↑ Russian makes contrasts between palatalized ("soft") and unpalatalized ("hard") consonants. Palatalized consonants, denoted by a superscript j, ‹ ʲ› , are pronounced with the body of the tongue raised toward the hard palate, in a manner similar to the articulation of the y sound in yes. /j/, /ɕɕ/, /tɕ/, /ʑʑ/ are also considered "soft".
1 2 3 4 5 In consonant clusters, the voicing or devoicing is determined by that of the final obstruent in the sequence (Halle 1959:31)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Voiced obstruents (/b/, /bʲ/, /d/, /dʲ/ /ɡ/, /v/, /vʲ/, /z/, /zʲ/, /ʐ/, and /ʑʑ/) are devoiced word-finally unless the next word begins with a voiced obstruent (Halle 1959:22).
1 2 3 4 In some religious words such as Бог and Господь, as well as interjections, ‹г› and ‹к› represent [ɣ] and [x], respectively. When /ɡ/ loses its voicing, it is also lenited (a form of dissimilation) before plosives in some words.
↑ The "soft" vowel letters <е> <ю> and <я> represent a /j/ plus a vowel when initial or following other vowels or a yer. When such vowels are unstressed, the /j/ may be deleted.
↑ While some speakers pronounce words with ‹щ› as [ɕɕ] and others as [ɕtɕ], none contrast the two pronunciations. This generally includes words spelled with other letters, though speakers with the [ɕɕ] pronunciation may still pronounce words like считывать with [ɕtɕ] because of the morpheme boundary between ‹с› and ‹ч›.
↑ Intervocalic <г> can represent /v/ in certain words and affixes
↑ The phoneme /ʑʑ/ is in many dialects is replaced with /ʐ/.
↑ [ɑ] appears between a hard consonant (or a pause) and /l/
