Introduction to Russian phonology and word structure

Ch 6: Vowel reduction, cont’d.

Q&A

• 1. What are the relative pros and cons of calculating vowel reduction from Russian orthography vs. from “basic sounds”

Q&A

• 1. What are the relative pros and cons of calculating vowel reduction from Russian orthography vs. from “basic sounds”– Orthography alone leaves us with some

issues concerning e, a, and я which we cannot solve unless we know the basic sound

Q&A

• 2. What happens to unstressed e and я?

Q&A

• 2. What happens to unstressed e and я? – They reduce to [] in endings that would be

[o] or [á] under stress– Elsewhere they reduce to [i]

Q&A

• 3. Is vowel reduction a purely phonetic/phonological process? Are the various subsystems of language really autonomous?

Q&A

• 3. Is vowel reduction a purely phonetic/phonological process? Are the various subsystems of language really autonomous?– No and no. The phonology needs the

morphology in order to work correctly. (But I’m biased. I don’t believe there are autonomous systems in language.)

Q&A

• 4. Discuss rules for morphological endings in nouns and adjectives as opposed to verbs. (Hint: see question 2 above.)

Q&A

• 4. Discuss rules for morphological endings in nouns and adjectives as opposed to verbs. (Hint: see question 2 above.)– Basic o and a reduce to [] after soft

consonants in nouns and adjectives. In verbs it is more complicated: basic o will reduce to [i], as in знает [znájit], but basic a will reduce to [] as in сидя [síd] and видят [vídt]

Q&A

• 5. The vowels i and u don’t reduce. What makes them special?

Q&A

• 5. The vowels i and u don’t reduce. What makes them special?– They are the high vowels. They behave the

same whether or not they are stressed.

Q&A

• 6. Why does a behave the same as я after ч, щ?

Q&A

• 6. Why does a behave the same as я after ч, щ?– Because the spelling of a instead of я is

merely a spelling convention (see chapter 7 for more on this!)

Q&A

• 7. How do you know when you have a basic o? How can it be spelled?

Q&A

• 7. How do you know when you have a basic o? How can it be spelled?– A basic o is a vowel that is pronounced [o]

when stressed. It can be spelled o, e, or ё.

Q&A

• How would you transcribe the Asg and Lsg of море?

Q&A

• How would you transcribe the Asg and Lsg of море?– Asg [mor]– Lsg [mori]

Q&A

• 10. Why aren’t we yet equipped to transcribe петля and передняя?

Q&A

• 10. Why aren’t we yet equipped to transcribe петля and передняя?– Because we don’t yet know about softness

assimilation (coming up in chapter 9), and we need to know this in order to assign []/[e] in these words

More practice!

• Let’s transcribe all the words on p. 41 and the chapter 5 handout.