-high, and .
Or otherwise:
Back and .
Front and .
Back high .
High vowels
Two high vowels and are usually thought to undergo no reduction. However, on the phonetic level they show allophonic centralization, particularly under the influence of the preceding or the following consonants. The unstressed high back vowel is either or . The unstressed high front vowel is either or , or or . Nevertheless, in rapid colloquial speech they both may be reduced to schwa, for example, до́брым versus до́бром : the case ending //-im// in the former may surface as like the case ending //-om//, thus leading to the merger of and ; or де́лают versus де́лает : both may surface as or.
Back vowels
Other than in Northern Russian dialectsRussian speakers have a strong tendency to merge unstressed and, called akanye. It contrasts with okanye pronunciations. It works in Standard Russian as follows:
After hard consonants, standard phonological rules prescribe a two-level reduction. The stressed vowel is normally the longest and the only place that the sound is permitted. In the syllable immediately before the stress and in absolute word-initial position, both reduce to . In all other locations, and are reduced further to a short. For example, паро́м , о́блако , трава́ . In practice, the second reduction has a gradient character: if the vowel in question is pronounced for enough time, it may be pronounced as. Shorter durations have the effect of gradually transforming into schwa. It has been argued recently that the change of sound quality during second-degree reduction is merely an artifact of duration-dependent "phonetic undershoot", when the speaker intends to pronounce, but the limited time reduces the likelihood of the tongue being able to arrive at the intended vowel target.
In fast speech, reduction ultimately may result in the vowel being dropped altogether, with the preceding consonant slightly lengthened or turned into a syllabic consonant: сапоги́, vs. , потоло́к , де́сять .
When,,, or is written in a word, it indicates so сообража́ть is pronounced.
In prepositions, the processes occur even across word boundaries, as in под мо́рем , на оборо́те . It does not occur for other parts of speech.
Across certain word-final suffixes, the reductions do not completely apply. In certain suffixes, after palatalised consonants and, and can be distinguished from and from each other: по́ле is different from по́ля , and the final sounds differ from the realisation of in that position. There are a number of exceptions to the above comments regarding the akanye:
is not always reduced in foreign borrowings: . The common pattern for this exception is the final unstressed о being preceded by another vowel. Compare with мо́но, фо́то whose final unstressed о is reduced to.
Speakers with old-Moscovian reflexes pronounce as after retroflex consonants and ; that pronunciation generally applies only to жале́ть , к сожале́нию , and oblique cases of ло́шадь , such as лошаде́й.
replaces after in the oblique cases of some numerals: два́дцать .
Front vowels
The main feature of front vowel reduction is ikanye, the merger of unstressed with. Because has several allophones, unstressed is pronounced as one of these allophones and not actually as the close front unrounded vowel. For example, семена́ is pronounced, цена́ . In registers without the merger, unstressed is more retracted. Even then, however, the distinction between unstressed and unstressed is most clearly heard in the syllable just before the stress. Thus, прида́ть contrasts with преда́ть. The two are pronounced and respectively. Yekanye pronunciation is coupled with a stronger tendency for both unstressed and to be pronounced the same as. Speakers may switch between the two types of pronunciation because of various factors, the most important factor likely being speed of pronunciation.
Yakanye
Yakanye is the pronunciation of unstressed and following palatalised consonants preceding a stressed syllable as rather than . This pronunciation is observed in the Belarusian language and most Southern Russian dialects, as expressed in a quip : The example also demonstrates other features of Southern dialects: palatalised final in the 3rd person forms of verbs, instead of and instead of and, clear unstressed in place of or.
Spelling
Vowel reduction makes some words have spellings that contradict their etymology, such as , , . In the closely related Belarusian language, original has merged with as in Standard Russian, but the reduced pronunciation is reflected in the spelling.
