Russian orthography (was: A perfect day ...)

Christophe Grandsire wrote:

>         I think you're right. /ij/ is exactly the sound of *fille*, and gn is a
> palatal n. But as Russian has palatalization of all (or nearly all?)
Russian has a four-way contrast between:

        hard cons + vowel, written cons + non-iotified vowel
        soft cons + vowel, written cons + iotified vowel
        hard cons + /j/ + vowel, written cons + HARD SIGN U+044A + iotified vowel
        soft cons + /j/ + vowel, written cons + SOFT SIGN U+044C + iotified vowel

The "non-iotified vowels" are A (U+0410), E (U+042D), YERU (U+044B), O (U+041E),
and U (U+0423); the corresponding "iotified vowels" are YA (U+044F), IE (U+0435),
I (U+0438), IO (U+0401), YU (U+044E).  Note that IE is the one that looks like
Latin "E".  There is also a quality difference (front vs. central) between I and YERU.

However, the four consonants TSE (U+0446), SHA (U+0448), CHE (U+0447),
SHCHA (U+0449) are special cases: the first two are always hard, the second two
always soft, but all four are always written with A, IE, I, O, U following.

Initial /j/ + vowel is written with an iotified vowel; final soft consonants
are written consonant + SOFT SIGN.

--

Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis vom dies! || John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau,  || http://www.reutershealth.com
Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau,           || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.            -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)