SPEAKING STANDARDS

The norms of oral speech include accentological, orthoepic and intonation norms.

Accentological norms of the Russian literary language

Accentological norms Are the rules for placing stress in words

Word stress- this is the selection of one of the syllables of a non-syllable word. The stressed vowel in a syllable is distinguished by its greater duration and strength.

The Russian word, as a rule, has one stress. But in complex words, especially in professional speech, there are often two stresses: the main and the secondary, i.e. side (on the first part of a long compound word): with at peroblO zhka, en e prgosiste ma, n e fteprovO d, mash and nostroe nie and etc.

Mastering Russian accentological norms causes difficulties not only for foreigners, but also for native speakers. This is due to some peculiarities of stress in Russian:

1. Free and mixed Russian stress. It can fall on any syllable in a word, any morpheme: ba "nty, document" nt, medicame "nty.

Unlike Russian, in some European languages ​​the stress is fixed: for example, in Estonian, Latvian, Czech, Hungarian, Finnish, the stress falls on the first syllable, in Polish, Spanish, Georgian - on the penultimate, in Armenian, French, the stress is on the last syllable ...

2. Russian stress can be mobile (in different forms of the same word, stress can move from one syllable to another: understand "t, by" nyal, understood ") and motionless (in all forms of the word falls on the same syllable: pa "mouth, at pa" mouths, behind pa "mouth). This specificity of Russian stress makes it possible to distinguish between the grammatical forms of the same word and two different words, for example: hands and hands ", by" lka and shelf".

Variation is characteristic of the Russian accent. Accentological options- Acceptable ways of stressing. There are about 5000 words in Russian, which have marked fluctuations in stress.

Accentological options may be:

1) equal: a loop" and a loop;

2) stylistic: agreement "r - to" dialect(colloquial);

3) professional: syringes "tsy - syringes"(in the speech of doctors); and "skra - spark"(in the speech of the drivers);

4) semantic: a "tlas - atla" s; mu "ka - flour";

5) chronological: Ukrainian(neutral) - Ukrainian(deprecated).

So, Russian stress is described by several features at once:

· Power and quantitative by phonetic type;

· Different location in the word;

· Movable according to the criterion of attachment to a certain morpheme (in the formation of grammatical forms and in word formation).

It is impossible to give general rules for placing stress. When determining the place of stress in a word, we recommend using the following dictionaries:

Zarva M.V.Russian word stress: Dictionary of common nouns.
M., 2001.

Ivanova T.F. New orthoepic dictionary of the Russian language: Pronunciation, stress, grammatical forms. M., 2007;

Orthoepic dictionary of the Russian language: pronunciation, stress, grammatical forms / ed. R.I. Avanesov. M., 2001.

Orthoepic norms of the Russian literary language

Term orthoepy(from the Greek orthos - correct and epos - speech, i.e. literally correct speech) is used in two meanings:

1) a section of linguistics dealing with the study of normative literary pronunciation;

2) a system of pronunciation norms.

Orthoepic norm- this is the only possible or preferred version of the correct, exemplary pronunciation.

Orthoepic variants- differences in the pronunciation of one phonetic element, which are within the normal range. The emergence of pronunciation options is due to the development of pronunciation norms, the struggle of the new with the old. In this regard, the concept of "junior" and "senior" orthoepic norm appeared.

"Senior" orthoepic norm Is a pronunciation typical for older people, as well as for theatrical and oratory speech (for example, battle[with], alone[to]th, bulo[wn]and I and etc.).

"Younger" pronunciation rate, characteristic of persons of the middle and younger generation, is common in everyday and official speech (but not stage or oratory): battle[with'], alone[k'i]th, bulo[ch'n]and I and etc.

The following groups of orthoepic norms are distinguished: 1) the rules of vowel pronunciation (we will not consider them in detail); 2) the rules for the pronunciation of consonants and their combinations; 3) the rules of pronunciation of individual grammatical forms; 4) the rules of pronunciation of foreign words.

Pronunciation rules for consonants and their combinations

1. Voiced consonants at the absolute end of a word are deafened into paired voiceless: zu[NS], slope[T], moro[with], side[NS]. Sound deafening [ G] to unpaired [ NS] is a literary norm only in the word the God... Pronunciation of the fricative deaf [ NS] at the end of other words is unacceptable as dialect (a feature of southern Russian dialects).

