As you know, the Russian alphabet includes 33 letters. Moreover, it is necessary to distinguish the concept of “letter” from sound. A letter is what we write and see, and a sound is what we hear and pronounce.

Of the 21st consonant letters, two (these are “b” and “b”) have no sound equivalents. Others are divided into several categories based on sounds, one of them is hissing. From the first grade, everyone learns a simple rule about them: “zhi” and shi” are written with “i”, “cha” or “sha” is written with “a”, and the combinations “schu” or “chu” with “u”.

The phonetics of the Russian language includes vowels and consonants, indicated in writing by certain letters.

Key vowel sounds, which are under stress, there are only six:

Since there are more consonant sound formations in the Russian language, they are classified according to the following criteria:

• method of education;
• place;
• according to the degree of participation of noise and voice.

• sonorants and their soft pairs (p, m, l) and “th” without a pair;
• noisy (voiced and unvoiced);
• hissing (sch, h, sh and zh).

In this case, Zh and Sh are always hard, and Ch and Shch are only soft.

Features of hissing sounds

Sibilants have their own characteristics when pronounced. So, you need to tighten your lips and move them forward a little. They cannot be pronounced with closed lips, unlike some others (for example, M). The tip of the tongue is slightly pressed against the palate with its edges, leaving a small space in the center of the tongue. It is through this that the air passes, creating a hissing sound when pronounced.

Initially, hissing consonants were soft in the Old Russian language. They appeared as a result of the first palatalization, or when the combination of consonants with , [‘zj] and other sounds changed.

The initial softness of these sounds determined the fact that in many literary monuments the letters that denoted them , pronounced followed by vowels or “ь”, For example:

• husband;
• nessshi;
• hour;
• comfort, etc.

However, in the process of formation language norms and the adverbs [w] and [zh] hardened, but “ch” still remained soft. The hardening of [w] took place around the 14th century. At this time, variants of writing the sounds [w] or [zh] with the letter “s” after them appeared in literary monuments. For example, “Shyshkin” or “hold.”

IN modern language traditionally writing a soft sign at the end or the letter “i” to denote the sound [s] in words such as:

• disturb;
• sew;
• rye, etc.

Combinations such as soft [schtsch] or [zhj], which were common in antiquity, then lost the explosive element in such combinations in words such as “I’m looking for” or “yeast.”

Sample tasks on the topic of sibilant consonants

The teacher who will teach a lesson for first graders on this topic, should set itself the following tasks:

• he is obliged to create conditions for children to learn the concept of hardness and softness of consonants, for example, that “zh” and “w” are always hard;
• teach students to correctly formulate writing skills;
• develop their written and coherent oral speech;
• use new information technologies when teaching.

After the teacher explains the essence of the lesson, he can write several letters on the board (B, L, CH, K, R).

Then the question is asked which of the letters presented does not denote any sound, and the correct answer is b. You can also ask students to find the letter for the hissing sound.

• children are asked to take turns reading the text (the skill of reading aloud is improved);
• we select some words and invite the children to explain their meaning (at the teacher’s choice);
• offer to find those words that contain letters denoting hissing consonants;
• Have them say them out loud and write the letters on the board.

The next part of the lesson is to do working with images. Hang pictures on the board and ask students questions:

• what objects are shown in the pictures;
• what names contain hissing sounds;
• Which of the listed sizzling ones are hard and which are soft.

Working with tongue twisters

Tongue twisters are a great warm-up for children, which perfectly develops their speech skills. In the educational process they are used in different ways, in particular, in the study of sibilant consonants.

Ask the children what hissing sounds they found in tongue twisters, whether they differ from each other, and what their main characteristics are.

Dictation Offer to write down one of them in your notebook and ask students to underline the hard (or soft) sibilants. Invite one of the students to do this at the board.

Partial written work was mentioned above. It can also include homework. Sometimes workbooks contain tasks where you need to insert missing letters into words that contain certain sibilants. They should be emphasized.

So, we looked at what hissing consonant sounds are, how they can be identified, and with the help of what tasks you can teach a lesson at school on this topic.

Video

Watch an interesting video lesson about sibilant consonants.

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Hissing consonant sounds - Textbook on the Russian language, grade 1 (Kanakina, Goretsky)

Short description:

Very often, the names of speech sounds are not given by chance. Vowels are so named because they are vocal. New topic in your Russian language textbook it’s called “Hissing consonants.” These are the sounds [w] and [zh], [sch’] and [h’]. And they really sizzle, don't they?! It turns out that they were given this name based on the principle of onomatopoeia. In the science of the Russian language they are classified as unpaired. But still they form two pairs with each other. Always solid unpaired [w] and [zh] are one pair. And always soft unpaired [sch’] and [h’] are different. Not only in their sound, but also in their character, these consonants stand out among others. We can say that they have a difficult character. Several rather difficult cases of spelling in Russian are associated with them. writing. You should take a closer look and listen to the hissing consonant sounds. Studying their character, understanding their characteristics means successfully coping with those rules that will need to be learned in the future.

