Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries * Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and p ...

, the term spelling rule is used to describe a number of rules relating to the spelling of words in the language that would appear in most cases to deviate from a strictly

phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

transcription. All the spelling rules found in the Russian language dictate that certain consonants ''cannot'' be followed either ''under any circumstance'' or in an ''

unstressed syllable In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. That emphasis is typically caused by such properties as i ...

'' by certain vowels. In most cases where spelling rules exist, they do not actually affect the pronunciation. This is a result of the fact that five of the eight Russian consonants for which spelling rules of one sort or another apply can only be either "hard" ''or'' "soft" and cannot be both. Only with the three

velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum). Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive ...

s, which like most Russian consonants have both a hard and a soft form, does the spelling rule actually reflect phonetically based pronunciation. Spelling rules are of major importance in the study of Russian

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

. They have a very considerable effect on the

declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence, by way of some inflection. Declensions may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and ...

of nouns and adjectives and the

conjugation Conjugation or conjugate may refer to: Linguistics *Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form * Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language Mathematics *Complex conjugation, the change ...

of verbs because many of the endings produce consonant-vowel combinations that the spelling rules strictly forbid. In some cases where stress dictates whether or not a spelling rule is to be applied, "mixed declensions" can result. Russian grammar goes so far as to dictate that the spelling rules must take precedence over any other rule.

Basic Russian Spelling Rules

* Spelling Rule #1 ** After the velar consonants г, к, and х: ** and the

sibilant Sibilants are fricative consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words ''sip'', ''zip'', ''ship'', an ...

consonants ж, ч, ш, щ: *** one must ''never'' write the "hard" vowel ы, but must ''always'' replace it with its "soft" equivalent и, even though after ж and ш, и is pronounced as if it were written ы. * Spelling Rule #2 ** After the velar consonants г, к, and х: ** the sibilant consonants ж, ч, ш, щ ** and the hard consonant ц: *** one must ''never'' write the "soft" vowel ю, but must ''always'' replace it with its "hard" equivalent у, even though after ч and щ, у is pronounced as if it were written ю. *** one must ''never'' write the "soft" vowel я, but must ''always'' replace it with its "hard" equivalent а, even though after ч and щ, а is pronounced as if it were written я. * Spelling Rule #3 ** After the sibilant consonants ж, ч, ш, щ and the hard consonant ц: *** one must ''never'' write the letter о ''unless the syllable in which the о is to be added in the suffix is stressed''. *** if the syllable in which the о is to be added in the suffix is ''unstressed'', then one must always write е. : This spelling rule does not have a great deal of effect on actual Russian pronunciation, because when unstressed, the vowels о and е are weakened to a very weak sound like the

schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it ...

. : Note that this rule relates to the fact that ''stressed'' о after ж, ц, ч, ш and щ is pronounced the same as the always-stressed letter ё after the same letters. In most words, ё is preferred over stressed о after ж, ц, ч, ш and щ. When stress changes, ё ''invariably'' loses its accent. * Spelling Rule #4 ** If any of the vowels, ь, й or я is at the end of a word, it is dropped in order to add another suffix. This is the case with many

feminine Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered ...

and masculine (those ending in й) nouns in Russian: *** One must always replace the ь, й or я with и and ''never with ы'', even though after ж, ш, and ц, и is pronounced as if it were written ы and other suffixes for nouns allow ы after the always-hard consonant ц.

External links

Spelling rules

Basic Russian Spelling Rules

External links

See also