Sonorant sounds are voiced. Sonorant consonants

There are consonants in which noise practically does not participate in the formation. They are called sonorants or sonants. Their main distinguishing feature is that they are not stunned under any circumstances. In the formation of sonorous sounds, the tone of the voice created by the vibration of the vocal cords prevails over noise. These include the sounds: R, R’, L, L’, N, N’, M, M’, Y. As in the formation of all consonants, in the formation of sonants there is an obstacle in the way of the air stream. However, the frictional force of the jet against the closed organs of speech in this case is minimal, the sound finds a relatively free outlet outward. The air can find its way out either through the nose, which is how the sounds [m], [m’], [n], [n’] are formed, or into the passage between the lateral edges of the tongue and the cheeks - the sound [l], [l’]. If the obstacle is instantaneous, then the sound [р], [р’] is formed. When the gap is wide enough, the sound [j] is formed, corresponding to the letter th. For these reasons, no noise is generated. In accordance with these methods of formation, sonants are divided into fricative, occlusive and tremulous. Thus, the sound [j] is classified as fricative. When pronouncing [j], a gap is formed between the middle part of the back of the tongue and the hard palate, through which a weak air stream passes. The sounds [m], [m’], [n], [n’] are classified as passing through the closure, since the air does not pass through the complete closure, but finds its way through the cavity of the mouth and nose. The occipital ones are divided into oral, or lateral ([l], [l"]), and nasal ([m], [m"], [n], [n"]). Trembling sonants include the sound [р], [р ']. When it is formed, the tip of the tongue is curved and raised towards the alveoli, vibrating under the influence of the air stream. As a result, there is a closure and opening with the alveoli. Since the edges of the tongue are pressed against the lateral teeth, the air stream passes in the middle. These consonants do not have a pair among voiceless consonants. In other words, in terms of voicelessness/voice, they are unpaired. In those positions in a word that influence voice production, they behave in a special way. For example, surrounded by voiceless consonants or at the end of a word. In this position, in differences from voiced consonants, they are not deafened. For comparison - codes - code [k'ody - cat]; kola - kol [kal'y - kol]; hollow [fp'ad'na], lamp [l'ampa]. In addition, before sonants there is no voicing of noisy voiceless consonants (request [proz'ba], word [sl'ova]). Sonorant sounds, despite their sonority and the complete absence of a noise component, are not capable of forming a syllable and bearing stress , unlike vowels. The sound [j] (“yot”) is closest to vowels of all sonorant sounds. Sonorant sounds differ from each other in hardness and softness, as well as in the place and method of formation.

See consonants...

Consonants- Consonants are a class of speech sounds that are opposite in properties to vowels. Articulatory properties of consonants: the obligatory presence of an obstruction in the vocal tract; from an acoustic point of view, consonants are characterized as sounds in the formation of which ... Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary

SONORAL. Sounds in the formation of which the voice plays a major role. S. sounds represent musical tones that differ in timbre, depending on the different shape of the oral cavity or simultaneously the oral cavity and nose, resonating with the fundamental tone of the voice.... ... Literary encyclopedia

Sonorous- SONORAL. Sounds in the formation of which the voice plays a major role. S. sounds represent musical tones that differ in timbre, depending on the different shape of the oral cavity or simultaneously the oral cavity and nose, resonating with the fundamental tone... ...

Speech sounds, opposed to vowels and consisting of voice and noise or only noise that is formed in the oral cavity, where a stream of air encounters various obstacles. Consonants are classified: according to the participation of voice and noise, for example. sonorous... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

CONSONANTS. Sounds, the characteristic feature of which is a non-musical noise produced by the convergence of the organs of pronunciation (S. fricatives, see) or the rupture of closely closed organs of pronunciation under the pressure of exhaled air (S. plosives, see).... ... Literary encyclopedia

Consonants- CONSONANTS. Sounds, the characteristic feature of which is a non-musical noise produced by the convergence of the organs of pronunciation (S. fricatives, see) or the rupture of closely closed organs of pronunciation under the pressure of exhaled air (S. plosives, see) ... Dictionary of literary terms

Speech sounds, consisting either of noise alone, or of voice and noise, which is formed in the oral cavity, where the stream of air exhaled from the lungs encounters various obstacles. The classification of consonants is based on: 1) participation of voice and noise. Consonants... ... Dictionary of linguistic terms

consonants- (background) Sounds, during the formation of which the tension is localized (focused) at the point of formation of the barrier; a strong air stream overcomes the barrier at the focus of the formation of the consonant, exploding it and passing through the gap. These noises make up... ... Dictionary of linguistic terms T.V. Foal

See consonants...

