Biographies 

What does graphics study in Russian? Definition. Concept of graphics. Graphic system of the Russian language. Basic principles of Russian graphics

In phonemic; 2) section exploring the relationships between graphemes and phonemes. The concept of “graphics” is usually applied to phonemic (sound-letter) writing, in which three sides are distinguished: , graphics and . In the modern world, the most common national writing systems are those based on the Latin alphabet (see), and. The idea of ​​ideal graphics existing in science (when there is an exact correspondence between phonemes and graphemes: each grapheme conveys one phoneme, and each phoneme conveys one grapheme) is not represented in any letter and can only serve as a starting point for assessing the correspondence between any sound language and the writing system.

The discrepancy between the number of graphemes and phonemes in many modern writing systems built on the Latin alphabet is explained by the historical adaptation of this alphabet - without its fundamental changes (or without changes at all) - to the languages ​​that adopted it. 23 Latin letters (25 in Late Latin) could not reflect the significantly larger number of phonemes of many modern languages ​​(36-46). The gap in the ratio of graphemes and phonemes increased over time and due to inevitable changes in the languages ​​themselves, if their spelling remained traditional. This phenomenon is most characteristically presented in writing. There are 26 characters for the 46 phonemes in the English alphabet. Letter combinations (complex graphemes) are widely used in English writing: digraphs(for example, ck[k]), trigraphs(for example oeu), polygraphs(e.g. augh [ɔ:]). There are a total of 118 complex graphemes in English writing, together with monographs(type b [b]) they make up 144 graphemes. Stable letter combinations entered the English graphics system as an additional means of expressing phonemes. Complex graphemes are also used in the writing of other languages, cf. ch [x], sch [š], sz [š], cz [ž], etc. Some graphic systems use letters specially introduced into the alphabet: ç, ț, ș, German. ß, ø, Polish. ł. Some alphabets include letters with superscripts: in š, č, ž, in Polish ć, ś, ź, ż.

Graphic writing systems built on the Cyrillic alphabet are simpler in the ratio of graphemes and phonemes. When the Slavic alphabets (and) were invented, the one on which they were based was specially reworked in order to maximize its correspondence to the phonemic composition. A further development of the Cyrillic alphabet is. When creating alphabets for many on its basis, N. F. Yakovlev derived (published in 1928) a mathematical formula for constructing the most economical (in terms of the number of letters) alphabet (it was also intended to be developed by I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay). This formula is almost completely met by the modern Russian alphabet, which has 33 letters to represent 41 (by) phonemes. The rationality of Russian graphics is ensured by its syllabic () principle, which consists in the fact that the differential sign of hardness/softness of a consonant phoneme is indicated by the next (after the consonant letter) vowel or (not before the vowel) a special sign of softness (or its absence). This gives a savings of 15 letters (since the Russian language has 15 pairs of consonants, differing in hardness/softness, cf. “mol - mole”, “crumpled - small”, etc.). The second feature of the syllabic principle of Russian graphics is the designation of the phoneme [j] together with the vowel following it with one letter: i, yu, e, e. These letters are syllabograms, i.e. elements of syllabic writing. Since there are only 4 pairs of consonants, differing in hardness/softness, special letters for soft consonants (љ, њ, ћ, ђ) were introduced into the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, and the syllabic principle is not used.

In many graphics systems, the positional principle operates: certain graphemes are used depending on the grapheme context (the proximity of certain letters and some other conditions). However, this principle does not provide such a strict and systematic cohesion of graphemes as with the syllabic principle of Russian graphics.

Due to the graphic context, the polyphony (ambiguity) of graphemes is removed. So, in German writing, the letter s in the position between a space and a vowel has the sound value [z] (Saal, setzen), before a consonant, except p, t, and before a space - the value [s] (Preis, Ski), after a space before letters p, t - meaning [š] (Stein, Speck). Context also removes polygraphemicity (the possibility of denoting the same phoneme or a differential feature of a phoneme by different graphemes). This context is called . Thus, the opportunity to indicate a sign of softness in Russian writing either with a soft sign or with a letter like “I” is realized in the first case not before a vowel (“letter”), in the second - before a vowel (“syadu”).

Where graphics provide more than one option for representing a phoneme and cannot provide definite solutions, spelling makes the final choice. Thus, from the possibility of denoting the final [s] in Russian writing with the letters “s” or “z”, orthography chooses “z” in the word “straz” and “s” in the word “palace”. In phoneme [f], regardless of position, it can be denoted by the graphemes f, v, ph. They are determined by spelling: für, vor, Phonetik.