2. Voiced consonants in front of the voiceless ones change (become similar to each other) into paired voiceless ones: about[NS]ka, but[NS]ka.

3. Voiceless consonants before voiced consonants, with the exception of sonorants ( p, l, m, n) and v are likened to them in voicing: about[z ']ba, that[G]the same.

4. Softening of hard consonants before soft (assimilation, ie assimilation) is most often observed before a suffix or inside a root: th[n ']box,[z'd ']you.

No softening allowed [ s] in words in - rev in all cases: in the mechanism, about materialism.

5. In place of letter combinations zzh, szh pronounced long hard hissing [ lj]: lifeless - be[lj]worn out, burn -[lj]ech.

Combination lj can be pronounced as [ lj]and [ zh'zh ']: in[lj]and in[zh'zh ']and.

6. Combinations us and zsh pronounced as a long hard [ shsh]: the highest is you[shsh]ui, lower - neither[shsh]uh.

7. Combinations dh and pm pronounced as a long sound [ h'ch ']: translator - re-translation[h'ch ']hic, pilot - le[h'ch ']uk.

8. Long soft sound [ w "w"] pronounced in place of letter combinations zh, mid-range, zh, shch, zd, stch(carver, happiness, man, freckled buster, tougher).

9. In place of letter combinations TC, TC pronounced [ cts]: golden - ash[cts] e fighting - bora[cts]a .

10. When three or more consonant phonemes are combined in Russian, the process of simplification of consonant groups (dieresis) occurs: one of the consonants, usually the middle one, is not pronounced. This applies to combinations stn , stl, hey, pdc and etc.: local - me[cn]oh, happy - happy[sl ']willow, holiday - great[z'n ']hic, heart - behold[rts]e etc.

11. In some cases, dissimilation (distribution) of consonants according to the method of formation is presented in the Russian language. Sound [ G] in combinations gk , rh pronounced like [ NS]: softer - me[NS]what, it's easier - le[x] th.

12. Combination NS in words, it is most often pronounced as [thu]: me [thu] a. In the word what and derivatives from it ( so that nothing, anything etc.) the old Moscow pronunciation is preserved: in place NS pronounced [PCS] except the word something.

13. Pronunciation combination chn often causes difficulties that are caused by the interaction of the rules of Old Moscow and St. Petersburg pronunciation. According to the old Moscow standard, the combination chn pronounced like [ shn] in words of course, boring, on purpose, poor student, scrambled eggs, birdhouse, trifling and others, in female patronymics on - ichna : Ilyinichna, Kuzminichna etc.

In many words in modern Russian literary language, the combination chn pronounced like [chn]: Christmas tree, summer resident, eternal, precise, nocturnal.

Some words with a combination chn have valid pronunciations [ch'n] and [shn]: decent, bakery, penny, dairy etc. Variant of pronunciation [shn] in such words is assessed as obsolete. But in some cases, different pronunciation chn performs a meaningful function: And he, heart [shn] th, still toils with his heart [ch'n] th disease.

There are a lot of different voices in the world, almost everything, except for the vacuum, can be heard. In the process, mankind has created a system of conditioned signals, the combination of which can be perceived by the consciousness of each of the individuals as a kind of image implying a specific semantic meaning.

In contact with

So what are sounds in Russian? These are inherently meaningless, the smallest elements of words or that help convey a thought from one person to another. For example, a combination of the consonants "d" and "m" and one vowel "o" can create the word "house", which in turn has a very specific meaning. Such "bricks" of the Russian language are vowels and consonants, hard and soft, hissing and sonorous.

What is the difference?

Thinking about how to distinguish sounds and letters, it is worth knowing that the second are specific symbols with the help of which graphically record what we hear for example, there is an "a" that we can pronounce aloud, mentally, whisper or shout, however, until it is written on paper in the desired form, it will not become a letter. From this it is clear that it is very simple to distinguish between these two concepts - what is on paper, a written symbol is a letter, what we hear or say is a sound.

Attention! How do sounds differ from their written symbols? In Russian, there are 33 graphic elements, but they consist of 43 voice signals, with 10 vowels and 6 sounds, and vice versa, consonants 21 and 37, respectively. From this we can draw a simple conclusion - not all letters and sounds coincide with each other and are heard the way they are written.

What are vowels?

