Russian Phonetics - Phonological Processes - Consonant Clusters

Consonant Clusters

As a Slavic language, Russian has fewer phonotactic restrictions on consonants than many other languages, allowing for clusters that would be difficult for English speakers; this is especially so at the beginning of a syllable, where Russian speakers make no sonority distinctions between fricatives and stops. These reduced restrictions begin at the morphological level; outside of two morphemes that contain clusters of four consonants: встрет-/встреч- 'meet' (|ˈfstretʲi|), and чёрств-/черств- 'stale' (|ˈtɕorstv|), native Russian morphemes have a maximum consonant cluster size of three:

For speakers who pronounce instead of, words like общий ('common') also constitute clusters of this type.

If /j/ is considered a consonant in the coda position, then words like айва ('quince') contain semivowel+consonant clusters.

Affixation also creates consonant clusters. Some prefixes, the best known being вз-/вс- (/), produce long word-initial clusters when they attach to a morpheme beginning with multiple consonants (e.g. |vz|+ |blʲesk| > взблеск 'flash'). However, the four-consonant limitation persists in the syllable onset. Of peculiaritry is the six-consonant word-initial cluster in "взбзднуть" ("to fart slightly")

Clusters of three or more consonants are frequently simplified, usually through syncope of one of them, especially in casual pronunciation.

All word-initial four-consonant clusters begin with or, followed by a stop (or, in the case of, a fricative), and a liquid:

Because prepositions in Russian act like clitics, the syntactic phrase composed of a preposition (most notably, the three that consist of just a single consonant: к, с, and в) and a following word constitutes a phonological word that acts like a single grammatical word. For example, the phrase с друзья́ми ('with friends') is pronounced . In the syllable coda, suffixes that contain no vowels may increase the final consonant cluster of a syllable (e.g. Ноябрьск 'city of Noyabrsk' |noˈjabrʲ|+|sk| > ), theoretically up to seven consonants: *монстрств ('of monsterships'). There is usually an audible release between these consecutive consonants at word boundaries, the major exception being clusters of homorganic consonants.

Consonant cluster simplification in Russian includes degemination, syncope, dissimilation, and weak vowel insertion. For example, /sɕː/ is pronounced, as in расщелина ('cleft'). There are also a few isolated patterns of apparent cluster reduction (as evidenced by the mismatch between pronunciation and orthography) arguably the result of historical simplifications. For example, dental stops are dropped between a dental continuant and a dental nasal or lateral: лестный 'flattering'. Other examples include:

• /vstv/ > : чувство 'feeling', not .
• /lnt͡s/ > : солнце 'sun', not .
• /rdt͡s/ > : сердце 'heart', not .
• /rdt͡ɕ/ > : сердчишко 'heart (diminutive)', not .
• /ndsk/ > : шотландский ('Scottish') not .
• /stsk/ > : марксистский ('Marxist') not .

The simplifications of consonant clusters are done selectively; bookish-style words and proper nouns are typically pronounced with all consonants even if they fit the pattern. For example, the word голландка is pronounced in a simplified manner for the meaning of 'Dutch oven' (a popular type of oven in Russia) and in a full form for 'Dutch woman' (a more exotic meaning).

In certain cases, this syncope produces homophones, e.g. костный ('bone') and косный ('rigid'), both are pronounced .

Another method of dealing with consonant clusters is inserting an epenthetic vowel (both in spelling and in pronunciation), ⟨о⟩, after most prepositions and prefixes that normally end in a consonant. This includes both historically motivated usage and cases of its modern extrapolations. There are no strict limits when the epenthetic ⟨о⟩ is obligatory, optional, or prohibited. One of the most typical cases of the epenthetic ⟨о⟩ is between a morpheme-final consonant and a cluster starting with the same or similar consonant (e.g. со среды 'from Wednesday' |s|+|srʲɪˈdɨ| >, not *с среды; ототру 'I'll scrub' |ot|+|ˈtru| >, not *оттру).