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Three basic principles of Russian spelling. Morphological principle of Russian spelling: examples and rules

1. Spelling as a branch of linguistics.

2. Principles of Russian spelling.

3. Russian punctuation and its principles.

4. From the history of Russian spelling.

Spelling(Greek orthos “correct”, grapho “I write”), or spelling, is a section of linguistics that establishes a set of rules that determine uniform norms for writing words, their forms, as well as norms for the graphic design of accompanying components of writing. Graphics by themselves are not able to determine the mode of functioning of alphabetic characters. Orthography is recognized to solve this problem.

Spelling, in turn, is an integral part of orthology - the theory of correct literary speech. Orthology is based on the belief that mastery of the culture of past generations is possible only on the basis of literacy and depends on the degree of mastery of the culture of the written and spoken word.

Usually, when it appears, any sound letter is phonetic. This is how Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and Old Church Slavonic writing was at first. However, as the national language develops, the pronunciation changes, but the spellings, which are inherently more conservative, remain unchanged. The resulting gap between oral and written speech is either eliminated (this is done socially consciously) or consolidated. In the latter case, relationships arise between sound and letter, which are elevated to the rank of law. This establishes the principle of spelling of a particular script.

The rules of Russian spelling are developed and improved not for the sake of their accumulation, but in order to maximally facilitate the process of written communication between people by eliminating heterogeneous and contradictory approaches to the use of Russian graphics.

The basic concept of spelling is spelling. Spelling- this is a case of problematic writing, where the writer must choose letters to represent a particular sound. For example, the word chocolate may have a number of design options, based on pronunciation: * shakalat, shikalat, shykolad etc. However, spelling establishes only one option for the graphic design of a given word in accordance with the requirement of uniformity.

Variants can be phonemes that are in a weak position, i.e. a position in which a sound can be indicated variably. Phonemes in weak positions can be designated in different ways; the choice of letters is determined by orthographic principles.

Orthographic principles are rules for choosing letters to represent a phoneme in weak positions. Modern Russian orthography is built on the basis of several principles. These are phonetic, morphological, historical and ideographic principles.

Morphological principle in the system of Russian spelling is the main, leading principle, because on its basis most spellings were formed.

The essence of the morphological principle is that the basis for writing any morpheme (root, suffix, prefix, inflection) is the graphic appearance of this morpheme, which is created by the letter designation of the sounds that form it in a strong position. For example, in the word fruit We must denote the vowel sound of the root morpheme with the letter O, because in the strong position - fetus- this sound is indicated by the letter O.

This means that in order to check spellings that correspond to the morphological principle, it is enough to select a word that is related or contains the same morpheme so that the dubious sound is in a strong position: V O yes - water, wholesale - wholesale, etc e mirovat - bonus; petitions O- celebration, pampering; res A t - create, count, decide; ocal And on - saccharin, analgin,

In words forest And climbed the final consonant sounds the same as a voiceless sound, but in writing it is indicated by different letters, because in a strong position to denote a given sound are used in one case C (lesa - le With), in the other - Z (climb - le h).

It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the morphological principle applies to all morphemes - prefixes, suffixes, inflections. For example, in predict the prefix (prefix) is written with the letter D, since the corresponding consonant in a strong position is indicated by the letter D - suggest, predict.

Spelling, based on a morphological principle, outwardly diverges from pronunciation, but not sharply and only in certain parts of speech: at the junction of morphemes and at the absolute end of the word for consonants and within morphemes for vowels. In this case, the discrepancy between spelling and pronunciation is carried out on the basis of a strict relationship with pronunciation, and not in isolation from it, not chaotically. Morphological writing is a consequence of native speakers’ understanding of the structural division of a word into its constituent significant parts (morphemes) and results in a uniform transmission of these parts in writing. A method of writing with a uniform graphic representation of significant parts of words makes it easier to “grasp” the meaning.

The name of the principle “morphologically” is associated with the uniform transmission of morphemes. It is common knowledge that all morphemes have a specific meaning. Yes, suffix -schik carries the meaning of “a person who does something” (mason, glazier). Console pre- has as one of the meanings “very” (bright, exaggerate, beautiful).

If we wrote the way we pronounce it, then the morphological composition of words would not be clear and we would have difficulty recognizing even related words. But since, despite different pronunciations, we write morphemes in the same, uniform way, then the significant part of the word has a single graphic image.

Thus, the morphological principle facilitates quick understanding and comprehension of the text, because attention does not linger on the designation of pronunciation features. We immediately see the root, prefix, suffix, ending in words transformation, colorless, doing.