Taking into account the alphabetic meanings of letters and those sound meanings that appear for letters in the text, a theory of the main and secondary meanings of letters has been developed (on Russian material - A. N. Gvozdev).

  • Baudouin de Courtenay I. A., On the relationship of Russian writing to the Russian language, St. Petersburg, 1912;
  • Gvozdev A. N., Fundamentals of Russian spelling, in his book: Selected works on spelling and phonetics, M., 1963;
  • Volotskaya Z. M., Moloshnaya T.N., Nikolaev T. M., Experience in describing the Russian language in its written form, M., 1964;
  • Balinskaya V.I., Graphics of the modern English language, M., 1964;
  • Toporov V.N., Materials for the distribution of graphemes in the written form of the Russian language, in the book: Structural typology of languages, M., 1966;
  • Vahek J., On the problem of written language, trans. from German, in the book: Prague Linguistic Circle, M., 1967;
  • Makarova R.V., The concept of graphics and graphemes, in the book: System and levels of language. M., 1969;
  • Yakovlev N. F., Mathematical formula for constructing the alphabet (experience in the practical application of linguistic theory), in the book: Reformed A. A., From the history of Russian phonology. Feature article. Reader, M., 1970;
  • Maslov Yu. S., Notes on the theory of graphics, in the book: Philologica. Studies in language and literature. In memory of academician V. M. Zhirmunsky, L., 1973;
  • Osipov B.I., History of Russian graphics, in the book: Phonetic and orthographic collection, Barnaul, 1974;
  • Vetvitsky V. G., Ivanova V.F., Moiseev A.I., Modern Russian writing, M., 1974;
  • Amirova T. A., On the history and theory of graphemics, M., 1977 (lit.);
  • hers, Functional relationship between written and sound language, M., 1985 (lit.);
  • Experience in improving alphabets and spellings of the languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR, M., 1982;
  • Shcherba L.V., Theory of Russian writing, Leningrad, 1983;
  • Zinder L. R., Essay on the general theory of writing, L., 1987 (lit.).

    Graphics as a branch of linguistics.

    Principles of Russian graphics.

    Transcription and transliteration.

    GOST 7.79-2000.

The word “graphics” (Greek grapho – “I write”) in Russian is polysemantic. It means: 1. A type of fine art using lines and strokes in black and white. 2. Designs of written characters to display spoken speech. 1 In the second meaning, graphics are used in linguistics and have several independent meanings:

Graphics are a set of styles with the help of which oral speech is conveyed in writing and the rules for designating sounds using letters;

Graphics is a system of relationships between letters and sounds in a text (broad interpretation);

Graphics is the name given to the science itself that studies and describes letter-sound relationships.

Graphics is another factor of writing, along with the type of writing and the alphabet, endowed with specific functions. Compared to the theory of the alphabet, graphics have their own range of tasks. The alphabet only determines the nomenclature of the characters used in a given letter and their basic meanings. Graphics examine the relationship of the alphabet to the sound system of a given language. The main issue in graphics is the relationship of a letter to a sound (more precisely, to a phoneme). Graphics determine the general conditions for the use of all letters of the alphabet.

The unit of writing in graphics is called graphemes. The grapheme is the smallest unit of writing, performs a form- and semantic-distinguishing function, and has corresponding units in the grammar of the language (word, morpheme, syllable, phoneme).

A grapheme is a symbolic unit, because it necessarily requires meaning and material expression. The meaning of a grapheme correlates either with the content of the utterance or with its sound, depending on the type of writing. The only possible form of a grapheme is descriptive; this is predetermined by the very essence of writing as a way of graphically recording speech. As a signed unit, a grapheme can have a zero exponent. A zero grapheme can be considered the absence of materially expressed graphemes, which is identified on the basis of functional opposition. For example, in the Russian writing system, one of the ways to indicate the softness of a consonant is to use the letter b, and the hardness of consonants in the same positions is to not use this letter. In this case, we can assume that the hardness of the consonant is indicated by a zero grapheme.

One type of grapheme is letters. Letter and grapheme are not identical concepts. Firstly, graphemes include not only letters. Secondly, a letter is a unit of the alphabet, and a grapheme is an element of a writing system that receives its meaning in context. For example, the modern French writing system is represented by 44 letters of the alphabet and 112 graphemes, of which 44 are simple and expressed by letters, and 68 are complex - combinations of letters. The English writing system also has a lot of graphemes, which contain several letters ( ar, air, aigh, th). In such cases, combinations of letters, depending on their composition and position in the word, have different sound meanings. The difference between a letter and a grapheme is clearly evident when considering lowercase and uppercase letters. A And A- the same letter, but different graphemes, because perform different functions.

