The history of nasal vowels and their fate in modern Slavic languages. Formation of nasal vowels Nasal vowels characteristic of the phonetic system
- Nasal vowels are vowels, during the articulation of which air flows not only through the oral cavity, but also through the nasal cavity. They are formed when the soft palate is drooped, as a result of which the nasal cavity acts as an additional resonator. They are contrasted with oral (oral, pure, simple) vowels, formed with a raised soft palate, which excludes the participation of the nasal cavity in their articulation.
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Mentions in literature
When raised, the soft palate (velum) closes the nasal cavity from the oral cavity. This helps us when we pronounce open (non-nasal) consonant sounds and all the open (non-nasal) vowel sounds found in languages such as English, Italian and German. When the soft palate descends, the nasal cavity opens, and due to this, sound passes through the nose, oral cavity and into the pharynx area, which allows us to produce nasal sound. When we pronounce nasal consonants and nasal vowels (as in French), the soft palate lowers. The nasal cavity consists entirely of soft tissue, so it is a rather ineffective resonator. Yet some modern performers consciously use nasal resonance along with other instruments or to create a vocal effect.
Examples characterizing nasals, apparently, can be the following: menge - II, IV lines, grendeme or grende - VI with gredehўm - VIII in the same root, slven - IX, prshen, dschen - X (if here the active participle of the verbs is IV class), wife - III, mlbow or mlvow - V (understanding of the word depends on how to read the digamma), se - VII, VIII, moly - IV, ours - VIII line (if it is the accusative plural). It is unlikely that this material shows that the person who wrote the text did not know how to denote nasals. Rather, we can believe that he did not have them in his speech at all. None of the Slavic languages at the indicated time could have had a similar complex of features characterizing etymological nasals. The picture here is as follows: 1) the process of denasalization has already begun, during which o coincided with y, a ? – with e (i.e., as later in Serbian); 2) in positions where the nasals were preserved, they are acoustically and articulatory close; Wed menge and grende (i.e., as later in Polish); 3) the denasalization process began with individual words, roots and forms, and in other roots and verb forms the nasal vowels were delayed.
14. Alternations associated with the history of nasal sounds in the Old Russian language.
Speech sounds that are part of more complex units of language (morphemes, words, etc.), when forming different grammatical forms or other cognate words, can be modified and replaced with one another.
The interchange of sounds (alternation) in some cases is associated with certain phonetic conditions (cf. the alternation of root vowels in the words old - old man - old man), in other cases it is in no way connected with the phonetic conditions of their use in modern language(cf. alternation of consonants in the words friend - friend). On this basis, alternations of sounds are divided into two types - alternations phonetic (or phonetically conditioned) and non-phonetic (or phonetically unconditioned). Phonetic alternations of sounds are sometimes called positional, allophonemic, or living. Non-phonetic alternations of sounds are most often called historical, less often - traditional, non-positional, phonemic, morphological, grammatical, dead, etc.
Historical alternations of vowel phonemes include the alternation of “a” with nasal consonants or combinations “he”, “in”, “eat”, “im”: name - names, memory - remember, reap, reap.
Research associates such alternations of phonemes with the presence of nasal vowel sounds in the Old Russian language.
Nasal vowels were inherited by Old Russian from Common Slavic. In our time, they are preserved only in the Polish language. But the fact that they were in the Old Slavic language is evidenced by an example: the word tooth in the Makdonian language is pronounced zab, oak - dubm, where in place of the Russian pure non-nasal sound “u” or “a” the combination of a consonant with a nasal consonant is pronounced.
In Old Russian, these nasal vowels were pronounced as “o” or “e” with “m” or “n”.
In Old Church Slavonic, to indicate nasal sounds in writing, there were special letters “yus small” and “yus big”. In Old Russian writing, these letters were also used even when there were no more nasal letters.
In the Old Russian language, they were eliminated already in the second half of the 9th century and were replaced by pure vowels.
Nasal vowels appeared only when combinations of a pure vowel with a nasal consonant created a closed syllable.
Alternation of “a” “eat” “im” “im”: remove – shooting – shoot, hug – hug – clip, take – collect – I’ll take.
Alternation of “a” “u” “he “en”: tinkling - sound - ringing - ringing, dirt - load, coward - shaking.
Alternating “u” “m”: to inflate - arrogant.
15. Palatalization of the posterior linguals.
Palatalization (from Latin palatum - middle palate) is a feature of the articulation of a consonant sound, associated with general case with the tongue moving to a more anterior zone.
