Word stress in the Russian language

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The word stress is used in the Russian language not only the correct pronunciation , but also the differentiation of many words. This feature also occurs in the German language: stress-dependent minimal pairs are there for example "Ténor" and "Tenór", "Augúst" and "Áugust" or "Umáhren" and "úmfahren".

To illustrate the word stress in Russian - especially in dictionaries and textbooks - the diacritical "´" ( знак ударения snak udarenija , German "stress mark" ) is used. It corresponds graphically to the acute accent and is placed over the vowel of the stressed syllable, e.g. B. ударе́ние udarénije , German 'the emphasis' .

The vowel "ё" is almost always stressed in Russian (exceptions are compound words) and is therefore never given the stress symbol, as are monosyllabic words.

Properties of the Russian word stress

Volume and length

Similar to the German language, word stress in Russian is achieved by increasing the volume of a syllable . In Russian language terminology , this property is called силовое ударение silowoje udarenije , in German ' strength-related stress' . Another characteristic is количественное ударение kolitschestwennoje udarenije , German for 'quantitative emphasis' . It is achieved by varying the length of the sound. In German, the drawn out sound a in the question “Waaas?” Could serve as an example.

Release and mobility

Usually all word forms of a word are stressed on the same syllable. Some words in the basic Russian vocabulary , mostly two- or three-syllable words, on the other hand, are stressed on different syllables in inflection depending on the form, so the stress can change from one syllable to the other. In Russian language terminology , this phenomenon is referred to as разноместность и подвижность ударения rasnomestnost i podwischnost udarenija , in German 'release and mobility of word stress' . These are not viewed as a phenomenon, but as independent of each other. Release means that the correct accentuation of a Russian word can be on any syllable in general. Mobility means that the stress within the word form inventory ( paradigm ) can change from one syllable to another.

Although the fixed word accent ( неподвижное ударение nepodwischnoje udarenije ) is characteristic of the German language , there are also some examples in German where the stress “jumps” from one syllable to the other depending on the word form. Mostly these are loan words, e.g. B .:

  • Káktus - cacti
  • Átlas - Atlánten

Accentuation of compound words

In some compound words ( compound words ) in Russian, several syllables are emphasized, especially if the individual subwords of these compound words are already polysyllabic in themselves. Often only the syllable that is stressed last in the word has full stress, the other stressed syllables are only emphasized with half the stress.

However, many compound words in Russian are only stressed on one syllable, especially if their partial words are monosyllabic. Some examples of stress in compound Russian words are:

  • самолётоприбо́рострое́ние samoljótopribórostrojénije (aircraft equipment manufacturing) - three stressed syllables: -лё-, -бо́- and -е́- (fictional example, uncommon)
  • ледоко́л ledokól (the icebreaker) - a stressed syllable: -ко́л, the syllable ле- is unstressed

Stress in the word formation process

In Russian, accenting is an additional grammatical means of forming word forms and types, alongside affixes .

The mobility of the word stress is characteristic of only a relatively small number of words in Russian. In the linguistic literature, two typological properties of the mobility of the word accent are mentioned:

  • the traditional flexibility ( Russian традиционная подвижность tradizionnaja podwischnost ) in the formation of word forms, i.e. in the inflection of some words. It occurs with frequently used, mostly traditional words of the basic vocabulary .
  • the mobility caused by morphemes ( Russian морфологизированная подвижность morfologisirowannaja podwischnost ) in the formation of parts of speech.

Word accent as a means of forming word forms

The main grammatical functions of the mobility of the word accent are:

1. The word accent is used to form paradigms of a word

that is, forms of a word that result from its inflection ( declination and conjugation ), e.g. B .:

  • воды́ (of water, Gen. Sing. ) - во́ды (the waters or the waters, nom. plural )
  • до́ма (of the house, Gen. Sing. , also "at home") - дома́ (the houses, Nom. plural )
  • о́блака (the cloud , nom. sing. ) - облака́ (the clouds, nom. plural )
  • люби́те (love! / love you !, imperative ) - лю́бите (you love / you love, indicative )
  • дыши́те (breathe! / breathe !, imperative ) - ды́шите (you breathe / you breathe, indicative )

2. The word accent delimits individual paradigms of two different words

i.e. inflected words whose basic forms are different, e.g. B .:

  • я плачу́ (I pay, infinitive : плати́ть) - я пла́чу (I cry, infinitive: пла́кать)
  • кру́жки (the handle cups, nom.Sing .: кру́жка) - кружки́ (small circles or rings, nom.Sing .: кружо́к)
  • пи́ли (you drank / they drank, infinitive : пить) - пили́ (saw !, imperative of пили́ть)
  • [со] зна́ком ([with] the sign, nom. Sing .: знак) - знако́м (known, short form of the male adjective знако́мый)
  • ме́ли (the shoals or the shoals, nom.Sing .: мель) - мели́ (you swept / they swept, infinitive : мести́)

3. The word accent separates paradigms of one word from the basic form of another word

i.e. inflected words that are spelled the same as the basic forms of other words, but are pronounced differently, e.g. B .:

  • дорога́ (valued, expensive - short form of the female adjective дорога́я) - доро́га (the street)
  • жила́ (she lived) - жи́ла (the tendon or the vein)
  • ме́сти (vengeance, Gen. Sing. ) - мести́ (sweep, sweep)
  • по́том ([with] the sweat, instrumental sing. ) - пото́м (then, after or after, later)
  • пища́ (beeping, squeaking) - пи́ща (the food or the fare)

4. The word stress are aspects of some verbs formed

that is, verbal categories that specify an action in terms of its uniqueness or repetition in current events or indicate the beginning, duration and completion of an action. In Russian, there are only verbs that are formed by different prefixes of the verbs ре́зать ( cut ) and сы́пать ( pour or scatter ), e.g. B .:

  • среза́ть (cut off - unfinished aspect, such as "cut something off continuously") -
    сре́зать (cut off - finished aspect, such as "cut something off for good ")
  • подсыпа́ть (to add - unfinished aspect, such as "to add something regularly") -
    подсы́пать (to add - to add a completed aspect, such as "accidentally [once] added something")

Strong emphasis morphemes in the word formation process

There are a number of affixes in Russian that can only be stressed in one word. During word formation, such affixes attract the word accent and thus make it flexible, e.g. B .:

  • де́рево (the wood) - дерев я́нн ый (wooden), the suffix of the adjectives -янн- is always stressed
  • пить (drink) - вы́ пить (drink up), the prefix вы- is always emphasized in the completed aspect of verbs
  • добро́ (the good) - добро та́ (the goodness of the heart), the suffix of the feminine nouns -та is always emphasized
  • бе́лый (white) - бел ова́т ый (whitish), the suffix of the adjectives -овaт- is always emphasized
  • мили́ция (the militia) - милиц ионе́р (the militiaman), the suffix of masculine nouns -ионер is always emphasized

Homographs and peculiarities of their emphasis

In addition to the described property of word stress, because of its mobility, it serves as a grammatical means for the formation of word forms and types, the word accent is used to differentiate between homographs , i.e. words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently and thus have different meanings, e.g. . B .:

  • мука́ (the flour) - му́ка (the agony)
  • замо́к (the lock, device for locking) - за́мок (the lock, representative building)
  • о́рган (the organ) - орга́н (the organ)
  • хло́пок (cotton) - хлопо́к (clapping hands)
  • па́рить (dampen) - пари́ть (float)

In order to preserve the lexical semantics of the homographs in the speech act, their emphasis, both in the basic form and in all inflected word forms, is always fixed to a certain morpheme, i.e. either to the root of the word or to the suffixes . This property of word stress is referred to in Russian language terminology as неподвижное nepodwischnoje or фиксированное ударение fiksirowannije udarenije , in German 'immobile' or 'fixed stress' . In German one speaks of a fixed word accent .

Words with a fixed emphasis

Except for words that contain fixed accent affixes , most words in Russian are identified by the fixed accent. In general, the Russian accent tends to fall to the middle of the word, with Ur-Russian words tending towards the beginning of the word and loan words tending towards the end of the word. If the stress falls on the stem or the prefix , the same syllable is stressed in all inflected forms . If the emphasis falls on the suffix , then suffixes corresponding to the inflected forms are emphasized when the words are inflected. Some examples of words with a fixed accent are:

  • карто́фель (the potato, nom. Sing ) - карто́феля (the potato, Gen. Sing. ) - карто́фельный (potato, masculine adjective )
  • рабо́тать (work, infinitive ) - рабо́тал ([I / he] worked, indicative ) - рабо́тай (work !, imperative )
  • арбу́з (the watermelon, nom. sing. ) - арбу́зы (the watermelons, nom. plural ) - арбу́зный (watermelon, masculine adjective )
  • за́втракать (breakfast, infinitive ) - за́втракала ([she] ate breakfast, indicative ) - за́втракай (breakfast !, imperative )
  • вто́рник (Tuesday, Nom. Sing. ) - вто́рников (Tuesdays, Gen. plural ) - по вто́рникам (Tuesdays)

The fixed word accent is a characteristic of most derived words , even when they are derived from words with flexible accentuation, e.g. B .:

  Original word with movable word accent Derivation with a fixed word accent
  во́лк (the wolf) волчи́ца (the she-wolf)
  Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative во́лк во́лки волчи́ца волчи́цы
Genitive во́лка волко́в волчи́цы волчи́ц
dative во́лку волка́м волчи́це волчи́цам
accusative во́лка волко́в волчи́цу волчи́ц
Instrumental во́лком волка́ми волчи́цей волчи́цами
Prepositive (о) во́лке (о) волка́х (о) волчи́це (о) волчи́цах

Fluctuations in word stress

The fact that many words in Russian are not always stressed on the same syllable makes the word accent an individual characteristic of each word. Basically, shifting the stress to another syllable creates a different (hypothetical) word. However, there are a small number of words in Russian that can be stressed on two different syllables. The fluctuating word emphasis is the result of a complicated language development, interactions between the high-level language and its various dialects as well as a not clearly regulated or incorrect pronunciation of some foreign words.

Words with a fluctuating accent are mainly divided into the following groups:

1. Both variants of word stress are permitted , one variant being assigned to the high-level language and the other to a dialect, e.g. B .:

  • творо́г and also тво́рог (the quark)
  • пeтля́ and also пе́тля (the loop or the loop)
  • ба́ржа and also баржа́ (the barge, the barge)
  • ина́че and also и́наче (different or otherwise, otherwise)

2. One variant of word stress is considered to correspond to the linguistic norm and the other to be incorrect , e.g. B .:

  • алкого́ль and not а́лкоголь (the alcohol)
  • заку́порить and not закупо́рить (plug, cork)
  • катало́г and not ката́лог (the catalog)

3. The word stress variants serve as a stylistic means ,
i. H. one variant is considered folkloric and the other as neutral, e.g. B .:

  • высо́ко (high, large, folkloric ) - высоко́ (high, large, neutral )
  • де́вица (the virgin, folkloric ) - деви́ца (the girl, the unmarried, neutral )
  • ворота́ (the gate, folkloric ) - воро́та (the gate, neutral )

4. The word stress variants are used to make a fine distinction between certain properties , e.g. B .:

  • ва́жны (important, significant) - важны́ (important, inflated)
  • прокля́тый (cursed, hated) - про́клятый (cursed, cursed)
  • характе́рный (characteristic, characteristic) - хара́ктерный (full of character, irascible)

Unstressed and weakly stressed words

Similar to the German language, most monosyllabic particles in Russian are only half emphasized or not emphasized at all. These mainly include monosyllabic prepositions ( prepositions ), conjunctions (connective words), modal particles (accented words ) and the verb particle бы , which is used to form the subjunctive . When pronounced, they fuse with other words to form a group of words whose phonetic boundaries do not match the lexical ones, e.g. B .:

In contrast to the German language, Russian has a number of monosyllabic prepositions which, in conjunction with certain nouns, form a group of words in which the preposition attracts the stress and the noun is unstressed. This is to be distinguished from the case in German, when prepositions are emphasized prosodically for clarification , such as in the sentence "The cup is up and not in the cupboard" .

Most often the following prepositions attract the stress: на , за , под , по , из and без , e.g. B .:

literature

  • Valentin Kiparsky: The word accent of the Russian written language . Winter, Heidelberg 1962, ISBN 3-533-01749-4 .
  • Werner Lehfeldt : Introduction to the morphological conception of Slavic accentology . 2., verb. and additional edition Sagner, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-87690-801-9 .
  • Werner Lehfeldt: Accent and emphasis in Russian . Sagner, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-87690-842-6 .
  • Siegfried Tornow: The most common accent types in Russian inflection . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1984, ISBN 3-447-02447-X .
  • Joseph Schütz: The Accent Rules of Russian: A Guide for Practice . Buske, Hamburg 1987, ISBN 3-87118-840-9 .