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MODERN RUSSIAN STRESS
R. I. AVANESOV
University of Moscow
y^apemie B coBpeMeHHOM pyccKOM jiirrepaTypHOM H3biKe
Translated by
D. BUCKLEY
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Editor's Preface
FOR a native English speaker the pronunciation of Russian
is not difficult: there are very few Russian sounds that an
Englishman cannot pronounce with ease. However, spoken
Russian is bedevilled for the foreigner by the problem of
stress.
In this book, which is a translation of Professor R. I.
Avanesov's Udareniye v Sovremennom Russkom Litera-
turnom Yazyke adapted for use by English speakers, the
precise nature of stress in Russian is analysed in detail,
and copious examples of its function are provided. The
glossary at the end of the book gives the correct stresses
of several thousand commonly mis-stressed words ; this
list itself is of immeasurable value to the student.
The more Russian is needed as a language of active
communication, the more does a precise appreciation of the
function and importance of stress in the spoken language
become essential. The simple and easily comprehensible
nature of the exposition in this book makes accessible
even to the elementary student all the information neces
sary to ensure that his study of the spoken language is
soundly based.
Oxford, 1964 C. V. JAMES
List of Abbreviations
ace. accusative case
adj. adjective
dat. dative case
fern. feminine gender
gen. genitive case
imp. imperfective aspect
imper. imperative
inst. instrumental case
loc. locative case
masc. masculine gender
neut. neuter gender
nom. nominative case
part. participle
peri. perfective aspect
pi. plural
poss. possessive
prep. prepositional case
près. present tense
sg. singular
1st sg. first person singular
N.B. Forms in square brackets show
pronunciation.
Chapter 1
The Concept of Orthoepy
THE present work, which is devoted to the question of
stress in modern literary Russian, belongs to the field of
orthoepy. Orthoepy (from the Greek orthos—straight,
correct, and epos—speech) may be defined as the sum
total of those specific laws of oral speech that ensure the
unity of its sound system in correspondence with the
recognized standards of the national language. These
have, through the process of time, been developed and
consolidated in the literary language.
From a practical point of view the meaning of orthoepy
is in many ways analogous with that of orthography.
Uniformity in the sound system of the spoken language
contributes to quick and easy linguistic intercourse—as
does uniformity in the written language: on the other
hand, a lack of uniformity in the spoken language always
impedes intercourse to some extent—just as it does in
the written language (e.g. in a badly written letter).
Thus linguistic standards in general, and orthoepic stan
dards in particular, help language to fulfil in as complete
and free a manner as possible its basic role, which is to
serve as a means of communication between people.
Historically, orthoepy develops side by side with the
formation and shaping of the national language. Although
elements of standardization of languages were known in
2 MODERN RUSSIAN STRESS
earlier periods (i.e. before the formation of a national
language), they did not in these periods take any account
of the spoken language, or did so only to a slight degree.
As a result of the slow development of public speech in
these early periods, the spoken language was not the
widespread means of communication that it later became.
Thus divergences in the spoken language, mainly of
dialectal origin, were preserved for a considerable time.
The role of orthoepy grows with the formation of a
national language when, in connection with the growth
of capitalist relations, which finally overcome the elements
of feudalism, various forms of public speech develop and
become widespread, significantly increasing the import
ance of oral speech in the life of society. In these circum
stances the more pronounced the differences between the
dialects in the language in question, the more important
becomes an elaboration of a single set of linguistic stand
ards for the country as a whole, and this includes ortho-
epic standards.
In their most important form the orthoepic standards
of Russian became fixed as early as the first half of the
seventeenth century, first as standards of the Moscow
dialect and then, as the national language developed and
consolidated its position, gradually assuming the charac
ter of national standards. The latter were in existence in
their present form by the end of the nineteenth century,
although in certain respects they admitted of variations.
After the Revolution the basic, distinctive features of
the orthoepic system, which had been worked out before
the Revolution, were retained. Only certain specific
features which had assumed a vulgar or a local Moscow
character were discarded. In a number of cases pro
nunciation was brought into line with orthography.
THE CONCEPT OF ORTHOEPY 3
The theatre has played an important part in the develop
ment of orthoepy, for it has always sought to cultivate
orthoepic standards in their purest form. In many lang
uages stage speech is the basis of the general orthoepic
system of the country.
Orthoepy is becoming more and more important in
this age of the cinema and, particularly, of the radio, which
has obviously made the spoken language a far wider
vehicle of communication than the written language.*
* For further detailed examination of orthoepy see R. I.
AVANESOV, Russkoye Literaturnoye Proiznosheniye, 2nd edition.
Uchpedgiz, 1954.
Chapter 2
Stress as a Part of Orthoepy
THE extent of the field covered by orthoepy has not yet
been fully established. Some consider orthoepy to be a
limited concept, a collection of the rules of pronunciation
in the narrowest sense of the word, and not including
questions of stress. Others, however, consider orthoepy
a much wider subject, a collection not only of specific
rules of speech, but also of rules for the formation of
grammatical forms, which may equally well relate to the
written language (e.g. which should be used in Russian :
CBeqén or CBe*i, KOjibixaeTca or KOJibimeTCH, rnmenée or
THHréJie?).
The correct meaning of orthoepy must be taken as that
which includes both pronunciation and stress—i.e., the
specific features of the spoken language that are not usually
reflected to a sufficient extent in writing.
Pronunciation means, firstly, the phonetic system of a
language, i.e. the quality of its speech-sounds and the way
they change under certain phonetic conditions (e.g. in
Russian the change from a voiced to an unvoiced conson
ant at the end of a word: xjié[6]a but xjie[n], Mopó[3]a
but Mopó[c] ; or the vowel change [o] to [a] in the first
pretonic syllable after a hard consonant: ,H[O]M but n[a]Ma,
CT[O]JI but CT[a]jibi).
STRESS AS A PART OF ORTHOEPY 5
Pronunciation also covers the sound formulation of
individual words and groups of words, which is not governed
by the phonetic system of the language (e.g. the need
to say nji[a]THuiL· and not nji[ó]™uiL·, nycTfl[mH]Hö and
not nycTn[VH]Mö). Such problems are not within the sphere
of the phonetic system of the language, for they are con
cerned with the sound formulation of separate, concrete
words and forms, not with the possibility or impossibility
of a sound's occurring in certain phonetic contexts (e.g.
T[â]mniiiL· and H[Ó]CHIUL· pronounced like nji[a]THuii> or
nji[ó]™uib, or ροΰκό[πΐΗ]ι>ΐΗ and ΤΟ[Η'Η]ΜΗ pronounced like
πycτfl[uIH]L·IH or nycTfl[q'H]biH).
However, the concept of orthoepy is not limited to
pronunciation alone : it covers stress as well. Indeed,
stress is one of the two most important elements in the
spoken language, the other being the phoneme.
The significance of stress varies from language to lang
uage, depending on the nature of the stress (the way in
which it is placed), on whether or not it has a fixed posi
tion on a certain syllable, on its use as a grammatical
criterion and on the existence of a greater or smaller
number of stress variations in the dialects of the language
in question. In so far as they relate to the Russian lang
uage, all these points will be treated in the following
pages.
For the present we shall merely indicate that the part
played by stress in Russian is very great indeed, since
this may fall on any syllable (e.g. jjóporo, mopórae, Aopo-
râ) and may change its position to denote different gram
matical forms (e.g. Bona—BÓAy, MÓpe—Mopn, npnimji—
npiiHHJiH—npHHHJiâ). Thus the correct observation of
stress rules and patterns is of paramount importance in
the spoken language.