The grapheme should not be identified with the phoneme. A grapheme in a language system can correspond to

One phoneme: A – <а>in a word watermelon;

Set of phonemes: I – in a word yours;

A combination of a phoneme with a component of another phoneme: I – <’а>in a word crush;

Only a constituent element of a phoneme: b- denotes softness<т>in a word crush;

A semantic, not a sound unit (the hieroglyph conveys meaning and is indifferent to sound).

Graphemes are units of writing that can be either alphabetic or non-alphabetic. Any material recording of non-speech cannot be recognized as writing. These are, for example, notes (where graphic icons record the sounds of music), flags, light signaling, and Morse code.

Non-literal graphemes include:

Numbers. Numbers are hieroglyphs because they convey the meaning (quantity), and not the sound of the word: the number 2 for a speaker in any language means the same quantity, while corresponding to different sounding units of the language. The meaning of the digit is positional, because its reading depends on the place in the combination: the same number when written 20 is read differently ( twenty,twenty, zwanzig). Numbers can be homonyms: 1 – one And first, one And first (English);

- signs and symbols of various sciences. These are international graphemes that exist outside of special texts: % - percentage, § - paragraph, ≠ - not equal, ♀ - feminine, ♂ - masculine. Moreover, the same symbols in different sciences can convey different content: sign > in mathematics it means " more", in linguistics – “ goes into...», sign ║ in mathematics - « parallelism", in linguistics – « alternation";

- abbreviations: prof., etc., etc., m, kg,Dr. (doctor);

- punctuation marks. When reading, they are usually not voiced, but they are an indispensable attribute of written speech, expressing syntactic relationships, intonation and other meanings, i.e. something that in oral speech is more often expressed by intonation. Only in written speech without punctuation marks is a double interpretation of phrases possible Execution cannot be pardoned; She sings and dances well. Placed punctuation marks make the meaning of sentences different.

- space. Does not reflect phonetic reality. We know that space was not used as a word boundary in ancient manuscripts. In modern writing rules, there are recommendations to write parts of words not only together, but also separately (cf. adverbs in the hearts, indiscriminately, at a gallop). The space determines the division into words according to meaning. If the meaning is unclear, then the space may be used incorrectly (cf.: above And on top of the cabinet);

- discharge and font. They draw the reader’s special attention to a fragment of text. In oral speech, this function is played by logical stress and intonation. (“It smelled slightly damp, dust, old paper and something else. I found out how only in the next room. It smelled like mice." V. Gilyarovsky);

- A hyphen is a sign that connects words and their parts, i.e. semi-continuous writing. Often the hyphen performs a differentiating function ( on my way - do it my way; took a raincoat with him - took a raincoat, tent);

- apostrophe in modern Russian writing is used only in proper names of foreign origin ( Joan of Arc);

The accent mark helps clear up ambiguity when the context cannot. In some cases, not using an accent mark can lead to a distortion of meaning: hA mok - deputyO To; sizee cut - cutA t; Rat ki - handAnd . The accent mark is necessarily used in textbooks when teaching reading, in standard dictionaries.

Let's move on to consider principles of Russian graphics.

Modern Russian writing, based on the Cyrillic alphabet, is letter-sound (phonemographic). The basic principle of letter-sound writing is that each letter must correspond to a separate phoneme, and each phoneme must be expressed by one letter sign. Such ideal writing systems do not exist today. The degree of perfection of the graphic system is determined by how accurately the letters correspond to sounds (phonemes).

Modern Russian graphics in this regard are one of the most advanced, since most of the letters of the Russian alphabet are unique. Based on the alphabetical meaning of the letters and letter-sound correspondence, there are quite a few spellings: house, world, table, tourist, empty, joking, in hand and etc.

However, the Russian graphics system has a number of deviations from the letter-sound principle. Depending on the alphabetical meaning, the letters of modern Russian writing can be grouped as follows:

    letters for vowel sounds: A, O, U, E, Y, I;

    letters denoting the combination of a vowel sound with the preceding [j]: E, Yo, Yu, Ya;

    letters for hard paired consonants: B, V, G, D, Z, K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, F, X;

    letters for unpaired hard consonants: Ж, Ш, Ц;

    letters for unpaired soft consonants: CH, Ш;

    letter for [j]: И;

    letter to indicate softness of consonants: b;

    letter without alphabetical meaning: Ъ.

