Sonorous consonants in Russian

To begin with, it is important to note which consonants are sonorous in Russian. These are sounds that are pronounced with the help of a voice, practically without noise. They include [л], [м], [р], [л '], [м'], [р '], [j].

Features of Sonorous Consonants

They are unique in that they look like vowels, soand consonants. From the sonorous sounds they are distinguished by the fact that when they are pronounced, then the noise is almost not audible. They do not have paired deaf or sonorous sounds. That is why sonorous consonants are never uttered deafly at the end of the word, or in front of a deaf consonant. A perfect example is the word lamp, where [m] is pronounced ringing in front of the deaf [n]. Noisy voiceless consonants are not pronounced ringing in front of similar sounds, as it happens, for example, in a word a request that we utter as [prozba]. However, do not put sonorous sounds to vowels. Still, during their sounding in the mouth there is a barrier. So there is noise, and this is not at all characteristic of vowel sounds. Also, such sounds do not have one more important characteristic, which determines the vowels. Of them, do not form a syllable. It should be noted that this is typical for the Russian language, since, for example, in the Czech sonor sounds have such features. Similar sounds can be both hard and soft, have different ways of formation.

How does the sound [l] form?

In order for the sound to be correct, the tipthe tongue should be located behind the upper front teeth. And if it does not reach the designated place, then its sound is distorted and goes out in place of a boat - "yodka."

If the sound is in a soft position, the languageshould be pressed against the alveoli. It happens that hard sound [l] is difficult to fix. Then you can try to clamp between the teeth of the tongue and pronounce this sound. But this action can be performed only during the training. Thus, we see that not all sonorous consonants in Russian are amenable to correction.

The need for exercises for correct pronunciation of sonorous consonants

Many people are absolutely convinced that the exercisesto correct the pronunciation of individual sounds do not make any sense. They are convinced that this method is ineffective. It is enough just to understand the principle itself, how to pronounce the sonorous consonants correctly, and everything will be in its own right. In fact, this is not so. Practice here is simply necessary. And usually it starts with the sound [m]. This is because it is pronounced very naturally, and even yogic mantras use it.

Why sonor consonants?

In translation from the Latin Sonorus - it's "sonorous". Such sounds have no pair of deaf people and they are called still nasal and smooth. After all, they are formed by the flow of air, which passes through the tongue, teeth and lips. Nothing hinders him, and the sound is pronounced smoothly. Transitional [n] and [m] are considered. To form such sounds, the lips close tightly, but the air exits through the nasal cavity. There are three most effective exercises for training pronunciation of sonorous consonants:

The first is the repetition of the phrase in whichcontains a large number of similar sounds. Quite often in such sentences one can see strange words that are never used, but they are necessary for pronunciation training. It is better if it is performed in one breath and on the nose sound.
The following sentence should be much more complicated. It, as a rule, is longer, therefore it is rather difficult to say it in one breath. It is better to immediately divide it into parts and also pronounce it on the nose sound.
The last sentence is even longer. But it is better to divide it into two parts. The first to perform, like the first two exercises, but before the second you need to take a deep breath and say as if you are sending something to the distance. This is how the "flight" of the voice should develop. All these exercises will help correctly learn how to pronounce sonorous consonants if you perform them systematically.