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This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Russian on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Russian in popflock.com resource articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or its value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.

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The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Russian pronunciations in popflock.com resource articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to popflock.com resource articles, see {{IPA-ru}} and popflock.com Resource: Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

Russian distinguishes hard (unpalatalized or plain) and soft (palatalized) consonants. Soft consonants, most of which are denoted by a superscript j, ⟨?⟩, are pronounced with the body of the tongue raised toward the hard palate, like the articulation of the y sound in yes. /j, ?:, t?/ are always soft, whereas /?, ts, ?/ are always hard.

See Russian phonology and Russian alphabet for a more thorough look at the sounds of Russian.

Consonants
Hard			Soft
IPA	Examples	English approximation	IPA	Examples	English approximation
b	?; ??^[1]	boot	b?	?	beautiful
d	?; ??^[1]	do	d?	??; ; ^[1]	dew (UK)
f	?; ?;^[1]?^[2]	fool	f?	?; ; ^[2]	few
?	?^[3]^[4]; ??^[1]	goo		?	argue
N/A			j	? [je-]; ?? [j?-]; ?? [ju-]; ? [ja]; ?^[5]	yes, York, you, yard, boy
k	??; ??^[1]; ?^[2]	scar	k?	??;	skew
l	??^[6]	pill	l?	?;	lean
m	??	moot	m?	??;	mute
n	?	noon	n?	?; ; ?^[7]	newt (for some dialects)
p	?; ?^[1]; ?^[2]	span	p?	??; ; ^[2]	spew
r	?	flapped or trilled r, like in Spanish	r?	?;	flapped or trilled r, like in Spanish
s	?; ??^[1]; ?^[2]	soup	s?	?; ; ??; ?^[1]	assume (for some dialects)
?	??; ??^[1]; ?^[2]; ?^[8]	rush	?:	??; ; ?^[9]^[10]	wish sheep
t	??; ?;^[1]?^[2]	stand	t?	?; ?; ; ^[2]	stew (UK; for some dialects)
ts^[11]	??; ?^[10]	cats	t?^[11]	?; ^[10]	chip
v	??; ??^[4]; ???^[1]	voodoo	v?	?; ?	view
x	?; ?^[3]^[10]	loch (Scottish); ugh	x?	?; ; ?^[1]^[3]^[10]	huge (for some dialects)
z	?; ?^[1]	zoo	z?	??; ; ?; ?^[1]	presume (for some dialects)
?	?; ?^[1]	rouge	?:	?^[12]	prestige genre
Stressed vowels
[-soft]			[+soft]
IPA	Examples	English approximation	IPA	Examples	English approximation
a	?	father	æ	??; ?^[13]	pat (US)
?	??;	met	e	??; ?^[13]	mace
?	??; ?; ?	roses (for some dialects)	i	?;	meet
o	; ??	chore	?	??; ?^[13]	foot
u	?	boot	?	??; ?^[13]	choose
Unstressed vowels
[-soft]			[+soft]
IPA	Examples	English approximation	IPA	Examples	English approximation
?	??; ???; ??; ?^[14]	bud	N/A
?	??; ????; ?	about	?	??; ??; ??^[15]	lasagna
?	??; ??; ??; ??; ??	roses (for some dialects)	?	??; ????; ??; ??; ??^[16]	bit
?	??	put	?	???; ??^[13]	youth
?	????; ?^[17]	met	N/A
o	?; ???^[17]	chore	?	??; ??^[18]	foot
Suprasegmental
IPA	Example		Explanation
'	? [t't?r]		Stress mark, placed before the stressed syllable
:	? ['z:ad]^[1]		Consonant length mark, placed after the geminated consonant

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q Consonants in consonant clusters are assimilated in voicing if the final consonant in the sequence is an obstruent (except [v, v?]). All consonants become voiceless if the final consonant is voiceless or voiced if the final consonant is voiced (Halle 1959:31).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ The voiced obstruents /b, b?, d, d?, ?, v, v?, z, z?, ?/ are devoiced word-finally unless the next word begins with a voiced obstruent (Halle 1959:22).
^ ^a ^b ^c ⟨?⟩ is usually pronounced or in some religious words and colloquial derivatives from them, such as ?? and ?, and in the interjections ??, ??, ??, -??, and also in [b?'?altr] (Timberlake 2004:23). /?/ devoices and lenites to [x] before voiceless obstruents (dissimilation) in the word roots -?- or -?-, -?- or -?-, -?-, and also in the old-fashioned pronunciation of -?-, -?-, . Speakers of the Southern Russian dialects may pronounce ⟨?⟩ as (soft , devoiced and ) throughout.
^ ^a ^b Intervocalic ⟨?⟩ represents /v/ in certain words (?, ?, ? ), and in the genitive suffix -/- (Timberlake 2004:23).
^ The soft vowel letters ⟨?, ë, ?, ?⟩ represent iotated vowels /je, jo, ju, ja/, except when following a consonant. When these vowels are unstressed (save for ⟨ë⟩, which is always stressed) and follow another vowel letter, the /j/ may not be present. The letter ⟨?⟩ produces iotated sound /ji/ only after ?.
^ /l/ is often strongly pharyngealized , but that feature is not distinctive (Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996:187-188).
^ Alveolo-palatal consonants are subjected to regressive assimilative palatalization; i.e. they tend to become palatalized in front of other phones with the same place of articulation.
^ Most speakers pronounce ⟨?⟩ in the pronoun and its derivatives as [?]. All other occurrences of cluster stay as affricate and stop.
^ ⟨?⟩ is sometimes pronounced as [?:] or [] and sometimes as [?t?], but no speakers contrast the two pronunciations. This generally includes the other spellings of the sound, but the word sometimes has [?t?] because of the morpheme boundary between the prefix ⟨?-⟩ and the root ⟨--⟩.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e [ts], [t?], [?:], [x], have voiced allophones, , , , respectively, before voiced stop consonants. Examples: ?, ??, , ??, ?.
^ ^a ^b The affricates [ts] and [t?] are sometimes written with ligature ties: [t?s] and [t]. Ties are not used in transcriptions on popflock.com resource (except in phonology articles) because they may not display correctly in all browsers.
^ Geminated is pronounced as soft , the voiced counterpart to , in a few lexical items (such as ?? or ?) by conservative Moscow speakers; such realization is now somewhat obsolete (Yanushevskaya & Bun?i? (2015:224)).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Vowels are fronted and/or raised in the context of palatalized consonants: /a/ and /u/ become [æ] and [?], respectively between palatalized consonants, /e/ is realized as [e] before and between palatalized consonants and /o/ becomes [?] after and between palatalized consonants.
^ Word-initial and pretonic (before the stress) /a/ and /o/, as well as when in a sequence.
^ Only in certain word-final morphemes (Timberlake 2004:48-51).
^ Unstressed /a/ is pronounced as [?] after ⟨?⟩ and ⟨?⟩ except when word-final.^[]
^ ^a ^b In the careful style of pronunciation unstressed /e/ and /o/ in foreign words may be pronounced with little or no reduction.
^ Unstressed [?] only occurs in foreign words.

