Vowel reduction in Russian

Vowel reduction in Russian differs in the standard language and in dialects. Several ways of reduction (and its absence) are distinguished.

There are five vowel phonemes in Standard Russian. Vowels tend to merge together when they are unstressed. The vowels /a/ and /o/ have the same unstressed allophones for a number of dialects and reduce to an unclear schwa. Unstressed /e/ may become more central if it doesn't merge with /i/. Other types of reduction are phonetic, such as that of high vowels (/i/ and /u/), which become near-close so that этап ('stage') is pronounced as [ɪˈtap] and мужчина ('man') as [mʊˈɕːinə].

Russian orthography does not reflect vowel reduction and this can cause confusion for beginning students of Russian.

Back vowels

Other than in Northern Russian dialects as well as those of Kaluga, Kostroma and Vologda, Russian speakers have a strong tendency to merge unstressed /a/ and /o/. This is called akanye (аканье) and contrasts with okanye (оканье) pronunciations. The way this works in Standard Russian goes as follows:

• After hard (non-palatalized) consonants, both reduce to [ə] or [ɐ]; [ɐ] appears in the syllable immediately before the stress and in and absolute word-initial position. Examples: паром [pɐˈrom] ('ferry'), облако [ˈobləkə] ('cloud'), трава [trɐˈva] ('grass').
• When <аа>, <ао>, <оа>, or <оо> is written in a word, it indicates [ɐ.ɐ] so that соображать ('to consider'), is pronounced [sɐ.ɐ.brɐˈʐatʲ].
• Both /o/ and /a/ merge with /i/ after palatalized consonants and /j/ (/o/ is written as <е> in these positions). This occurs for /o/ after retroflex consonants as well. Examples: жена [ʐɨ̞ˈna] ('wife'), язык [jɪˈzɨk] ('tongue').
• These processes occur even across word boundaries as in под морем [pɐˈd‿morʲɪm] ('under the sea').

Across certain word-final suffixes, the reductions do not completely apply. In certain suffixes, after palatalized consonants and /j/, /a/ and /o/ (which is written as <е>) can be distinguished from /i/ and from each other: по́ле ('field' nom. sg. neut.) is different from по́ля ('field' sg. gen.), and these final sounds differ from the realization of /i/ in such position.

There are a number of exceptions to the above comments regarding the akanye.

• Firstly, /o/ is not always reduced in foreign borrowings, eg радио, [ˈra.dʲɪ.o] ('radio'), the common pattern for this exception is: final unstressed "о" preceded by a another vowel (e.g. Антонио, какао, стерео), compare with моно, фото, where the final unstressed "о" is reduced to [ə].
• Secondly, some speakers pronounce /a/ as /i/ after retroflex consonants /ʐ/ and /ʂ/ (thereby mimicking the reduction of /o/); this pronunciation generally only applies to жалеть [ʐɨˈlʲetʲ] ('to regret'), к сожалению [ksə.ʐɨˈlʲe.nʲɪ.ju] ('unfortunately'), and oblique cases of лошадь ('horse'), such as лошадей, [lə.ʂɨˈdʲej].
• Thirdly, /i/ replaces /a/ after /ts/ in the oblique cases of some numerals, eg. двадцати, [dvə.tsɨˈtʲi] ('twenty').

Front vowels

The main feature of front vowel reduction is ikanye (Иканье) or the merger of unstressed /e/ with . Because /i/ has several allophones (depending on stress and proximity to palatalized consonants), unstressed /e/ will be pronounced as one of these allophones and not actually the close front unrounded vowel. For example, семена ('seeds') is pronounced as [sʲɪmʲɪˈna] and цена ('price') as [tsɨ̞ˈna].

In registers that feature absence of this merger (yekanye or еканье), unstressed/e/ is more retracted. Even then, however, the distinction between unstressed /e/ and unstressed /i/ is most clearly heard in the syllable just before the stress. Thus, придать ('to add to') contrasts with предать ('to betray'); the two are pronounced [prʲɪˈdatʲ] and [prʲe̱ˈdatʲ] respectively. Yekanye pronunciation is coupled with a stronger tendency for unstressed /a/ and /o/ to be pronounced as /i/

Speakers may code-switch between the two types of pronunciation due to various factors, the strongest likely being speed of pronunciation.

Yakanye

Yakanye (яканье) is the term used to describe the pronunciation of unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable as /a/ rather than /ɪ/ (e.g. несли is pronounced as [nʲasˈlʲi], not as [nʲɪsˈlʲi]).

This style is observed east of Moscow, particularly in Ryazan Region, as expressed in a Russian quip (with liberal yakanye):

Orthography	Standard pronunciation	Yakanye pronunciation	English language version
А у нас в Рязани			And here in Ryazan
пироги с глазами.			Pies are with eyes:
Их едят,	,	,	While being eaten,
а они глядят.			They stare at you.

This example also demonstrates another feature of dialects in this area: palatalized final /t/ in the 3rd person forms of verbs.

Notes

References

Further reading

• Hamilton, William S. (1980). Introduction to Russian Phonology and Word Structure. Slavica Publishers.
• .

External links

• Vowel Reduction in Russian
• Vowel Reduction in Russian
• Adaptive Dispersion Theory and Phonological Vowel Reduction in Russian
• The Language of the Russian Village (A dialect atlas for use in Russian junior high school. Maps 12 and 13 shows the extent of vowel reduction in Russian dialects.)