CONSONANTS- speech sounds, opposed to vowels and consisting of voice and noise or only noise that is formed in the oral cavity, where a stream of air encounters various obstacles. Consonants are classified: according to the participation of voice and noise, for example. sonorous... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

consonants- speech sounds, opposed to vowels and consisting of voice and noise or only noise that is formed in the oral cavity, where a stream of air encounters various obstacles. Consonants are classified: according to the participation of voice and noise, for example sonorants ([m], ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

consonants- Speech sounds, consisting either of noise alone, or of voice and noise, which is formed in the oral cavity, where the stream of air exhaled from the lungs encounters various obstacles. The classification of consonants is based on: 1) participation of voice and noise. Consonants... ... Dictionary of linguistic terms

To begin with, it is important to note which consonants are sonorant in the Russian language. These are sounds that are pronounced using the voice, with virtually no noise. These include [l], [m], [p], [l’], [m’], [p’], [j].

Features of sonorant consonants

They are unique in that they are similar to both vowels and consonants. What distinguishes them from voiced sounds is that when they are pronounced, the noise is practically inaudible. They do not have paired voiceless or voiced sounds. This is why sonorant consonants are never pronounced voiceless either at the end of a word or before a voiceless consonant. An excellent example would be the word lamp, where [m] is pronounced voiced before a voiceless [n]. Noisy voiceless consonants are not pronounced loudly before similar sounds, as happens, for example, in the word request, which we pronounce as [proz’ba]. However, it should not be classified as a vowel. Still, when they sound, an obstacle appears in the oral cavity. This is how noise appears, and this is not at all characteristic of Also such sounds do not have another important characteristic that determines vowels. You can't form a syllable from them. It should be noted that this is typical specifically for the Russian language, since, for example, in Czech, sonorant sounds have such features. Such sounds can be either hard or soft and have different ways of formation.

How is the sound [l] formed?

In order for the sound to be correct, the tip of the tongue should be behind the upper front teeth. And if it does not reach the designated place, then its sound is distorted and what comes out instead is a boat - “vodka”.

If the sound is in a soft position, then the tongue should be pressed against the alveoli. It happens that the hard sound [l] is quite difficult to correct. Then you can try holding your tongue between your teeth and pronouncing this sound. But such an action can only be performed during training. Thus, we see that not all sonorant consonants in the Russian language can be corrected.

The need for exercises for the correct pronunciation of sonorant consonants

Many people are absolutely convinced that exercises to correct the pronunciation of individual sounds have no meaning. They are convinced that this method is not at all effective. It is enough just to understand the principle itself, how to correctly pronounce sonorous consonants, and everything will return to normal. In fact, this is not true. Practice is simply necessary here. And it usually starts with the sound [m]. This is because it is pronounced very naturally, and even yoga mantras use it.

Why sonorant consonants?

Translated from Latin, Sonorus means “sonorous.” Such sounds do not have paired voiceless sounds and are also called nasal and smooth. After all, they are all formed with the help of a flow of air that passes through the tongue, teeth and lips. Nothing interferes with it, and the sound is pronounced smoothly. [n] and [m] are considered transitional. To form such sounds, the lips close tightly, but the air escapes through. There are three most effective exercises for training the pronunciation of sonorant consonants:

The first is the repetition of a phrase that contains a large number of similar sounds. Quite often in such sentences you can see strange words that are never used, but they are necessary for practicing pronunciation. It is better if it is performed in one breath and with a nasal sound.
The next sentence should be much more complicated. It is usually longer, so it is quite difficult to say it in one breath. It is better to immediately divide it into parts and also pronounce it with a nasal sound.
The last sentence is even longer. But it is better to divide it into two parts. Do the first one like the first two exercises, but before the second one you need to take a deep breath and say it as if you are sending something into the distance. This is how the “flight” of the voice should develop. All these exercises will help you learn to pronounce sonorant consonants correctly if you do them systematically.

Sound is the smallest indivisible unit of voiced speech flow that has no meaning. The branch of linguistics called phonetics is devoted to the study of the sound structure of a language, all its manifestations and functions.

The phonetic system of the Russian language contains 42 sounds, 6 of which are vowels, and the remaining 36 are consonants. Sonorant sounds in Russian deserve special attention. As a rule, the pronunciation of some of them causes the greatest difficulties in children who are just learning to speak. To understand what sonorant sounds are, it is necessary to consider the system of sounds of the Russian language as a whole.

Each sound has the following characteristics:

acoustic;
articulatory;
functional (semantic).

Acoustic characteristic

To characterize a sound in terms of acoustics is to characterize the way it sounds. This can be done by its sonority, strength and height.

Sonority allows you to separate vocal and non-vocal sounds. All noisy consonants are nonvocalic. Vocal sounds include all vowels and sonorant consonants.

In terms of strength, sounds can be consonant or non-consonant. All consonants are consonant, i.e. weak, and non-consonant, i.e. strong - all vowels.