In a synchronous description of the phonetic system of a language, palatalization is understood as the rise of the middle part of the tongue to the hard palate, occurring simultaneously with the main articulation of the consonant. For example, for Russian [b’], the main articulation is the closing of the lips with each other and subsequent rapid opening (explosion), while palatalization is additional articulation. Palatalization can be combined with any articulation except midlingual; thus, all consonant sounds except palatal ones can be palatalized. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, palatalization is indicated by the sign [j] at the top right of the sign of the corresponding consonant, in the Russian phonetic tradition - by an apostrophe.
In the Russian literary language, palatalized (“soft”) consonants in most cases have “hard” pairs: thus, [b] and [b'] are opposed on the basis of additional articulation ([b] - velarized, [b'] - palatalized) , all other characteristics (place and method of formation, presence of voice) are the same for them. Thus, for most Russian consonants, the presence/absence of palatalization is a distinctive (differential) feature, i.e., it has phonemic significance: there are words that differ only in the hardness/softness of the consonant, for example pý[l] - pý[l’].
It should be noted that in the Russian tradition it is customary to call “soft” not only palatalized consonants, but also palatal ones.
In historical descriptions of different languages, palatalization refers to various qualitative (i.e., affecting the basic articulation - place and (or) method of formation) changes in consonants under the influence of front vowels or [j] (the initial phase of these changes is usually associated with palatalization in the first meaning) .
For example, in the history of the Proto-Slavic language it is customary to talk about three palatalizations of back-lingual consonants (sometimes the term transitive softening is used):
first palatalization - transition [k], [g], [x] ( posterior lingual) respectively in sibilants [č"], [ž"], [š"] before front vowels (kaditi - chad, gardlo - zhirdlo, hodi - shd; in modern Russian it is reflected in the form of positional alternations during word formation: hand - handle , manual, hand over; friend - friend, friendly, be friends; gunpowder - powder, powder);
the second palatalization is the transition of the same consonants into sibilants [c], [z], [s] before the front vowels of a new origin (from the previous diphthongs: tsena - cf. lit. kainà; in the form of living alternations in the Russian language no longer exists, but, for example, in Ukrainian and Church Slavonic it is preserved, cf. in phraseological units: cloud - dark water in the clouds, God - honor in God, air - in the air);
third palatalization (progressive; did not occur consistently and not in all Slavic dialects) - the transition of [k], [g], [x] to [c], [z], [s] after front vowels (prorok - soothsayer, lgk - Poland).
In addition, while still in a stage of transition from the status of a Proto-Indo-European dialect to the status of an independent language, the Proto-Slavic language experienced the so-called satemization, which is also a transitional palatalization.
Already in the written era, Russian, like other Slavic languages, underwent intransitive palatalization of the back languages: ky, gy, hy > ki, gi, hi.
During palatalization, posterior linguals usually go through several stages. For example: k">t">ts">c".
The term palatalization is also used to describe historical consonant changes in Romance, Indian, Finno-Ugric and other languages.
16. Alternations caused by combination with
Alternation (morphonological) refers to a more or less regular exchange of vowels or consonant phonemes within a morpheme in a certain position (in combination with certain morphs).
yu=j+y; i=j+a; e=j+e; е=j+о
The consonant [j] occupies a special place in this system. It is always soft, because... with its arrangement there is only the main articular middle. back of the tongue and middle palate and no additional.
(Articulation is the work performed by the speech organs to produce sound (articulatory/physiological aspect of speech sound))
Since j( of different origins) occurs in combination with certain morphemes, then cases of softening of the final consonants of the root were associated with positions before these morphemes
| " |
Under dif. combinations refer to combinations of voices. sounds from last sonorous consonants, which were once part of one syllable. Dift. Op. voice. with nose sonor. acc. n and m in position closed syllable(at the end of a word and before consonant sounds). transformed according to the rules of the open. syllable in prasla. language in the nose vowel If the composition contains dif. the combination included a voice. per.r. (e, i), then a nose was formed. vowel lane r. (US m.). If the composition contains dif. the combination included a voice. imp.r.(a, o, u), then a nose was formed. vowel neper. r. (yus b.). When borrowing words that had a combination of vowels. sound with nose acc. in close syllable, there was also a change in these combinations to the nasal. voice. (Knenz from kuning dr\top\nem).
