What letters do not indicate any sounds in Russian?

Some letters perform a certain function in the pronunciation of words: the presence or absence of a soft and solid sign can radically change the meaning of the word itself. About all the letters that have no sounds, find out their articles.

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In the Russian language-there are letters that do not mean one specific sound. In spelling, such letters are used as pointers for the correct pronunciation of words. The letters have these qualities: B (soft sign) and b (solid sign).

Letters without sounds: the letter "b"

How exactly the meaning of words changes when writing these letter signs can be seen on the following example: without a solid sign in the word “villages” and with a solid sign “ate”, the absent soft sign in the word “seed” or its presence in the word “family”. Without your own sound - These letter signs are able to affect the pronunciation of neighboring letters.
The letter without sound is a soft sign - in Russian speech involved to soften the previous consonant letter: Horse, feathers, lies, play, remote control, boat.
In spelling, a soft sign performs not only a softening function, but also a dividing, grammatical one and acts as a designation of independent softening for paired consonants.

Sometimes, the letter B Provides assistance in the formation of different configurations of the verb from a single paramount source, for example: in the words “spins” and “spin” - a soft sign changes the shape of the same verb.
Also Soft sign serves to determine the male or female family In nouns. For example: “blizzard” is a feminine word, and “spin” is a masculine noun.
Used this letter without sounds Most often in the middle of the word: root or suffix. And also at the end of the word - to soften the pronunciation of the previous solid sound. In cases where the letter B It is used as a dividing sign - it is written after the consonant letter, inside the word and before the vowels: Yu, and, I, I, E. As in the words: drinks, necklace, doubts, sparrows, backwaters.

Soft sign - Changes the pronunciation of these letters: each of these letters acquires an additional sound "th". Thus, their sound will look like this: and - “yi”, e - “ye”, y - “yy”, e - “yo”, I - “yy”.

The letter b - performs the dividing function when writing some words of foreign origin: It does not allow the vowel letter “o” and the previous consonant, merge during pronunciation: battalion, pavilion, champignon, septallion. It is important to remember that after the prefixes - a dividing soft sign is not used in spelling.

Letters without sounds: "Kommersant" and its pronunciation in Russian

A hard sign is also letter without sounds In pronunciation of words, performs exclusively dividing function. Its spelling can change the meaning of the word: “ate”, “sat” - the difference in meaning makes the presence of a solid sign. But unlike a soft sign, the letter symbol B - It is written after the prefixes: between the consonants and vowels I, Yo, Yu, E. For example in words: conjunctivitis, ad, suck, the connector.

When writing disconnecting solid sign, in the sound, after the consonant, the iotping of the subsequent vowel letter appears. There is no softening in the pronunciation of vowels, and two components of sounds are clearly distinguished: the vowel letter and sound “th”. For each letter, these sounds are connected to the composition: y - “yu”, I - “ya”, ё - “yo”, e - “ye”. However, there is a sound reading when the vowel in the word is read without the use of additional sound “th”.
In this version, its reading sounds without softness. There are complex words in which a solid sign is written: if the written word is composed of two parts where the first part is occupied by the word formed from the numeral, and the second part begins with the vowel letter: Three -tier, four -tier, dual -core.
A dividing solid sign It is written if the words have a prefix borrowed from foreign words. This also applies to those cases when the prefix during the transformation of the word was connected with the root, forming at the end the consonant letter: adjutant, conjunctural, subjective, trans -European, anti -hydrochloric, object. In the sound of these words, it prevails to a greater extent, iodine of the vowel letter.

Features of the sound of letters without sounds "b and b"

Mild and hard sign Not new letters and their existence originates from the Old Russian language. However, in those days, their sound was different: the letter B - read as the sound "and" was called "Ere", and the letter B - corresponded to the name "Er" and sound "O".
The pronunciation of the last letter symbol, in the ancient sound was brief, without softness. In Old Russian, there were three types of vowels: nasal, brief and full letters. Each group of letters - performed its function to transmit certain sounds.
Over time, the tongue was modified, and nasal vowels - Lost their significance in pronunciation. However, their spelling in the text was partially preserved and displayed with conditional letter signs.
Letters without sounds Which, when writing, were at the end of the word or next to shock vowels, ceased to exist completely. There were only those that were displayed in the shock syllable, next to other vowels and in front of a group of consonant letters, as well as such that when writing, they retained their neighborhood with vowels strong in sound and acquired pronunciation in the form of an independent sound “E” or “ O".
The modification of sound values, can be seen on a comparative example of modern words. So in writing the word “laughter”, the letter E was indicated by a soft sign, and in the word “scroll”, the letter O - the Old Russian scripture replaced, a firm sign. Pronunciation of letters without sounds b and b - It was of direct importance from the location of their relative to the shock syllable: the sound changed based on how strong the letter was occupied.

Therefore, in modern Russian, many of the long -standing types of pronunciation have acquired a different form of writing and sounding, called as - "Fugitive vowels". In addition, many writers of antiquity ceased to use the spelling of a solid sign at the end of the word, considering it useless from the point of view of the pronunciation of sounds.
His The main task It was indicated by the firmness of the upcoming consonant: the Old Russian “weight” - read as “weight”. It was so clear that the absence of a softening sign at the end of the word means a solid sound. The need to write the letter b at the end of the word - disappeared.

But soft sign - He retained his positions to our times. It is possible that over time, both signs will lose their relevance and will be replaced when writing - diacritical symbols. Some Slavic peoples already have similar symbols in their language literacy.