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 * KB Russian.svg

The consonant letters represent both as "soft" (palatalized, represented in the IPA with a $⟨⟩$) and "hard" consonant phonemes. If a consonant letter is followed by a vowel letter, then the soft/hard quality of the consonant depends on whether the vowel is meant to follow "hard" consonants $⟨а, о, э, у, ы⟩$ or "soft" ones $⟨я, ё, е, ю, и⟩$; see below. A soft sign indicates $⟨Ь⟩$ palatalization of the preceding consonant without adding a vowel. However, in modern Russian six consonant phonemes do not have phonemically distinct "soft" and "hard" variants (except in foreign proper names) and do not change "softness" in the presence of other letters:, and are always hard; , and are always soft. See Russian phonology for details.


 * An alternate form of the letter El (Л л ) closely resembles the Greek letter for lambda (Λ λ ).

Hard sign
The hard sign ($⟨ъ⟩$) acts like a "silent back vowel" that separates a succeeding "soft vowel" (е, ё, ю, я, but not и) from a preceding consonant, invoking implicit iotation of the vowel with a distinct /j/ glide. Today it is used mostly to separate a prefix ending with a hard consonant from the following root. Its original pronunciation, lost by 1400 at the latest, was that of a very short middle schwa-like sound, but likely pronounced  or. Until the 1918 reform, no written word could end in a consonant: those that end in a ("hard") consonant in modern orthography had then a final ъ.

While $⟨и⟩$ is also a soft vowel, root-initial following a hard consonant is typically pronounced as. This is normally spelled $⟨ы⟩$ (the hard counterpart to $⟨и⟩$) unless this vowel occurs at the beginning of a word, in which case it remains $⟨и⟩$. An alternation between the two letters (but not the sounds) can be seen with the pair без и́мени ('without name', which is pronounced ) and безымя́нный ('nameless', which is pronounced ). This spelling convention, however, is not applied with certain loaned prefixes such as in the word панислами́зм –, 'Pan-Islamism') and compound (multi-root) words (e.g. госизме́на – , 'high treason').

Soft sign
The soft sign ($⟨ь⟩$) in most positions acts like a "silent front vowel" and indicates that the preceding consonant is palatalized (except for always-hard ж, ш, ц) and the following vowel (if present) is iotated (including ьо in loans). This is important as palatalization is phonemic in Russian. For example, брат ('brother') contrasts with брать  ('to take'). The original pronunciation of the soft sign, lost by 1400 at the latest, was that of a very short fronted reduced vowel but likely pronounced  or. There are still some remnants of this ancient reading in modern Russian, e.g. in the co-existing versions of the same name, read and written differently, such as Марья and Мария (Mary).

When applied after stem-final always-soft (ч, щ, but not й) or always-hard (ж, ш, but not ц) consonants, the soft sign does not alter pronunciation, but has a grammatical meaning:
 * feminine gender for singular nouns in nominative and accusative cases; e.g. тушь ('India ink', feminine) cf. туш ('flourish after a toast', masculine) – both pronounced ;
 * imperative mood for some verbs;
 * infinitive form of some verbs (with -чь ending);
 * second person for non-past verbs (with -шь ending);
 * some adverbs and particles.

Vowels
The vowels $⟨е, ё, и, ю, я⟩$ indicate a preceding palatalized consonant and with the exception of $⟨и⟩$ are iotated (pronounced with a preceding ) when written at the beginning of a word or following another vowel (initial $⟨и⟩$ was iotated until the nineteenth century). The IPA vowels shown are a guideline only and sometimes are realized as different sounds, particularly when unstressed. However, $⟨е⟩$ may be used in words of foreign origin without palatalization, and $⟨я⟩$ is often realized as between soft consonants, such as in мяч ("toy ball").

$⟨ы⟩$ is an old Proto-Slavic close central vowel, thought to have been preserved better in modern Russian than in other Slavic languages. It was originally nasalized in certain positions: камы ; камень ("rock"). Its written form developed as follows: $⟨ъ⟩$ + $⟨і⟩$ → $⟨ꙑ⟩$ → $⟨ы⟩$.

$⟨э⟩$ was introduced in 1708 to distinguish the non-iotated/non-palatalizing from the iotated/palatalizing one. The original usage had been $⟨е⟩$ for the uniotated, $⟨ѥ⟩$ or $⟨ѣ⟩$ for the iotated, but $⟨ѥ⟩$ had dropped out of use by the sixteenth century. In native Russian words, $⟨э⟩$ is found only at the beginnings of words or in compound words (e.g. поэтому "therefore" = по + этому). In words that come from foreign languages in which iotated is uncommon or nonexistent (such as English, for example), $⟨э⟩$ is usually written in the beginning of words and after vowels except $⟨и⟩$ (e.g. поэт, poet), and  $⟨е⟩$ after $⟨и⟩$ and consonants. However, the pronunciation is inconsistent. Many words, especially monosyllables, words ending in $⟨е⟩$ and many words where $⟨е⟩$ follows $⟨т⟩$, $⟨д⟩$, $⟨н⟩$, $⟨с⟩$, $⟨з⟩$ or $⟨р⟩$ are pronounced with without palatalization or iotation: секс (seks — "sex"), проект (proekt — "project") (in this example, the spelling is etymological but the pronunciation is counteretymological). But many other words are pronounced with : секта (syekta — "sect"), дебют (dyebyut — "debut"). Proper names are usually not concerned by the rule (Сэм — "Sam", Пэмела — "Pamela", Мао Цзэдун — "Mao Zedong"); the use of $⟨э⟩$ after consonants is common in East Asian names and in English names with the sounds and, with some exceptions such as Джек ("Jack") or Шепард ("Shepard"), since both $⟨э⟩$ and $⟨е⟩$ are not palatalized in cases of же ("che") or ше ("she"), yet in writing $⟨е⟩$ usually prevails.

$⟨ё⟩$, introduced by Karamzin in 1797 and made official in 1943 by the Soviet Ministry of Education, marks a sound that has historically developed from  under stress, a process that continues today. The letter $⟨ё⟩$ is optional (in writing, not in pronunciation): it is formally correct to write $⟨e⟩$ for both and. None of the several attempts in the twentieth century to mandate the use of $⟨ё⟩$ have stuck.