For the first time, the phonetic nature of yus as nasal vowels was determined by A. Kh. Vostokov in “Discourse on the Slavic Language”. A. Kh. Vostokov came to this conclusion by comparing data from the Old Church Slavonic and Polish languages. With this comparison, A. Kh. Vostokov discovered a regular correspondence between Old Slavonic yuses and Polish nasal vowels:
Other arguments can be given to confirm the discovery of A. Kh. Vostokov. Thus, in the Old Church Slavonic language, during word formation or inflection, combinations of a vowel with a nasal consonant n or m can correspond to yusam. For example: call - call.
Nasal vowels, characteristic of the phonetic system of the Old Church Slavonic language and preserved to this day in the Polish and Kashubian languages, were once characteristic of all Slavic languages. Having formed back in the pre-Slavic period, over time they are in different Slavic languages, except Polish and Kashubian, in different times underwent loss, transition to pure, non-nasal vowels. Moreover, the change from nasal vowels to non-nasal vowels was not the same in all Slavic languages, which suggests that their pronunciation was different in different Slavic languages.
How were nasal vowels pronounced in Old Church Slavonic? Analysis of the Glagolitic alphabet allows us to assert that the front nasal vowel was pronounced as o nasal, and the front nasal vowel was pronounced as e nasal.
In most of the monuments of Old Church Slavonic writing that have come down to us, yuses are used correctly. The few cases of mixing them with each other or with other vowels, observed in the Zograf and Assemanian Gospels, the Klotz Collection, the Sinai Breviary, the Suprasl manuscript and the Book of Savvina, are simple scribe errors. Therefore, one should think that these monuments reflect Slavic dialects in which nasal vowels were preserved even in the 11th century.
However, some monuments give clear indications of the loss of nasal vowels in the language of the scribes. Thus, all monuments of Old Church Slavonic writing of the 11th century. Russian translation, including the Ostromir Gospel, written in Rus' by a Russian scribe, are confused with jus b. with ou and yot. with yu, and a with ha. This mixture suggests that Eastern Slavs in the 11th century they no longer had nasal vowels.
roⁿka -> hand => [oⁿ] -> [y]
męta -> mint => [ę] -> [‘a]\ [ä] vowels trans. r. had a moderating effect on the previous acc. sounds.
The Yus existed for a long time, the big one - before Peter’s reform.
St\sl tongue knew nasals, but dr\r did not.
The letter “uk” [ou] reflected the nasal – the result of loss.
Exercise 1. Familiarize yourself with the features of vowel pronunciation.
NASAL VOWELS
French has four nasal vowel sounds: [ɑ̃], [ɔ̃], [ε̃], [œ̃]. The latter is often replaced by the sound [ε̃]. Nasal sounds are pronounced in the same way as the corresponding non-nasal sounds, with the difference that the velum palatine, which continues the palate, is lowered, and therefore the exhaled air passes through the mouth and nose simultaneously. After a nasal vowel, you should not pronounce [m] or [n], even if weakened.
| Figure 1 |
The figure (position B) shows how, when pronouncing nasal vowels, the velum of the palate lowers and the passage into the nasal cavity opens, and the exhaled air resonates not only in the oral cavity, but also in the nasal cavity.
Exercise 2. Vowel [ɑ ˜ ]. Listen and repeat.
| [ɑ ˜ –ɑ ˜ –ɑ ˜ –ɑ ˜ ] |
Exercise 3. Vowel [ɔ ˜ ]. Listen and repeat.
a) Pronunciation of sounds separately and in syllables.
Exercise 4. Vowel [ε ˜ ]. Listen and repeat.
a) Pronunciation of sounds separately and in syllables.
| [ε ˜ –ε ˜ –ε ˜ –ε ˜ ] |
b) Pronunciation of sounds in words.
Exercise 5. Vowel [œ ˜ ]. Listen and repeat.
In modern French the vowel [œ ˜ ] is replaced by the vowel [ε ˜ ]. In this course, it is presented for demonstration, but practicing its pronunciation is not necessary.
Outdated pronunciation with vowel [œ ˜ ]
Exercise 6. Listen and repeat the phrases.
| C'est vraiment extrêmement navrant. |
| Laurent ira en France pendant les vacances. |
| Jean marche lentement en regardant toujours de l'avant. |
| L'enfant de Jean aura quatre ans le trente décembre dans un an. |
| Les bons comptes font les bons amis. |
| Simon et Gaston sont en prison. |
| Les bonbons de tonton Simon sont très bons. |
| Il n'est pas la question que tu mettes ce blouson sans bouton. |
| Qui n'a rien ne craint rien. |
| Le gardien vient chez Lucien mais ne dit rien. |
| Mon jardin est plein de jasmins blancs ce matin. |
| Le parfum de menthe est commun. |
| Lundi quelqu'un m'a emprunté un livre. |
| Mon ami Humbert est brun. |
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Articulation of phonemes
Vowel [ɑ̃]
Sound [ɑ̃]: back nasal vowel, open. The position of the tongue and lips is the same as for the vowel [ɑ], but the velum is lowered, due to which the vowel sound acquires a nasal timbre.