From the position of height, the sound can be high or low, respectively. High are the front vowels, front-lingual and middle-lingual consonants. All other vowels and consonants are low sounds.

Concept of articulation

Articulation is the process of producing sounds. The human speech apparatus, with the help of which sounds are formed, is represented by a fairly large set of organs. These include the lungs, larynx, vocal cords, nasal cavity, hard and soft palate, mandible, lips and tongue. The stream of exhaled air leaves the lungs and passes through the gap formed by the vocal cords in the larynx. When the vocal cords are tense and vibrating, a voice (tone) is formed. It serves as the basis for vowels, voiced and sonorant consonants. If the vocal cords are relaxed, the voice does not form, and noise occurs, which underlies noisy consonants.

Further differentiation of sounds occurs in the oral cavity, depending on what obstacle the air stream encounters on its path.

Characteristics of vowels

The main feature of vowel sounds is that when they are formed, a stream of air, having formed a tone in the vocal cords, no longer encounters any obstacles in the oral cavity. That is, they consist of only tone (voice) without added noise.

The vowels are the sounds a, o, u, i, ы, e. The articulation of each vowel sound depends only on the position of the active organs of speech (lips, tongue, soft palate and lower jaw).

The functional feature of vowel sounds is that they form a syllable, i.e. play a syllabic role.

Characteristics of consonants

When a consonant sound is formed, the air stream encounters various kinds of obstacles on its path. When overcoming an obstacle, noise occurs. Therefore, the main difference between a consonant sound and a vowel is the presence, in addition to tone (voice), also of noise. The occurrence of a specific consonant sound depends on the location of the obstacle formation and the method of overcoming it. Thus, they are all divided depending on the ratio of tone and noise, place and method of formation.

According to the ratio of tone and noise, consonants are divided into sonorant sounds, voiced and voiceless consonants. Voiced and voiceless consonants are noisy because In their formation, noise participates either on an equal basis with the voice (voiced), or predominates over the voice (deaf).

When pronouncing a consonant sound, a barrier can be formed by the tongue or lips, therefore all consonants are divided according to the place of formation into labial and lingual.

According to the method of formation, or according to the method of overcoming an obstacle, they are occlusive, fricative, occlusive-frictional (affricates), occlusive-transitive and tremulous.

Another characteristic of consonants is palatalization (hardness/softness). Hardness/softness pairs do not have only a few consonant sounds: zh, ts (always hard) and ch, j (always soft).

Characteristics of sonorous sounds

What a sonorant sound is becomes clear from the translation of this definition. The word "sonorant" comes from the Latin sonorus. It means "resonant". Indeed, when such a sound is formed, the voice predominates, and the noise is so minimal that sonorant sounds become close to vowels. Sonorant sounds in Russian are m, m", n, n", l, l", r, r", j.

Note. The main feature of sonorous sounds is that when passing through an obstacle in the oral cavity, the air that forms the sound finds a way around it. So, for example, when the sound l and its soft pair are formed, the air bypasses the bow formed by the tongue and upper teeth on the sides. Accordingly, according to the place of formation, this sound is lingual-dental. And according to the method of formation - occlusive-passage. When the sound p and its soft pair are formed, the flow of air causes the bow formed by the tongue and the hard palate to vibrate. Thus, it is lingual-alveolar according to the place of formation, and tremulous (vibrant) according to the method of formation. It is interesting that such a sonorant sound as j (th) is very similar in its formation to the vowel i. However, during its pronunciation, a significant narrowing occurs as the air flows through. Because of this, a slight noise arises, which allows us to classify this sound as a consonant. According to the place of formation, j is lingual-mid-palatal, according to the method of formation - fissural, and can only be palatalized (soft).

All sonorant sounds in the Russian language do not have a voiced/voiced pair and are only voiced. At the end of a word, deafening of sonorant sounds does not occur, as happens with other voiced consonants.

Oral and nasal sonorities

Depending on the position of the velum, different consonant sounds are formed. If the velum is lifted and pressed against the back wall of the pharynx, the passage into the nasal cavity for the air stream is closed. The sounds produced in this way are called oral sounds. Or clean. If the velum is lowered, the passage into the nasal cavity for the air stream opens, and the nasal cavity serves as an additional resonator for the formation of sound. In this way, sounds called nasal or nasal are formed.

There are only four nasal sounds in the Russian language: m, m", n, n". According to the place of formation, the m and its soft pair are labial-labial, and according to the method of formation, it is occipital. The sound n and its soft pair are lingual-dental according to the place of formation, and octocental according to the method of formation.

So, understanding what a sonorous sound is is possible only with a full understanding of the mechanism of sound formation. That is, their articulation. Knowledge of the features of sonorant consonant sounds helps to determine their place in the phonetic system of the Russian language.