Editing Russian language (section)

== Phonology ==
{{Main|Russian phonology}}

The Russian [[syllable]] structure can be quite complex, with both initial and final consonant clusters of up to four consecutive sounds. Using a formula with V standing for the nucleus (vowel) and C for each consonant, the maximal structure can be described as follows:

(C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)

=== Consonants ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|- style="font-size: 90%;"
|+ Consonant phonemes
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | 
! colspan="2" | [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan="2" | [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]<br/>/[[Dental consonant|Dental]]
! colspan="2" | [[Postalveolar consonant|Post-<br/>alveolar]]
! rowspan="2" | [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! colspan="2" | [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
|-
! plain
! [[Palatalization (phonetics)|pal.]]
! plain
! [[Palatalization (phonetics)|pal.]]
! plain
! [[Palatalization (phonetics)|pal.]]
! plain
! [[Palatalization (phonetics)|pal.]]
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}}
| {{IPA link|mʲ}}
| {{IPA link|n}}
| {{IPA link|nʲ}}
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[Stop consonant|Stop]]
! voiceless
| {{IPA link|p}}
| {{IPA link|pʲ}}
| {{IPA link|t}}
| {{IPA link|tʲ}}
|
|
|
| {{IPA link|k}}
| {{IPA link|kʲ}}
|-
! voiced
| {{IPA link|b}}
| {{IPA link|bʲ}}
| {{IPA link|d}}
| {{IPA link|dʲ}}
|
|
|
| {{IPA link|ɡ}}
| {{IPA link|ɡʲ}}
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Affricate]]
|
|
| {{IPA link|t͡s}}
| ({{IPA link|t͡sʲ}})
|
| {{IPA link|t͡ɕ}}
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[Fricative]]
! voiceless
| {{IPA link|f}}
| {{IPA link|fʲ}}
| {{IPA link|s}}
| {{IPA link|sʲ}}
| {{IPA link|ʂ}}
| {{IPA link|ɕ}}ː
|
| {{IPA link|x}}
| {{IPA link|xʲ}}
|-
! voiced
| {{IPA link|v}}
| {{IPA link|vʲ}}
| {{IPA link|z}}
| {{IPA link|zʲ}}
| {{IPA link|ʐ}}
| ({{IPA link|ʑ}}ː)
|
| ({{IPA link|ɣ}})
| ({{IPA link|ɣʲ}})
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Approximant]]
|
|
| {{IPA link|ɫ}}
| {{IPA link|lʲ}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|j}}
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Trill consonant|Trill]]
|
|
| {{IPA link|r}}
| {{IPA link|rʲ}}
|
|
|
|
|
|}

Russian is notable for its distinction based on [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalization]] of most of its consonants. The phoneme /{{IPA|ts}}/ is generally considered to be always hard; however, loan words such as [[Zürich|Цюрих]] and some other neologisms contain /{{IPA|tsʲ}}/ through the word-building processes (e.g., фрицёнок ["фриц" plus diminutive "ёнок"], шпицята ["шпиц" plus diminutive "ята"]). Palatalization means that the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant. In the case of {{IPA|/tʲ/}} and {{IPA|/dʲ/}}, the tongue is raised enough to produce slight frication (affricate sounds; cf. Belarusian ць, дзь, or Polish ć, dź). The sounds {{IPA|/t, d, ts, s, z, n, rʲ/}} are [[dental consonant|dental]], that is, pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the teeth rather than against the [[alveolar ridge]]. According to some linguists, the "plain" consonants are velarized as in [[Irish language|Irish]], something which is most noticeable when it involves a labial before a hard vowel, such as мы, {{IPA|/mˠɨː/}}, "we" , or бэ, {{IPA|/bˠɛ/}}, "the letter Б".

=== Vowels ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; float: left; margin-right: 1em;"
!
! [[Front vowel|Front]]
! [[Central vowel|Central]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | [[Close vowel|Close]]
| style="font-size:90%" | {{IPA link|i}}
| style="font-size:90%" | ({{IPA link|ɨ}})
| style="font-size:90%" | {{IPA link|u}}
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| style="font-size:90%" | {{IPA link|e̞|e}}
|
| style="font-size:90%" | {{IPA link|o̞|o}}
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | [[Open vowel|Open]]
|
| style="font-size:90%" | {{IPA link|ä|a}}
|
|}

[[File:Russian vowel chart.svg|thumb|Russian vowel chart by {{Harvcoltxt|Trofimov|Jones|1923|p=55}}]]

Russian has five or six vowels in stressed syllables, {{IPA|/i, u, e, o, a/}}, and in some analyses {{IPA|/ɨ/}}, but in most cases these vowels have merged to only two to four vowels when unstressed: {{IPA|/i, u, a/}} (or {{IPA|/ɨ, u, a/}}) after hard consonants and {{IPA|/i, u/}} after soft ones. These vowels have several [[allophones]], which are displayed on the diagram to the right.<ref>{{Cite web |date=27 January 2020 |title=Russian Vowels: All the Rules You Need to Know {{!}} FluentU Russian Blog |url=https://www.fluentu.com/blog/russian/russian-vowels/ |access-date=28 November 2023 |website=FluentU Russian |language=en-US |archive-date=4 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240104031432/https://www.fluentu.com/blog/russian/russian-vowels/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Ordin, Mikhail. (2011). Palatalization and Intrinsic Prosodic Vowel Features in Russian. Language and speech. 54. 547-68. 10.1177/0023830911404962.</ref>