About phoneme classes in russian

Abstract

The article presents an unconventional view of the composition of phoneme classes in the Russian language. Four classes of phonemes are distinguished: 1) consonants (noisy consonants): are non-syllabic and have phonological signs of sonority/deafness and hardness/softness; 2) sonants: implement the phonological sign of hardness/softness and do not implement the phonological sign of sonority/deafness, and are neutral in relation to the sign of syllabicity/non-syllabicity; 3) glides: are non-syllabic and do not implement the phonological signs of sonority/deafness and hardness/softness; 4) vowels: they are characterized by syllabicity and lack of sonority/ deafness and hardness/softness. The most prominent representative of glides is [j]. This is a special phoneme in which the signs of the consonant and sonor are weakened, but at the same time the signs of the vowel (syllabicity) are not fully realized. Its allophone is [y] – "and-non-syllabic", as well as" yot zero " in the position before the vowel [and]. The main variant of the glide phoneme is represented by [j]. This sound can be pronounced in isolation, whereas the sound [y] is only possible in phonetic conjunction with other sounds. In the consonant class, glide features have allophones [b] and [b’]. In the case of distinguishing noisy consonants by sonority-deafness before [b], we are dealing with a sonant [b], and in the case of deafening [b] and mixing it with [f], we are dealing with a consonant. This allows us to characterize them as transitional sounds – consonant-sonor. Key words: phoneme, allophone, background, phoneme classes, Russian language, sonants, glide.