Thus, all letters of the Russian alphabet in their alphabetical meanings reflect strong variants of Russian phonemes. The exception is the letter Y, which denotes a weak version of the phoneme , and the letters b and b, which do not denote sounds.

In the Russian alphabet there are no special letters for sounds of weak positions; spelling deals with their designation. This is an objective gap in the Russian alphabet, formed historically.

There are no special letters in the alphabet to represent paired soft consonants. This is the second objective gap in the Russian alphabet.

For each vowel phoneme in the Russian alphabet there are two letters:<а>- A and I,<о >- O and Yo,<э>– E and E,<у>- U and Yu,<и>- Y and I.

So, the Russian alphabet is characterized by insufficiency in the area of ​​letters for consonants and redundancy in the area of ​​letters for vowels.

Objective gaps in the alphabet are compensated for by graphics.

Since graphics determine the relationship between the designated sound/sound segment and the letter used, it establishes the rules for using the letter, its meaning, and prescribes writing and reading letters in a certain way in one position or another.

In Russian graphics, the unit of writing and reading is not a single letter, but a combination of letters. For example, the letter P will be read as a hard or soft consonant depending on which letter is used after it: [p] - ra, ro, ru, ry, re or [p'] - rya, ryo, ryu, ri, re, r.

The positionality of the meaning of a letter is a feature of the basic principle of Russian graphics, which is called letter combination. It also has another name - syllabic principle, however, this name, despite its fairly frequent use, should be considered conditional, since when determining the method of designating a sound or the sound meaning of a letter, the immediate environment, and not the entire syllable, is first taken into account. For example, in the word cling one syllable, but in order to write it down, it is necessary to take into account 3 positional combinations: 1) the fact that the sound [l’] is soft predetermines the use of the letter b after the letter L as a signal about the softness of the consonant indicated by the letter L; 2) the fact that the sound [n] is hard - the use of the letter U after the letter N, indicating the hardness of [n] and [y]; 3) the fact that the sound [t] is hard - the use of a zero grapheme after the letter T as a signal about the hardness of the consonant.

The main task of the letter-combination principle of graphics is to compensate for the shortcomings of the Russian alphabet.

The redundancy of letters to represent vowel sounds should be assessed positively. Firstly, it allows you to significantly save graphic resources, since instead of introducing 15 new letters for paired soft consonants, only 5 letters for vowels with a dual function are introduced: they simultaneously indicate the vowel sound and signal the quality of the consonant. Secondly, letters for vowels are not doublets: denoting the same vowel sounds, they differ in the graphic function of the signal about the quality of the consonant. Thirdly, the alternation of hard and soft consonants in one morpheme is extremely frequent in the Russian language. The use of the same letter for paired consonants creates graphic uniformity of the morpheme, which has a positive effect on the recognition of morphemes and words that have undergone phonetic variation. For example, [house] / [house’] is identified in the same graphic design in word forms House House e, [рΛst] / [рΛс’т’] - in growth y/ growth And. In addition, this use of letters for vowels should be recognized as systemic, since there are almost no exceptions to it.

The letter combination (syllabic) principle of Russian graphics is used in two areas:

1) when denoting the softness-hardness of consonants ( frost - frost, creeping - benefit, shaft - sluggish, on a stake - pricked;

2) when designating :manger, if, ruff, skirt; mine, mine, battles, fifth;immense, devoured, volume, nightingale, water; half-south, pan-Europe, half-January; party cell.

The letters E, Yo, Yu, Ya and Y are used in alphabetical meanings. However, the graphics determine the positions in which the letters like I function in their alphabetical meanings, and the positions in which the phoneme [j] is indicated by the letter J.

The main task of the graphic system of the language is the written recording of various texts of the native language. However, native speakers may have other needs for writing. For example, by writing down words borrowed from another language, you can discover sounds that are not present in your native language. For this, two techniques are used: transcription and transliteration.

Transcription(Latin transcriptio “rewriting”) – This is a recording of spoken speech in which each phoneme is indicated by a special graphic sign. There are several types of transcription.

Practical transcription– recording a foreign language text using the national alphabet, taking into account pronunciation: beautiful – [beautiful]; The main requirement of practical transcription is the exact preservation of the sound appearance of the transmitted word. In this case, the recording is carried out strictly on the basis of the alphabet of a given language without the use of additional characters; Incorrect or unusual use of letters is permitted. Practical transcription is used in cases where a foreign word cannot be translated, or translation is undesirable for some reason (often these are proper names or terms). As a result, foreign words, untranslated but transcribed, are included in the text and function as words of the given language, that is, they are actually borrowed (parachute, Siauliai, computer).