This is the name of the elements of the language that can be sung. How do they differ from their opposite - consonants? They consist only of voice, air, when pronounced, is easily drawn into the lungs and passed through the mouth. What are vowels? These are graphic symbols written on paper or a combination of them.

table of correspondence

What letters make two sounds? Some are formed by two elements - a consonant (s) and a vowel corresponding to the sound. These are iotated elements of the alphabet that are needed to perform the following functions:

1. If you need to put a vowel after a vowel, for example, the word "mine".
2. After the separating mark - "hug".
3. In cases where the vowel should be at the beginning of the phonetic word - "pit".
4. If you need to soften the consonant in front - "mel".
5. If you need to reproduce a foreign word.

If such an iotated symbol is placed after an unpaired hardness or softness, then it denotes an ordinary one, for example, "silk" reads "sholk".

Yoted vowels

What are consonants?

Consonants are the smallest linguistic units that cannot be sung when pronounced air exhaled from the lungs bumps into an obstacle, for example, on the tongue. They are divided into pairs, sibilants, as well as hard and soft. Let's deal with all in order.

Voiced, deaf and hissing

What are the consonants? The table will help you to see clearly:

The apostrophe indicates relaxed elements. This applies to all the listed pairs, except for "g", since it cannot be soft. In addition, there are consonants that have not been paired. It:

In addition to the deaf and voiced ones listed, there are also hissing ones. These include "w", "w", "u" and "h". They definitely belong to the deaf, when they are pronounced the tongue presses against the palate in different ways... By ear, they are a bit like the hiss of a snake, if you stretch them out a little.

Consonant sounds

Hard and soft

Soft differ from hard ones in the way they are pronounced. When a person pronounces them, he presses his tongue to the sky, which is why they are not so rough. As in the previous case, they are divided into pairs, with some exceptions. Almost all elements of the Russian alphabet can be both hard and soft. How many of them do not have such a pair?

It turns out that the pairs do not make up all hissing, "sh" and Y, which is also present in the composition of several vowels. All others can be mitigated under certain conditions.

Such a difference between the number of consonants in Russian is justified precisely by the last division in terms of softness. The fact is that such a softened form is not reflected graphically in the writing - we learn about the softness by the softening vowel that follows it. This increases the number of sounding units almost twice as compared to letters.

Hard and soft consonants

How do vowels differ from consonants?

The division into two types of sounds occurs depending on their pronunciation techniques... Singing and "light" vowels, unlike consonants, are easy to pronounce, pull, sing. If you listen to any melodic song, you can hear that they stretch like candy.

The consonants, in turn, imply some kind of obstacle, that is, the air flow comes out of the mouth not easily and smoothly, but bumping into the tongue, lips, teeth, and so on. Such elements are difficult to pull, they seem to have a sharp ending, and regardless of whether they are voiced or deaf, hard or soft.

Interesting! Everything happens exactly the same with graphic symbols, because despite the fact that they are written on paper, belonging to one group or another is determined precisely by sound.

"Special" elements of the Russian language

There are two characters in the Russian alphabet, under which no audible signals are implied... This is a hard sign "b" and a soft sign "b". They are needed:

1. To share. The presence of one of these signs in a word indicates that the following vowel should be iotated.
2. An indivisible soft sign can inform the reader that the preceding consonant is soft, or perform a grammatical function, for example, indicate the gender of the word - "oven".

Russian lessons Sounds and letters

Vowels and consonants. Designating them with letters

Output

Knowing the correct interaction of these basic elements helps to spell many Russian words correctly. Sounding and writing gives the key to the melody of speech and writing, its beauty and euphony.

Consonant G in Russian, explosive, instant is formed in the same way as To but with the participation of the voice. Pronunciation of a fricative, long sound (as in the Belarusian language) is preserved in interjections aha, by golly, ege, ege-gay and others, in onomatopoeia Woof woof, in the word accountant and derivatives of it. To develop the correct pronunciation helps the repetition of pairs of words that differ only in sounds [ g / c]: voice - ear, voice - class, guest - bone, crust - slide, caviar - game… In words light, soft and derivatives from them facilitate, softer, easier, softest, spineless, lightweight, light and others in place of the letter G you should pronounce the sound [x].

And in the endings of the genitive case of pronouns and adjectives in - Wow , -his and also in words today, total in place of the letter G you should pronounce the sound [in]: our[v] about tractor[v] about the plant, behold[v] single.