Vowel [ɔ̃]
Sound [ɔ̃]: the position of the vocal apparatus when pronouncing [ɔ̃] is the same as when pronouncing [ɔ], but the lips are more rounded and the velum is lowered, due to which the vowel sound acquires a nasal timbre.
Vowel [ε̃]
The sound [ε̃] is a front nasal sound. When pronouncing [ε̃], the position of the speech organs is the same as when pronouncing [ε], but the palatine curtain is lowered, due to which the stream of exhaled air exits simultaneously through the oral cavity, and the sound acquires a nasal timbre.
Vowel [œ̃]
The sound [œ̃] is a front nasal sound, rounded. The position of the tongue and lips is the same as when pronouncing the sound [œ], but the velum is lowered, due to which the sound acquires a nasal timbre. In modern French this sound is quite rare.
Exercises
This stage is intended to work with the lexical and grammatical material of the lesson.
Translation
This stage is intended to consolidate the acquired knowledge.
Job source: Decision 2536. Unified State Exam 2018. Russian language. I.P. Tsybulko. 36 options.
(1) Nasal vowels characteristic of the phonetic system of the Old Church Slavonic language, where they were designated special letters- yusami Ѫ (о nasal) and Ѧ (е nasal), and preserved to this day in the Polish and Kashubian languages, were once inherent in all Slavic languages. (2) Having been formed back in the Proto-Slavic period, they subsequently in all Slavic languages, except Polish and Kashubian, at different times suffered loss, transition to non-nasal pure ones. (3)<...>The change from nasal vowels to non-nasal vowels was not the same in Slavic languages, which suggests that their pronunciation was different in different Slavic languages.
Task 1. Indicate two sentences that correctly convey the MAIN information contained in the text. Write down the numbers of these sentences.
1) The phonetic system of the Old Church Slavonic language was characterized by nasal vowels, which were designated by special letters - Ѫ (о nasal) and Ѧ (е nasal).
2) The change from nasal vowels to non-nasal vowels in Slavic languages occurred approximately the same way, which once again confirms the idea of the existence of a Proto-Slavic language - the ancestor of all Slavic languages.
3) The process of transition of nasal vowels, which existed in all Slavic languages and were preserved only in Polish and Kashubian, into non-nasal vowels was not the same, which indicates different pronunciation of nasal vowels in different Slavic languages.
4) Nasal vowels have been preserved to this day only in two Slavic languages: Polish and Kashubian, which inherited the phonetic system of the Old Church Slavonic language.
5) The pronunciation of nasal vowels, lost in all Slavic languages, except Polish and Kashubian, was not the same, as evidenced by the difference in the change from nasal vowels to non-nasal vowels in Slavic languages.
Solution.
In this task, we select TWO sentences that correctly convey the most important content of the text. Most likely, these sentences will contain the same information.
1. Highlight the main information of the text.
(1) Nasal vowels, preserved to this day in the Polish and Kashubian languages, were once characteristic of all Slavic languages. (3)<...>The change from nasal vowels to non-nasal vowels was not the same in Slavic languages, which suggests that their pronunciation was different in different Slavic languages.
2. We find sentences in which this information is conveyed without
distortions and errors.
1) Not all information important for understanding the text was conveyed.
2) Information is distorted.
3) All information important for understanding the text is conveyed.
4) Not all information important for understanding the text was conveyed.
5) All information important for understanding the text is conveyed.
Examination. The selected options must contain the same information.
3) The process of transition of nasal vowels, which existed in all Slavic languages and were preserved only in Polish and Kashubian, into non-nasal vowels was not the same, which indicates different pronunciation of nasal vowels in different Slavic languages. (Nasal vowels were present in all Slavic languages, but are now preserved only in Polish and Kashubian. Their transition to non-nasal vowels occurred differently, which means they were also pronounced differently).
5) The pronunciation of nasal vowels, lost in all Slavic languages, except Polish and Kashubian, was not the same, as evidenced by the difference in the change from nasal vowels to non-nasal vowels in Slavic languages. (Nasal vowels were present in all Slavic languages, but are now preserved only in Polish and Kashubian. Their transition to non-nasal vowels occurred differently, which means they were also pronounced differently).
In response, write down two numbers without spaces or commas.