Phonetic transcription(actually sound, or segmental) - a method of unambiguously fixing in writing the sound characteristics of words and segments of speech. The International Phonetic Association's Latin-based transcription is used here. For example: easy – [l"ohkej]; ruthless - [bizzalasnej]; beautiful [bju: tuhfl]. For the Russian language, a transcription based on the Russian alphabet is used: beautiful – [byut'ifl]; ruthless -[b'izhzhalsny]. To accurately reflect all sounds, phonetic transcription uses additional graphic signs: diacritics to indicate length and brevity, an accent mark, an apostrophe to indicate softness, and special signs to indicate phonemes. It is used in dictionaries of foreign languages ​​(where, for example, spelling is very far from pronunciation and does not have the proper regularity, as in English), in language textbooks, in textbooks on diction and recitation, in recordings of live speech (for example, in dialectology).

Phonemic transcription used to convey the phonemic composition of a word or morpheme: easy – [l’ ogkoj]; ruthless - [bezzalostnoj]. Phonemes in a weak position are conveyed here by graphemes, reflecting the strong position of the sound in the morpheme. It is used in recording examples of grammar, where the structural rather than the pronunciation aspect of the matter is important. Its principle: each phoneme, regardless of position, is always conveyed by the same sign. Phonemic transcription requires significantly fewer characters than phonetic transcription, since the number of phonemes is always less than the number of specific sounds - their variants.

Transliteration(Latin trans “through”, littera “letter”) - letter-by-letter transmission of text written using one graphic system by means of another graphic system: beautiful- [beautiful]. Compare: German Schiller- Russian Schiller, where is the german combination sch is conveyed by one letter Ш. Transliteration differs from practical transcription in its universality; it is focused not on a specific language, but on a specific graphics system. Transliteration allows for the conditional use of letters and other graphic symbols.

In the history of Russian writing, transliteration was more often used to convey foreign words. So, in the XVIII – XIX centuries. By letter-by-letter transmission of a foreign word, well-known names and names took the following form: Newton(Newton) instead Newto n, Diderot(Diderot) instead Diderot, « Ivangoye"("Ivanhoe") instead "Ivanhoe», Walpole(Walpole) instead Walpole, Wallas(Wallace) instead Wallace. In the future, the desire for accuracy in sound transmission is manifested. Therefore, nowadays, when borrowing words, as well as to convey proper names, transcription is more often used: Newton, Diderot, "Ivanhoe"" Transliteration prevails in the graphic development of borrowed common nouns: marketing- marketing,server– server,service- service.

Transliteration rules began to emerge at the end of the 19th century. When creating Prussian scientific libraries, when a single catalog included works written in Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, Indian and other writing systems, the need arose for uniform rules for their design. The transcription instructions of these libraries served as the basis of a standard for translating various writing systems into Latin.

Today, transliteration guidelines are developed by the International Standard Organization (ISO). To convey Russian words in different countries, up to 20 different transliteration systems in Russian letters are used. The Institute of Linguistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the Russian Academy of Sciences) developed in 1956 the rules for the international transliteration of Russian proper names in Latin letters (GOST 16876-71). The RAS system was highly praised abroad as the second Russian orthography on a Latin basis.

Common transliteration systems are the Library of Congress Slavic (Russian) Transliteration and the Princeton University Library's Russian Transliteration.

ISO 9 - 1995 “Information and documentation. Transliteration of Cyrillic letters into Latin ones. Slavic and non-Slavic languages" (Transliteration of Slavic Cyrillic characters into Latin characters) is the most famous transliteration system in the world. The main advantage of ISO 9 over other similar systems is its complete unambiguity: each letter corresponds to one letter or a combination of a letter with various diacritics. This allows you to accurately transmit the Cyrillic original and perform reverse transliteration, even if the language is not recognized.

Transliteration, due to its universality, can play the role of a single standard for solving practical problems in multilateral international contacts. Compare, for example, the transliteration of the surname Lapshin Lapšin with the variety of its practical transcriptions: English. Lapshin, French. Lapchine, Italian. Lapscin, Polish. Łapszyn, German. Lapschin.

We cannot do without transliteration skills when processing international postal items and bank documents. Transliteration has become especially relevant with the advent of the Internet. On computer networks, every person is faced with the need to write Russian words in Latin letters. Due to the fact that this problem usually arises unexpectedly and seems too simple in appearance, in most cases everyone does it in their own way, making up the transliteration as they go along. The result of this is the current complete chaos in the Latin transliteration of the Cyrillic alphabet, creating difficulties in machine searches and ambiguities when attempting to reverse-read transliterated proper names. Unfortunately, few of the current users of computer systems know that the standard for the transmission of Russian letters in Latin has already been developed at the state level.

