Russian diction for singers: palatalization, vowel reduction and transliteration

Russian looks like a language of consonants, but singers find their trouble in the vowels. One Russian-diction coach names the pronunciation of vowels as the most common mistake of non-native singers². This page covers the three things that decide a Russian line: which consonants are soft, how unstressed vowels change, and how to read a transliteration. The diction section covers the other languages.

Vowels and reduction

Most descriptions of Russian describe it as having five vowel phonemes¹. A long-standing dispute among linguists is whether Russian has five vowel phonemes or six, and it centres on the sound [ɨ]¹. Russian has five to six vowels in stressed syllables¹. In unstressed syllables the vowels merge to only two to four¹. That is vowel reduction, and it is the central fact of Russian vowels: most Russian vowels are pronounced in different ways depending on their position in the word².

After a hard consonant, the sound [i] becomes [ɨ] at the beginning of a word or morpheme¹. These words show it:

Vowels are fronted or raised next to soft consonants: /a/ and /u/ become [æ] and [ʉ] between soft consonants, and /o/ becomes [ɵ] after and between them⁶. Unstressed /a/ and /o/ regularly lose their contrast, pronounced [ɐ] in word-initial position and [ə] after the stress⁶.

The letter ы, rendered y in one coach’s guide, is somewhat like the [ɪ] in English hill, and that approximation is probably adequate for singing². It is often a very difficult letter for students to pronounce in speech, and even more so in singing².

Hard and soft consonants

Russian has 34 consonants, which can be divided into hard and soft types¹. It distinguishes hard consonants from soft (palatalized) consonants and from consonant plus [j] clusters, making four sets in total¹. Russian also preserves palatalized consonants that are followed by another consonant more often than other Slavic languages do¹.

The soft sign, rendered as an apostrophe in transliteration, indicates that the preceding consonant is palatalized².

Soft consonants are mostly written with the IPA superscript ʲ⁶. In native words /j, ɕː, tɕ/ are always soft, whereas /ʐ, ʂ, ts/ are always hard⁶. Before you sing a Russian word, mark each consonant as hard or soft.

Final devoicing

Voiced consonants are devoiced word-finally unless the next word begins with a voiced obstruent¹. Mark the exception in your score: when the next word begins with a voiced obstruent, the final consonant keeps its voice¹.

Transliteration and romanization

Romanization is the transliteration of Russian text from the Cyrillic script into the Latin script³. There are a number of distinct and competing standards for the romanization of Russian Cyrillic³, and none of them has received much popularity³. Scientific transliteration is a system that has been used in linguistics since the 19th century³. It is based on the Czech alphabet and formed the basis of the GOST and ISO systems³.

Because the standards compete, two scores can spell the same Russian word differently. Learn the Cyrillic letters and use transliteration only as a convenience. The sung sounds of Russian and their Cyrillic letters are the starting point of a practical guide on Russian lyric diction written as a dissertation⁵.

What a diction course covers

Russian lyric diction at a conservatoire treats language as musical material⁴. A course teaches students the specific features of Russian diction, covering alphabet, rules of reading, syntax and versification⁴. A practical guide for singers covers articulation, phonological rules and Cyrillic orthography, and later chapters explore the more important elements of Russian phonological theory in greater depth⁵.

Sung versus spoken

Reduction in unstressed syllables is part of the language¹. A letter that is hard in speech is harder in singing².

Common mistakes for English speakers

• One sound for each vowel letter. Most vowels change with position in the word².
• Ignoring unstressed reduction. Unstressed vowels merge to two to four¹.
• Treating ы as English “ee”. After a hard consonant [i] becomes [ɨ]¹; the approximation for singing is the [ɪ] of hill².
• Not marking hard and soft. Hard, soft and consonant plus [j] make four sets¹.
• Skipping the soft sign. It marks palatalization of the preceding consonant².
• Learning from romanization alone. The competing standards disagree³.

Next steps

Learn the symbols in IPA for singers, then take a short passage and mark each consonant as hard or soft and each unstressed vowel. Compare with the pure vowels in Italian diction. For a score in the language, work through Eugene Onegin.