Morphological spelling suppresses differences in pronunciation in our minds: liquid - thin; form - formal, signalman - communication; approach - pick up. The morpheme remains in consciousness in the form liquid-, form-, connection-, sub-, although individual sounds in it can be replaced by others. The morphological principle exists primarily as a consequence of the awareness of the “relatedness” of roots, prefixes, suffixes, and endings. We write words depending on our understanding of their composition. In this case, changes in the sound composition of the word and its parts do not destroy the unity of the morpheme. The morpheme remains in the mind as a certain semantic unit, and a spontaneous, unconscious desire arises not to change its spelling.

The morphological principle of Russian orthography historically developed spontaneously, and later it was consciously maintained for the uniform spelling of related words.

Traditional (historical) principle writing is that the spelling fixed by tradition is preserved, even if it does not correspond to the modern state of the language. Examples of traditional spellings include the spellings zhi, shi, qi in words expanse, live, compass. Once these consonants were soft, the spelling reflected the phonetic principle. Over time, these sounds hardened in the Russian language, but the spelling remained. This spelling is also supported by morphological analogies: the verb ending - it, -i (flies, chops; luggage, carry).

The traditional principle is that it reflects the spelling of phonemes V weak positions: sounds are represented by one of a number of possible letters.

Unlike the morphological principle, in the traditional one the choice of letter to represent a phoneme was determined on the basis of the writing tradition, based on historical writing, or simply conventionally. However, the choice of letters here is limited and completely specific.

For example, in words isotope, coefficient, atom, the choice of the letter O is determined from its possible alternation with A. Words solution, standard, magnet are written with the letter A, because in principle the alternation A/O could be represented here. The choice of letter is not based on pronunciation, but traditionally: on the basis of etymology, transcription, transliteration, or simply convention.

Traditional spellings have a significant feature that brings them closer to morphological spellings. They create graphically uniform images of morphemes: To A bluk, podk A lover; With O tank, with O big guy, turn it off e eh, will replace e l; peasants e, townspeople e.

The traditional principle specifies the following spellings:

Unstressed vowels, unverified by stress (m O loko, with A paradise);

- alternation of vowels in roots (R A sti – p O drain; Sun O read – sk A roll; fast e pour - post And bark);

Writing G to indicate [v] in endings -oh, -his (fifth, mine, blue, kind, strange, lost;

Writing Ch to indicate [w] in combination chn (bakery, birdhouse;

- b after hissing at the end of nouns, verb forms, adverbs and particles (mascara, rye, night, riding, talking, galloping, backhanding, just);

- hyphenated, continuous, separate spellings;

Selecting uppercase and lowercase letters when denoting improper names;

Design of graphic abbreviations.

Phonetic principle is defined as the motto “write as you hear.” With the phonetic principle, phonemes are designated by letters in writing: house, floor, temple, table, soul, immediately, leads. The phonetic principle underlies all phonemographic writing systems. The Serbo-Croatian orthography is built on this principle; partially (in the area of ​​writing vowels) – the spelling of Belarusians.

The phonetic principle is opposed to the morphological one, since sounds in strong and weak positions are designated by different letters: once s play – And gra; ra With put - ra h pick up

Spellings written according to the phonetic principle can be written according to the morphological principle. Therefore, phonetic spellings are considered to be violations of the morphological principle.

Phonetic spellings include:

Writing prefixes with final Z: without-, air- § up-, down-, once-, rose-, through- (through-). Morphologically, these prefixes should always be written with Z, because this is how we write all other prefixes: sang and passed, got hooked and hit me up.

Writing Y instead of initial I at the root after prefixes ending in a hard consonant: unprincipled, refined, play, uninteresting. The spelling of the initial I is fundamentally preserved at the present time after Russian prefixes inter-, over-. After inter- And it is written according to the general rule zhi-, shi-, and then above-- because the Russian/language does not have the combinations KY, GY, XY (over-ideological, inter-institutional). After foreign language prefixes I is preserved so that the writer and reader can quickly recognize the root and quickly understand the word: Sub-Inspector, Pan-Islamism;

- writing O in suffixes -onk, -onk- after the hissing ones: little jackdaw, little cap. The morphological spelling would be E, cf.: owlet, hut.

Ideographic principle It turns out that words with the same sound shells differ graphically: burn (noun) - burn (verb past tense, m. p., singular); company (cheerful) - campaign (election); ball (prom) - score (grade); crying (noun) – cry (verb); Nadezhda (proper name) – hope (common name). Those. Differentiating spellings are used to distinguish the meanings of homonyms.