The Russian Federation uses GOST 7.79-2000 “System of standards for information, library and publishing. Rules for transliteration of the Cyrillic script into the Latin alphabet." This standard was developed on the basis of GOST 16876-71 and is an authentic text of ISO 9-1995. The standard applies to the rules for transliteration using the Latin alphabet of individual letters, words, expressions, as well as related texts in languages ​​whose writing is based on the Cyrillic alphabet. The rules of the standard are applied wherever it is required to ensure an unambiguous representation of Cyrillic text in Latin letters and the possibility of algorithmically restoring the text in the original Cyrillic notation, in particular, when transmitting documents over computer networks.

Most recently, programmers have developed converters to automatically translate text from one alphabetic system to another. For example, a converter for Russian letters (UTF-8), which even provides a sample transliteration:

Eat some more of these soft French rolls and drink some tea. –

S "esh" zhe eshhjo ehtikh mjagkikh francuzskikh bulok da vypejj chaju. These converters greatly facilitate transliteration and ensure uniformity of records.

List of used literature

    Vetvitsky V.G., Ivanova V.F., Moiseev A.I. Modern Russian writing. – M.: Education, 1974.

    Gvozdev A.N. Modern Russian literary language. Part I Phonetics and morphology. – M.: Education, 1973.

    Gorbunova L.I. Writing in its history and functioning: educational method. allowance. – Irkutsk: Irkut Publishing House. state University, 2007.

    Dudnikov A.V. Modern Russian language. – M,: Higher. school, 1993.

    Ivanova V.F. Modern Russian language. Graphics and spelling. M., 1976.

    Russian language. Encyclopedia/Ch. ed. Yu.N. Karaulov. – M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia; Bustard, 1998.

    Modern Russian language / Ed. V.A. Beloshapkova. – M.: Azbukovnik, 1999.

    Linguistics. Large encyclopedic dictionary. – M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1998.

Questions for self-control

    Define the concepts of graphics and graphemes.

    Tell us about the relationship between grapheme and letter, grapheme and phoneme. What graphic signs are classified as non-literal graphemes?

    Name the principles of Russian graphics.

    What is the essence of the syllabic principle?

    Define the concept of transcription. What is its purpose? Name the types of transcription.

    Give a definition of the concept of transliteration. How is it different from transcription? In what areas of life does a person have to resort to transliteration?

    Name the state and international standards for transliteration.

Assignment for independent work:

      Using the list of references, study the topic “Limitation of the syllabic principle of Russian graphics.

      Carefully study GOST 7.79-2000 “System of standards for information, library and publishing. Rules for transliteration of the Cyrillic script into the Latin alphabet." Transliterate your full name (last name, first name and patronymic) in accordance with the requirements of this standard.

Graphic arts is a set of characters for writing text. Our alphabet, Cyrillic, is the most common graphic system of the Russian language, but far from the only one. Remember, you probably received (and even wrote) emails in Latin letters: Privet, kak dela? :-)

In general, humanity has come up with many ways to record and transmit text: Morse code, a set of maritime flag signals, the alphabet of the deaf and dumb... Some of them can hardly be called “graphics”, although, in principle, all these signs can be depicted on paper, so the essence is there is only one of them.

Spelling- this is a set of rules establishing which of the spellings allowed by graphics is the only correct one.

Spelling rules resemble political laws in that they are invented by people and have a similar tendency to change abruptly. In contrast, the laws of morphology and syntax develop spontaneously and are more reminiscent of the laws of nature in that they cannot simply be taken and canceled, while replacing any spelling rule is relatively easy. Let us want, for example, that words with zhi – shi would write through zhy - shy (live, sew, wide...). It's not that hard to do. To do this, you just have to republish all the dictionaries, atlases, introduce a new rule into the school curriculum, correct some signs... In general, all this is entirely within human power. But changing the laws of morphology or syntax is beyond human power. It is unlikely that anyone will ever be able to convince all Russian speakers, for example, to use the instrumental case instead of the genitive case and vice versa.

