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Concept
Vowel reduction in Russian
Summary
In the pronunciation of the Russian language, several ways of vowel reduction (and its absence) are distinguished between the standard language and dialects. Russian orthography most often does not reflect vowel reduction, which can confuse foreign-language learners, but some spelling reforms have changed some words.
There are five vowel phonemes in Standard Russian. Vowels tend to merge when they are unstressed. The vowels /a/ and /o/ have the same unstressed allophones for a number of dialects and reduce to an unclear schwa /ə/. Unstressed /e/ may become more central and merge with /i/. Under some circumstances, /a/, /e/, /i/ and /o/ may all merge. The fifth vowel, /u/, 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 the high vowels (/i/ and /u/), which become near-close. Thus, игра́ть ('to play') is pronounced [ɪˈɡratj], and мужчи́на ('man') is pronounced [mʊˈɕːinə].
The five Russian vowels /u, i, e, a, o/ in unstressed position show two levels of reduction:
The first-degree reduction in the first pretonic position (immediately before the stress).
The second-degree reduction in positions other than the first pretonic position.
The allophonic result of the reduction is also heavily dependent on the quality or the nonexistence of the preceding consonant. Thus, the reduction is further grouped into three types according to the environment:
After the hard (non-palatalized or velarized) consonants (including always hard /ts/).
After the hard retroflex sibilants /ʂ/ and /ʐ/.
After the soft (palatalized) consonants (including the soft /tɕ/ and /ɕː/) and semi-vowel /j/.
The unstressed vowels also may be grouped in series that reflect similar patterns of reduction:
High /u/ and /i/ (never reduced).
Non-high /a/, /e/ and /o/ (always reduced).
Back /a/ and /o/ (both exhibit akanye).
Front /i/ and /e/ (both exhibit ikanye).
Back high /u/ (never reduced).
Two high vowels /u/ and /i/ are usually thought to undergo no reduction.
Official source
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