Unit 4

UNIT 4 The Long Soft Russian Fricative /ш’: / The long soft fricative is not a counterpart to the hard fricative /ш/, at least not in the sense in which other hard and soft consonants form pairs. This consonant is produced by lowering the tip of the tongue and raising the middle part of the tongue toward the hard palate, and it is always a long sound. Note that this sound may be represented in the spelling not only by щ but also by cч and by ждь at the very end of a word. The Russian Affricate Consonant /ц/ The hard Russian affricate /ц/ begins as a hard Russian consonant /т/, which turns into a fricative at the same point of articulation. Since it is related to hard /т/, this affricate will always be hard no matter what letter may be written after it. Note that this affricate is represented in the writing system not only by ц, but also in some cases by тс, тьс, дц. Also note that when it occurs after т/д or in the combinations –тся/-ться a long affricate results. This is produced by holding the tongue in position for the stop phase a fraction of a second longer than usual. The Intonation of Incomplete Questions Introduced by the conjunction а (IC-4) The fourth intonation contour should not be difficult to produce, since it is very close to the English contour in questions without a question word. The problem will be in avoiding the use of this contour where it is unsuitable, since using it in regular questions in Russian will give them a non neutral tone, indicating emotional overtones such as disbelief, uncertainty, surprise. In Russian IC-4 occurs in only one type of neutral question- incomplete questions (i.e., questions missing either subject or verb) which begin with the conjunction а (which is the equivalent of a contrastive ‘and’). In IC-4 any syllables before the main stressed syllable are pronounced at the speaker’s mid-level. When the accented syllable is the last syllable, the tone rises gradually within the syllable. If there are syllables following the stressed syllable, the stressed syllable has lower than the mid-level tone, and the rise occurs in the following syllable(s). The vowel of the accented syllable will be longer than is usual in either case.