Spelling vowels after sibilants and ts

Spelling o–e after the hissing ones

  • in the roots - e :comb, test, bee, acorn, silk; excl. word roots burn, zhor, gooseberry, seam, rustle, prim, clink glasses, damn(obsolete) , as well as borrowed : show, ramrod, driver, joker, dude, lecho, anchovy and many others;
  • at the beginning of suffixes and endings ( -ok, -onok, -ov, -o and etc.) – O : engine, pot, thicket, rattle, top, silence, shoulder

Spelling s – and after ts

  • in the roots - And : circus, tank; excl. word roots gypsy, chicken
    • ;
  • at the beginning of suffixes and endings – s : Ptitsyn, ends

b after the hissing ones

A soft sign after hissing words at the end is written in the following cases (and only in them):

  • In I.unit 3rd declension nouns: mouse, oven.
  • In the infinitive form of verbs with stems h: cut, take care.
  • At the end of 2 l. units present verbs: write, sing, sleep.
  • In adverbs: wide open. But: I can't bear to get married.

Displaying the sound [th] in writing

The display of the sound [th] in writing depends on its position:

  • Between a vowel and a consonant, as well as at the end of words, the sound [th] is indicated by the letter th:
    Examples: l ethTo A, P Othl O, harvest Ath .
  • Between a consonant and a vowel, the sound [th] is indicated by dividing hard or soft signs. In this case, Ъ is written only after prefixes (with the exception of some borrowed words: adjutant, conjuncture, object etc.), and b – in all other cases:
    ъ : O bъe CT, O bъI phenomenon, ra hъe m,
    b : inte Rbe R, both hbI on, Pbe T, VbYu ha.
  • Between two vowels and at the beginning of words, the sound [th] does not have a letter designation.
    Compare: b AthTo a – b ae To, b Othts a – b oh ts, st Ath– st and I .
    And: V her r, lecture and I, e and, Yu G.
    Exceptions are words of foreign origin, where the sound [th] is indicated by the letter th: th od, th oh, ra th he, ma th op.
  • The sound [th] does not occur between two consonants.

An interesting special case is the display of the combination [йй] on a letter. For example, words maya, conveyor, foyer etc. can be pronounced with a tense (“double”) [th]. However, this “doubling” is more likely due to their unusual notation than to objective linguistic laws: after all, in the source language, many of these words have a completely “ordinary” [th].


Please enable JavaScript to view the

The term “graphics” (from the Greek graphikos - written) is used in two meanings. It refers to both a set of means of writing the elements of spoken speech and a special branch of science that characterizes the relationship between graphic signs and sounds.

Graphic means include letters, punctuation marks and various superscript marks - stress, dot over е, arc over й and in printed texts apostrophes (a comma-shaped sign above a line that replaces a missing vowel).

Each phonetic letter has a specific alphabet (from the Greek names of the letters - alpha and vita), or alphabet, a list of letters arranged in a certain order. The alphabet is of great practical importance; in particular, it determines the arrangement of words in dictionaries and reference books.

The Russian alphabet has 33 letters. Most of them appear in two varieties - lowercase and uppercase (with the exception of ъ and ь, which are used only in the form of lowercase letters).

The origin of the alphabet is associated with one of the forms of Slavic alphabet - the Cyrillic alphabet. This alphabet received this name in honor of the first educator of the Slavs, the creator of Slavic writing, Constantine the Philosopher, who received his second name when he was tonsured as a monk - Cyril. In its original form, this alphabet included forty-three (43) letters, of which 24 were borrowed from the Greek uncial script (used mainly in early sacred texts). The remaining 19 letters were specially created taking into account the peculiarities of the sound structure of Slavic languages.

Subsequent changes in sound structure further complicated the relationship between letters and sounds.

Currently, these relations in Russian are as follows:

  • 1. Most of the letters in our graphics at any given moment convey or denote one very specific sound.
  • 2. There are letters that do not represent any sounds.
  • 3. Some letters can simultaneously represent two sounds. This is me, e, e, yu, sometimes and.
  • 4. A number of letters are characterized by potential sound ambiguity (cf., for example, the sound of the letter s in the following positions: a) [s] -[sa?t], [su?t]; b) [s"], [s"a?du], [s"ielu?]; c) [z], [z"d"e?lt"], d) [z"] -[pro?z "b]; e) [w?], [sh?y?t"], f) [w?] - [zh?e?ch"]. Only the letters y, ts, ch, sh, y are unambiguous.

The syllabic principle of Russian graphics developed historically as a result of the natural softening of the majority of consonants in strictly defined positions (before the front vowels [i], [e]).