In this article we will talk about consonant sounds, their quantity, types (soft, hard, voiceless and voiced) and other features and interesting facts.

There are 33 letters in the Russian language, of which 21 are consonants:

b - [b], c - [c], g - [g], d - [d], g - [g], j - [th], z - [z],
k - [k], l - [l], m - [m], n - [n], p - [p], p - [p], s - [s],
t - [t], f - [f], x - [x], c - [c], h - [h], w - [w], sch - [sch].

All named consonant letters represent 36 consonant sounds.

The Russian language also has 10 vowel letters and only 6 vowel sounds.

A total of 33 letters (10 vowels + 21 consonants + “ь” and “ъ”), denoting 42 sounds (6 vowels and 36 consonants), not all sounds of speech, but only the main ones.

The difference between the number of letters and sounds is due to the peculiarities of Russian writing, because, for example, hard and soft consonant sounds are indicated by one letter.

Consonant sounds are divided into:

• voiced and voiceless,
• hard and soft,
• paired and unpaired.

There are a total of 36 different combinations of consonants by pairing and unpairing, hard and soft, voiceless and voiced: voiceless - 16 (8 soft and 8 hard), voiced - 20 (10 soft and 10 hard).

Hard and soft consonants

Consonants are divided into hard and soft, this division is due to the difference in the position of the tongue when pronouncing them. When we pronounce soft consonants, then the middle back of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate. We also note that in addition to the fact that consonants are divided into hard and soft, they can be paired and unpaired.

For example, the letter “k” can denote both a hard sound [k], for example, in the word cat, and a soft sound [k`], for example, in the word glasses. We get that the sounds [k] and [k’] form a pair of hardness and softness. For consonant sounds that have a pair of hardness and softness, the following rule applies:

• consonants A sound is hard if it is followed by consonants: a, o, u, s, e;
• and is soft if it is followed by vowels: e, e, i, yu, i.

In the Russian language there are letters in which the sound they denote can only be hard ([ш], [ж], [ц]), or only soft ([й], [ч`], [ш`]). Such sounds do not belong to paired sounds, but are unpaired.

Voiceless and voiced consonants

Consonants are divided into voiced and voiceless sounds. In this case, voiceless consonants are pronounced with the mouth practically covered and the vocal cords do not work when pronouncing them. Voiced consonants require more air, and the vocal cords work when pronouncing them. That is, voiced consonants consist of noise and voice, and voiceless consonants consist only of noise.

Lifehack for determining the deafness or voicedness of consonants for schoolchildren

To determine whether a sound you encounter is dull or voiced, and children often have difficulty with this, you should cover your ears with your hands and pronounce the sound. When pronouncing dull sounds, they will be heard somewhere in the distance, but when pronouncing voiced sounds, your ears will actually ring! This way you can determine what sound was encountered. Especially during phonetic analysis of words.

Some consonant sounds are similar both in their sound and also in the way they are pronounced. However, such sounds are pronounced with different tonality, that is, either dull or loud. Such sounds are combined in pairs and form a group of paired consonants. There are 6 such pairs in total, each of them has a voiceless and a voiced consonant sound. The remaining consonants are unpaired.

• paired consonants: b-p, v-f, g-k, d-t, z-s, zh-sh.
• unpaired consonants: l, m, n, r, y, c, x, h, shch.

Sonorant, noisy, hissing and whistling consonants

In the Russian language, sonorant, noisy, as well as hissing and whistling consonant sounds are also distinguished. We will give a definition of each of the named types of consonants, and also list which consonants belong to one or another type.

Sonorant consonants

Sonorant consonants - these are voiced unpaired consonants.

There are 9 sonorant sounds in total: [y’], [l], [l’], [m], [m’], [n], [n’], [r], [r’].

Noisy consonants

Noisy consonant sounds are divided into voiced and voiceless. Voiceless noisy consonants include 16 sounds: [k], [k'], [p], [p'], [s], [s'], [t], [t'], [f], [f '], [x], [x'], [ts], [ch'], [sh], [sh'], and noisy voiced consonants include 11 sounds: [b], [b'], [ c], [v'], [g], [g'], [d], [d'], [g], [h], [h'].

Hissing consonants

There are a total of 4 hissing consonant sounds in the Russian language: [zh], [ch’], [sh], [sch’]. They all resemble hissing to the ear, which is why they are called hissing consonants.

