Thread: Spelling rule question

Hi

How do you pronounce и after "к г х ш ж щ ч"?

Everything I've read says not to write ы, instead и, after к г х ш ж щ ч. Does that mean it can sometimes be pronounced ы, even though it's written и?

(edit for correction)

Originally Posted by sapien

Does that mean it can sometimes be pronounced ы, even though it's written и?

Yes it does.
For example after Ж and Ш sound Ы always is pronounced.
But after К, Г, Х, Ч and Щ always И (If my memory doesn't fail me)

Pronunciation of Russian vowels depends on the quality (hardness/softness) of a preceding consonant.
И is not an exception: it is pronounced [И] after soft consonants and [Ы] after hard consonants. So, you have to know how to pronounce a consonant correctly.

К, Г, Х occur in both hard and soft versions in Russian. However, their quality is totally determined by a following vowel:
- they are always hard before А, О, У: КА, ГА, ХА, КО, ГО, ХО, КУ, ГУ, ХУ;
- they are forcibly soft before И, Е: КИ, ГИ, ХИ, КЕ, ГЕ, ХЕ.
That means we never pronounce КЫ, ГЫ, ХЫ (although they can occur in some foreign names like Кыргызстан ).
I would not say it is a "spelling rule" as regarding the КИ, ГИ, ХИ. It is rather a pronunciation rule we follow automatically.

Щ and Ч are always pronounced soft. Therefore, ЩИ and ЧИ spellings follow the pronunciation as it exactly is.

But there is a completely different thing with Ш, Ж, Ц. Those consonants are always hard in Russian. So, we cannot pronounce И as [И] after them, we do pronounce [ШЫ], [ЖЫ], [ЦЫ] instead. However, we always write ШИ or ЖИ. This is a real spelling rule, because the spelling contradicts the pronunciation.
Note that both ЦИ and ЦЫ spellings are possible (there are some special spelling rules for them), however they are pronounced identically (always [ЦЫ]).

Боб has explained it almost exhaustively, but there is a single thing I'd like to outline: There are no Russian words containing КЫ, ГЫ, ХЫ. They're possible theoretically, anyway.

Originally Posted by Ленивец

Боб has explained it almost exhaustively, but there is a single thing I'd like to outline: There are no Russian words containing КЫ, ГЫ, ХЫ. They're possible theoretically, anyway.

Гы-гы-гы!

It's an onomatopoeia (like cuckoo, buzz)

Hello, spelling rule : 7 letters spelling rule after:
г к ж х ч ш щ

never ы always и
never я always а
never ю always у

парашют
кыргыз

Originally Posted by chaika

парашют
киргиз

парашют читается как параш́ут
киргиз читается и пишется как кирги́з

Всем спасибо!

Originally Posted by ksar

Hello, spelling rule : 7 letters spelling rule after:
к
never ю always у

Кю!

never ю always у

There are very few words that break that spelling rule, but for some of these consonants they exist.
The most common (i.e. not foreign names or scientific terms) are:
гюрза (a snake) - pronounced as "ю"
кювет (a kind of tray) - pronounced as "ю"
жюри - pronounced as "у" (recommended), "ю" is acceptable
парашют - pronounced as "у"

кыргыз:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q ... afe=images

re парашют, да произношение знаю, но вопрос был о правописании.

Originally Posted by chaika

кыргыз:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q ... afe=images

re парашют, да произношение знаю, но вопрос был о правописании.

"Кыргыз" - это как-то не по-русски... Так могут написать непосредственно Киргизы по русски...) Но исконно русский вариант написания данного слова - "Киргиз"...
й