The syllabic principle is violated only when denoting consonants that are not included in the correlative series of hardness and softness. This applies to always hard consonants zh, sh, ts and always soft consonants ch, shch. When writing vowels after these letters, deviations from the specified rule are observed. These deviations boil down to the following:

  • 1. After the hard consonants w, sh, c, vowels i, e are written, instead of the vowels ы, e required by the syllabic principle: circus (instead of circus), sew (instead of sewing), six (instead of shest), etc.
  • 2. After the soft consonants ch, shch, the vowels a, u, o are written instead of the required i, yu, e: tea (instead of chay), pike (instead of shchuka), ball (instead of ball). One of the significant advantages of the syllabic principle is that that it reduces the number of required letters by 15 units. It is important to emphasize that the rules of graphics establish only possible relationships between letters and sounds. Having mastered these skills, we will not learn to write completely correctly, since from the point of view of graphics it is quite possible to write entry and fhot. The rules according to which out of all possible spellings only one is legitimized and chosen are established by spelling.

The writing system includes a historically established set of descriptive signs and the rules for their use, therefore, in the science of writing, two sections are distinguished - graphics and spelling.

Graphic arts- describes the composition of the characters used in this letter, their origin, style and possible options. In modern writing, graphemes of different nature and purpose are used, which were created over thousands of years.

The main descriptive characters in phonographic writing are letters. A set of letters arranged in a certain order, used to convey a given language in writing, is called an alphabet. Letters are signs of phonemes. Along with letters, syllabograms - syllable signs - are often used. These are, for example, the Russian graphemes e, ё, yu, i after a vowel, after the separators ъ, ь. In syllabographic writing (Indian, Ethiopian, Japanese), such graphemes are the main ones.

Sometimes we also use morphemograms - morpheme signs. For example: %, No., §.

Modern writing cannot do without the widespread use of logograms (ideograms). These are, for example, numbers and various scientific signs and symbols.

Sometimes we resort to pictography (i.e. pictogram). These include, for example, drawings on the signs of studios, shops, workshops, and some road signs.

A special group consists of punctuation marks. For a long time, letters are gradually being used to denote large and small phrases. In the 8th - 9th centuries other punctuation marks appeared. Only from the 12th century did the point become fixed in its modern meaning. The emergence of printing gave rise to an urgent need to streamline the system of punctuation marks.

Nowadays, in the Latinized and Russified (Kirillov) writing system, ten punctuation marks are used: six of them reflect the division of speech and highlight the elements of the statement (period, comma, ;, :, -, brackets), four symbols (?, !, "", ... ) reflect the division and emotional and semantic nature of the statement. These characters are accompanied by spaces, paragraphs, and capital letters (as an indicator of the beginning of a sentence).

To fully master a literary language, it is necessary to know and follow language norms; observe spelling standards; pronunciation, lexical and grammatical norms.

Spelling is a historically established system of rules for practical writing. It establishes uniformity in the methods of transmitting speech and its basic units in writing.

Spelling is the costume that the tongue wears, and it can be comfortable or uncomfortable.

Russian spelling, as a system of rules, is divided into five sections:

  1. The rule for transmitting sounds (phonemes) by letters in words and morphemes.
  2. The rule about fused, semi-fused (hyphenated) and separate spellings of words.
  3. The rule for using uppercase (capital) and lowercase (small) letters.
  4. The rule for transferring words from one line to another.
  5. Rule for graphic abbreviation of words.

Each of these sections is a system of rules that have certain principles.


There are several principles of spelling:

  1. The phonetic principle requires that all actually pronounced sounds be reflected in the letter. In its pure form, phonetic writing (transcription) is used only in highly specialized linguistic fields.

However, the phonetic principle may play an important role. Thus, in the Serbo-Croatian language and writing, phonetic spellings are basic. For example: vrabac - plural sparrow. vraptsi, bodybeat, sign. In Belarusian writing, this principle is followed when writing vowels: house - ladies, forest - lyas, sister - sisters.

In our orthography, according to the phonetic principle, for example, prefixes starting with “z” are written: comfortable, free, break, drink.

  1. According to the phonetic principle, the same phoneme is conveyed by the same letter in any position, regardless of the specific sound embodiment: bob - bobok, forest - forester - forester, hour - watchmaker - watchmaker. This is the basic principle of Russian spelling.

The morphological principle is based on the fact that each morpheme should be written the same in all positions. At first glance, it may seem that this particular principle is the leading one in Russian orthography; the morphological spelling coincides with the phonetic one: house - house - brownie, garden - kindergarten - gardener. In fact, many morphemes are written very differently in different features: go - go - you'll go, crumple - crumple - crumple, etc.

39Main differences between Russian and English languages.