Whistling consonants

Whistling consonant sounds [з] [з'] [с] [с'] [ц] are, in their pronunciation, front-lingual, fricative. When articulating hard sounds [z], [s] and [ts], the teeth are exposed, the tip of the tongue leans against the lower teeth, and the back of the tongue is slightly arched, the lateral edges of the tongue are pressed against the upper molars. The air passes through, creating frictional noise.

When articulating soft sounds[s'] and [z `] also happen, but the back of the tongue rises to the hard palate.

When pronouncing voiced sounds [з] and [з`], the vocal cords are closed and vibrate, but the velum palatine is raised.

In the Russian language there are four letters called hissing. These are “zh”, “sh”, “ch”, “sch”. There are a number of spelling rules that dictate the choice of letters following sibilants.

Instructions

• It would be more correct to call sounds hissing, not letters. But since letters are used to record sounds, they are also called hissing. There are four such letters in the Russian language. These are “zh”, “sh”, “ch”, “sch”.
• Sometimes the letter “ts” is also classified as sizzling. But the sound [ts] is not hissing. Although if you look at the rules of Russian spelling, the letter “ts” requires the same attention as the above.
• Remember the very first spelling rules that you learned in first grade. Yes, it is with “zhi-shi” and “cha-sha” that learning Russian literacy usually begins. In subsequent grades, during Russian language lessons, students have to learn many rules, including those relating to the spelling of words with sibilants.
• One of these rules is writing a soft sign (“b”) after hissing ones. Thus, in the names of masculine nouns ending in a hissing, the soft sign “b” is not written (“hut”, “ball”, “cloak”), but in feminine nouns it is necessarily present (“lie”, “mouse”, “ night"). Adverbs ending in hissing must have an “b” at the end, except for the words “uzh”, “married”, “unbearable”. Verbs in the second person are also written with “ь” (“read”, “wash”).
• Another rule concerns the choice of letters “o” or “e” (“е”). At the endings of nouns and adjectives, after sibilants and “ts”, “o” is written under stress, and “e” is written in an unstressed position. For example: “ivy”, but “vegetable”; “porch”, but “on the porch”, “big”, but “good”. In words such as “shepherd”, “hare”, “little book”, “o” must be written after the hissing word.
• But in verb endings and suffixes, although “o” is heard, it is written “e” (“e”): “bakes”, “uproot”.
• Always be careful when you come across the letters “zh”, “sh”, “ch”, “sch” and partly “c”. Remember those rules that talk about choosing the letters that follow the hissing letters.

In Russian, consonant letters have several classifications. Let's look at them separately.

Hard and soft, paired, unpaired

All letters of the Russian alphabet, except for vowels (a, o, u, e, ы, e, yu, ya, ё, i), as well as hard (ъ) and soft (ь) signs are consonants. Only consonant sounds can be divided into soft and hard.

For example, (b)–(b´): bolt-bit, (e)–(d´): oak – business. In the first case, the consonant sound is hard, in the second it is soft.

According to hardness and softness, consonants form pairs. There are 15 such pairs. The consonants that do not have a pair are (ts), (zh), (sh), (ch), (sch), (y). For this reason they are called unpaired.

Among the unpaired 4 consonants, when pronounced, their consonants hiss, that is, they are sibilant. These are – (g), (w), (w), (h). Moreover, (w) and (g) are always hard, and (w) and (h) are always soft. You just need to remember this.

Thus, (ш) and (ж) are hard unpaired sibilant consonant sounds.

Peculiarities of using “zh” and “sh” in words

So, let's look at how these sounds manifest themselves in words. Let's do a sound-letter analysis.

Shorts – (shorts). Here the sound (w) stands next to the sound (o). There are no doubts about pronunciation and spelling.

Whisper - (sh o p a t). Since the sound (w) is always hard, the sound (e) is not able to soften it, as, for example, in the word “children,” where (d´) becomes soft. Doubts arise when choosing between “e” and “o”. In this case, to check the spelling, we select a word with the same root word “ё” or “e” (whisper).

As for the sound (g), the same rule applies here. You just need to distinguish between the roots - zhyol and - zhog. To choose the correct spelling, we turn to the context.

For example, “Petya burned his hand.” In this context we mean action. “Burn” is a verb, so it’s written “ё”. “My father had a bad burn.” Here the word “burn” is a noun and it is spelled with an “o”.

Another rule: “we always write zhi-shi through I.” This means that after “zh” and “sh” “s” cannot be written. In general, the exceptions are:

• foreign words (fishu, jury);
• foreign names (Jules);
• abbreviations (inter-legal bureau).