Unlike the Belarusian language transmitted by the letter h the sound is always soft. When pronouncing it, the front of the tongue rises to the front of the palate, touches the roots of the upper teeth.

Short hissing [w] and [g] are pronounced softly in only a few borrowed words: jury, Jules, pshut but in words brochure, parachute the sound [w] is pronounced firmly.

The distinction between hard and soft consonants is one of the most characteristic features of the sound system of the modern Russian literary language. Hard and soft consonants distinguish between words: brother - take, bow - hatch... When pronouncing a soft consonant sound, the middle part of the back of the tongue rises high to the palate.

For Belarusians, the perception of Russian sounds [р] hell and [p ’] I presents great difficulty and leads to pronouncing a hard consonant instead of a soft one and vice versa, or the appearance after [p] of an extra sound: on[pja] doc.

According to the norms of the Russian language, soft sounds should be pronounced at the end of words seven, eight, dove, blood, leave and the like. In Russian speech, Belarusians often transfer the phenomena of chiseling and dzekaniya: [t'ikh] instead of [t'ikh], [d'z'ad'z''] instead of [d'ad''].

In front of soft consonants t, d, s, n, l sounds [s], [h] should be softened: ne[s'n '] I am, vme[s't '] e, ra[z'v '] e, [z'd '] you... Consonant n becomes soft and before h or SCH : NS[n '] read, baraba[n '] box, the same[n '] shine... Before [j] labial consonants b, p, m pronounced firmly: O[bj] eat, behold[мj] I am, and the anterior-lingual d, t, l, r not at the junction of the prefix and the root - softly: su[d'j] I am, live[l'j] e, sy[p'j] e.

Long soft hissing like in words pike, slit pronounced in place of letter combinations mt, zf, zh, ssch (not at the junction of the prefix and the root): subscriber, loader, man... Combinations hw and lj quite recently it was required to pronounce as a long soft sound: reins, yeast, squeal... Hard pronunciation is now acceptable. In the word assistant in place of the letter SCH pronounced hard [sh]. Combined letters railway both consonant sounds are different: under[railway ’] and... In the word rain, its case forms and cognate words in place of letters railway you need to pronounce a long soft hissing, but it is permissible to pronounce and [piece ’] or [zhd’]: before[railway ’] go.

According to the old Moscow norm, the combination of letters chn (sometimes sc ) should be pronounced as [shn]. The norm is preserved in only a few words: All-night, horse[shn] O, bitters[shn] th, square[shn '] uk, backlight[shn '] uk, laundry[shn] and I, empty[shn] th, naro[shn] O, sko[shn] O, Me and[shn '] itza, as well as in female patronymics: Nikiti[shn] a, Ilyini[shn] a... In most words, variants [шн] or [ч'н] are possible: everyday, bakery, penny, decent, yellow card, bad... Only [ch'n] is pronounced in words that appeared in the twentieth century, in words of book origin: planting, woodworking, cynical... Differ: chap[ch'n] th workshop and come to chap[shn] to the parsing, chap[shn] oh acquaintance, heart[shn] th friend and heart[ch'n] th disease, feces[ch'n] th dough and feces[shn] row, get sick young[ch'n '] itsey and young[shn '] itza brought milk... There is no general rule. For each word you need to know how to pronounce it: with a combination of [ch'n] or [shn], or both are acceptable.

1. Voiced consonants [b], [d], [d], [g], [s], [j], [dz] at the end of a word and before deaf ones in the middle of a word are pronounced loudly:

[people] - people; [order] order; [° mduzh] - with all his might; [too] - too much; [dbv "idka] - help.

Note. Of all the voiced consonants, only the pharyngeal sound [g] is vimovlyate as [x]: [lehko] - easy; [nykht "i] - nails; [vbhko] - damp.

2. Voiceless consonants [p], [t], [k], [w], [s], [h], [c] before voiced within a word are pronounced loudly:

[prbz "ba] - spelling request;[vogzal] - station; [beard "ba] - fight.

3. Stunned preposition and prefix with - before voiceless consonants:

[with you] - spelling with you;[to tell] - to tell.

4. Prefixes once-, without - through - can be pronounced loudly and muffled (depending on the rate of speech):

[receipt] and [receipt] - receipt;[be and zpomi s lk6viї] and [be and zpomi s lk6viї] - infallible.