References

Cubberley, Paul (2002), "The phonology of Modern Russian", Russian: A Linguistic Introduction, Cambridge University Press
Halle, Morris (1959), Sound Pattern of Russian, MIT Press
Jones, Daniel; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4.
Timberlake, Alan (2004), "Sounds", A Reference Grammar of Russian, Cambridge University Press
Yanushevskaya, Irena; Bun?i?, Daniel (2015), "Russian" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 45 (2): 221-228, doi:10.1017/S0025100314000395

[voice-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q Consonants in consonant clusters are assimilated in voicing if the final consonant in the sequence is an obstruent (except [v, v?]). All consonants become voiceless if the final consonant is voiceless or voiced if the final consonant is voiced (Halle 1959:31).

[devoice-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ The voiced obstruents /b, b?, d, d?, ?, v, v?, z, z?, ?/ are devoiced word-finally unless the next word begins with a voiced obstruent (Halle 1959:22).

[g2-3] ⟨?⟩ is usually pronounced or in some religious words and colloquial derivatives from them, such as ?? and ?, and in the interjections ??, ??, ??, -??, and also in [b?'?altr] (Timberlake 2004:23). /?/ devoices and lenites to [x] before voiceless obstruents (dissimilation) in the word roots -?- or -?-, -?- or -?-, -?-, and also in the old-fashioned pronunciation of -?-, -?-, . Speakers of the Southern Russian dialects may pronounce ⟨?⟩ as (soft , devoiced and ) throughout.

[g-4] Intervocalic ⟨?⟩ represents /v/ in certain words (?, ?, ? ), and in the genitive suffix -/- (Timberlake 2004:23).

[5] The soft vowel letters ⟨?, ë, ?, ?⟩ represent iotated vowels /je, jo, ju, ja/, except when following a consonant. When these vowels are unstressed (save for ⟨ë⟩, which is always stressed) and follow another vowel letter, the /j/ may not be present. The letter ⟨?⟩ produces iotated sound /ji/ only after ?.

[6] /l/ is often strongly pharyngealized , but that feature is not distinctive (Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996:187-188).

[7] Alveolo-palatal consonants are subjected to regressive assimilative palatalization; i.e. they tend to become palatalized in front of other phones with the same place of articulation.

[8] Most speakers pronounce ⟨?⟩ in the pronoun and its derivatives as [?]. All other occurrences of cluster stay as affricate and stop.

[?-9] ⟨?⟩ is sometimes pronounced as [?:] or [] and sometimes as [?t?], but no speakers contrast the two pronunciations. This generally includes the other spellings of the sound, but the word sometimes has [?t?] because of the morpheme boundary between the prefix ⟨?-⟩ and the root ⟨--⟩.

[dz-10] [ts], [t?], [?:], [x], have voiced allophones, , , , respectively, before voiced stop consonants. Examples: ?, ??, , ??, ?.

[tie-11] The affricates [ts] and [t?] are sometimes written with ligature ties: [t?s] and [t]. Ties are not used in transcriptions on popflock.com resource (except in phonology articles) because they may not display correctly in all browsers.

[12] Geminated is pronounced as soft , the voiced counterpart to , in a few lexical items (such as ?? or ?) by conservative Moscow speakers; such realization is now somewhat obsolete (Yanushevskaya & Bun?i? (2015:224)).

[palatalized_vowel-13] Vowels are fronted and/or raised in the context of palatalized consonants: /a/ and /u/ become [æ] and [?], respectively between palatalized consonants, /e/ is realized as [e] before and between palatalized consonants and /o/ becomes [?] after and between palatalized consonants.

[14] Word-initial and pretonic (before the stress) /a/ and /o/, as well as when in a sequence.

[15] Only in certain word-final morphemes (Timberlake 2004:48-51).

[a-16] Unstressed /a/ is pronounced as [?] after ⟨?⟩ and ⟨?⟩ except when word-final.^[]

[foreign-17] In the careful style of pronunciation unstressed /e/ and /o/ in foreign words may be pronounced with little or no reduction.

[foreign2-18] Unstressed [?] only occurs in foreign words.

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