5. Labial [b], [p], [c], [m], [f], hissing [g], [h], [w] (except for elongated ones) and posterior lingual [g], [k], [ x] at the end of a word and a syllable are pronounced firmly:

[with "im] - seven; [lead with h] - greatness; [writes" w] - you write; [borrow] - borrow; [with "m" ix] - laughter.

Only before [and] these consonants are pronounced as semi-soft: [in "ital" nii] - congratulatory; [bChograph "іya] - biography; [ш" ісУ] - six;

[x "id] -dg / d;

[to "ilogram] - kilogram. Elongated sibilants are pronounced as semi-soft: [discord" іzh ": a] - crossroads;[р "іч": in] anniversary.

6. In the Ukrainian language, one should distinguish between the sounds [g] and [g]. The consonant [g] is pronounced in proper Ukrainian words, as well as in zukrainian-socialized words of foreign language origin. The most complete register of words with the letter ґ, which denotes a back-lingual closed voiced sound [ґ], is presented in the "Ukrainian Spelling Dictionary", which should be used, since the g sound is used not only by the norms, but also at the discretion of broadcasters. Here are the most used words:

the owner is courteous

ґblow up the goodness of soil science

porch nobly tillage

lattice ground based

variety of ground button

soil two-klimateichny karasuvati (to clear)

7. The letter combination j, dz can denote one sound and are pronounced as affricates [dz], [j]:

[bells with k] - spelling bell;

[to award] - to award;

[in "ідр" аж "н |: а] - business trips;

[load and n ": a] - rewarding. Separate pronunciation of these sounds [d] - [s], [d] - [g] is a violation of orthoepic norms. As two separate sounds, they are pronounced when they belong to different parts of the word, for example, to the prefix and root:

[in "id-zy" cotton wool] - orthographically revoke;

[п "ід-з" в "ітниї] - accountable;

[n "id-same" well] -pidzhenu.

8. Front-lingual [d], [t], [s], [s], [c], [l], [n] before the following soft consonants and before [and] are pronounced softly:

[maibut "n" e] - spelling future;[n "ic" n "a] -song;[gbrd "ic" t "] - pride.

Sound pronunciation

According to the regularities of the compatibility of sounds in speech, some orthoepic norms follow from assimilative changes in consonant groups:

a) is pronounced as [c ": a]:

[whether with a stuyets ": a] - spelling overwrites;[participant ".a] - study;[gn "ivayuts": a] - angry;[overwhelm with c ": a] - will be indignant;

b) -shsy is pronounced as | c ": a]:

[z "in" ituyes ^ a] - sounds; [in "ityes": a] - say hello; [rospisyes ": a] - you sign;

c) -zhsya is pronounced as [z "s" a]:

[zvaz "s" a] - make up your mind; [not "ur" iz "s,] - not going;

d) -chsy is pronounced as [c ": a]:

[not "morots": a] - don't rack your brains; G) -zhtsі pronounced as [z "c" i]:

[kri ^ or "iz" ts "i] - Kryvyi Rih; [constipation" iz "ts" i] - Cossacks.

e) -sshi is pronounced as | w: s]:

[prіґy "shki] - having brought it.

f) -osh is pronounced as [w:]:

[be "w: mind] - without noise. is) -zch pronounced as | shh):

[w chbgo] - why.

g)-zj is pronounced as [lj]:

[zhje "g" la] - from the source.

с) -шці pronounced as [with "c" i]:

[on dbs "c" i] - on the board.

i) -zdtsi is pronounced as [z "c" i]:

[in poiiz "c" i] on a trip. The consonant groups that appear in words as a result of word formation are simplified:

travel + n (th) -> [pass] - travel card; contrast + n (th) -> [contrast with th] - contrast; ballast + n (th) -> [balasni with th] - ballast.

So, the spelling of individual words does not correspond to the pronunciation: [ііgіsnad "c" at "] - sixteen; [w * is: 6t] - six hundred; [w" izdes "at] - sixty; [pre and zy s den" s "ki with th] - presidential;[agency] - agency; [in "l, іgen" with "kiyi] - intellectual.

Attention! Orthoepic competence

In the words [pe and stlivie y], [boastful], [release] simplification does not occur in pronunciation and will not be conveyed in writing. Also, the sound combination [ode], [ref], [page] is never simplified: [make friends with "a] - make friends; [hello ^ ny c" a] - health resort;[sing them £ you] - perceive;[sprack "uvati s" a] - work together;[straykuvati *] - to strike; [insurance] - insurance.

Sounds belong to the phonetics section. The study of sounds is included in any school curriculum in the Russian language. Acquaintance with sounds and their basic characteristics takes place in the lower grades. A more detailed study of sounds with complex examples and nuances takes place in middle and high school. On this page are given only basic knowledge by the sounds of the Russian language in a compressed form. If you need to study the structure of the speech apparatus, the tonality of sounds, articulation, acoustic components and other aspects beyond the scope of the modern school curriculum, refer to specialized manuals and textbooks on phonetics.

What is sound?

Sound, like a word and a sentence, is the basic unit of language. However, the sound does not express any meaning, but reflects the sound of the word. Thanks to this, we distinguish words from each other. Words differ in the number of sounds (port - sport, crow - funnel), a set of sounds (lemon - estuary, cat - mouse), a sequence of sounds (nose - sleep, bush - knock) up to a complete mismatch of sounds (boat - boat, forest - park).

What sounds are there?

In Russian, sounds are divided into vowels and consonants. In Russian, there are 33 letters and 42 sounds: 6 vowels, 36 consonants, 2 letters (b, b) do not denote a sound. The discrepancy in the number of letters and sounds (not counting b and b) is caused by the fact that 10 vowels have 6 sounds, 21 consonant letters - 36 sounds (if all combinations of consonant sounds are voiceless / voiced, soft / hard). In writing, the sound is indicated in square brackets.
There are no sounds: [e], [e], [y], [i], [b], [b], [g '], [sh'], [c '], [y], [h] , [SCH].

Scheme 1. Letters and sounds of the Russian language.

How are sounds pronounced?

We make sounds when we breathe out (only in the case of the interjection "ah-ah", which expresses fear, the sound is pronounced when inhaling.). The division of sounds into vowels and consonants is related to how a person pronounces them. Vowel sounds are pronounced by the voice due to exhaled air passing through the tense vocal cords and freely leaving through the mouth. Consonant sounds consist of noise or a combination of voice and noise due to the fact that the exhaled air encounters an obstacle in its path in the form of a bow or teeth. Vowel sounds are pronounced loudly, consonants are muffled. A person is able to sing vowel sounds with a voice (exhaled air), raising or lowering the timbre. You won't be able to sing consonants, they are pronounced equally muffled. Hard and soft marks do not denote sounds. They cannot be pronounced as an independent sound. When pronouncing a word, they influence the consonant in front of them, make it soft or hard.

Word transcription

Word transcription is a recording of sounds in a word, that is, in fact, a recording of how the word is pronounced correctly. Sounds are enclosed in square brackets. Compare: a - letter, [a] - sound. The softness of consonants is indicated by an apostrophe: п - letter, [п] - hard sound, [п '] - soft sound. Voiced and voiceless consonants are not indicated in the letter in any way. The transcription of a word is written in square brackets. Examples: door → [dv'er '], thorn → [kal'uch'ka]. Sometimes the stress is indicated in the transcription - with an apostrophe in front of a vowel stressed sound.

There is no clear juxtaposition of letters and sounds. In Russian, there are many cases of substitution of vowel sounds depending on the place of stress of a word, substitution of consonants or loss of consonants in certain combinations. When composing a transcription, words take into account the rules of phonetics.

Color scheme

In phonetic parsing, words are sometimes drawn with color schemes: letters are painted in different colors depending on what sound they mean. Colors reflect the phonetic characteristics of sounds and help you to visually see how a word is pronounced and what sounds it consists of.

All vowels (stressed and unstressed) are marked with a red background. Jotated vowels are marked with green and red: green means a soft consonant sound [’‘], red means the next vowel. Consonants with solid sounds are colored blue. Consonants with soft sounds are colored green. Soft and hard marks are painted gray or not painted at all.

Legend:
- vowel, - iotated, - hard consonant, - soft consonant, - soft or hard consonant.

Note. The blue-green color is not used in phonetic parsing schemes, since a consonant sound cannot be soft and hard at the same time. The blue-green color in the table above is used only to demonstrate that the sound can be either soft or hard.