Punctuation is part of the language's graphical system. But the functions of letters and the role of punctuation marks differ significantly. If with the help of letters the sound and graphic shell of words is indicated, then with the help of punctuation marks a written statement is divided into certain structural parts, thereby making the task of the writer easier when preparing the text, and for the reader - the perception of its content. Text written without punctuation (and without capital letters) is read three to five times slower than text written correctly. With the help of punctuation, the division of the text, its purposefulness, structure and main features of intonation are conveyed.

Russian punctuation is a system of graphic signs that, in accordance with certain rules, divide the text into paragraphs, sentences, and indicate certain components within a sentence, which is a necessary condition for written communication in Russian.

Punctuation marks are graphic (written) signs needed to divide text into sentences and convey in writing the structural features of sentences and their intonation. Punctuation marks are used according to the rules that are necessary so that the writer and reader equally understand the meaning and structure of the text.

Russian punctuation marks include:

1) a period, a question mark, an exclamation mark - these are the marks of the end of a sentence;

2) a comma, a dash, a colon, a semicolon - these are signs for separating parts of a sentence;

3) brackets, quotation marks (“double” signs), which highlight individual words or parts of a sentence; for this purpose, commas and dashes are used as paired signs; if the construction being highlighted is at the absolute beginning or end of the sentence, then one comma or dash is used;

4) ellipsis; being a “semantic” sign, it can be placed at the end of a sentence to indicate the special significance of what was said or in the middle to convey confused, difficult or excited speech.

Principles of Russian punctuation- these are the basics of modern punctuation rules that determine the optimal use of punctuation marks. Punctuation marks reflect the semantic and structural division of speech, as well as its rhythmic and intonation structure. The basis of Russian punctuation is the structural-semantic principle. Modern punctuation is based on the meaning, structure, and rhythmic-intonation division of the utterance in their interaction.

The structural and semantic division of the text is carried out when performing the basic functions of punctuation marks.

1. The structural function is to separate paragraphs from each other, adjacent independent sentences within a paragraph. The separating marks are the red line (paragraph mark), period, question mark and exclamation mark. In addition, a comma, semicolon, dash and colon can perform a structural function if they are placed at the boundary between parts of a complex sentence. The same function is performed by punctuation marks to indicate the boundaries of those semantic segments that complicate a simple sentence: with introductory words and constructions, during address, to isolate secondary members, with direct speech, in the position between homogeneous members of a sentence. For example: Everything in a person should be beautiful: his face, his clothes, his soul, his thoughts.(Chekhov).

2. The logical-semantic function is performed by a colon and a dash in a non-union two-part sentence. A colon indicates a deductive sentence (The prime number 19 can be represented as the product of two natural numbers in only one way: 19=4x19.) Dash - in an inductive sentence (The discovery of a colossal public sound has been accomplished - a high-temperature superconductor has been obtained).

3. An exclamation mark and an ellipsis perform an expressive function. They serve as indicators of the emotional elation of the statement or its incompleteness at the moment of emotional appeal: Spring...

The punctuation system was unified in Europe with the advent of printing. Most of the punctuation marks in their modern form and meaning were introduced in the 15th-16th centuries by the Venetian printers Aldo Manutius (grandfather and grandson, who bore the same name).

Russian spelling is a historical phenomenon. Spelling was not always in the form in which we know it now. The norms of Russian spelling were not established immediately, but evolved as general literary norms developed in the areas of phonetics, vocabulary, word formation, and the grammatical system

Russian spelling has gone through several major stages of development. The history of Russian civil writing began in the Petrine era with the introduction of a civil font and the approval of a sample alphabet improved on the basis of the Slavic-Russian Cyrillic alphabet. Peter's reform was a reform of graphics. The history of Russian orthography dates back to Lomonosov’s “Russian Grammar” (1753), which laid the theoretical basis for the morphological principle. But Russian writing remained complex and contradictory, so at the end of the 19th century, scientists did work to simplify the alphabet and streamline the Russian spelling system. In 1904, a commission at the Russian Academy of Sciences published a draft of a new spelling, but there were so many opponents of the reform that it was possible to carry it out only under Soviet power in 1918. The reform of Russian spelling coincided with the breakdown of the old state machine, so its implementation became possible.

However, the reform, having resolved the major issues of simplifying Russian writing, did not touch upon many specific issues of spelling.

In 1929, a commission was organized under the Main Directorate of Science of the People's Commissariat for Education to solve the problem of streamlining Russian spelling. The 30-50s were the period of the creation of a unified set of rules for Russian spelling and punctuation. In 1956, the “Rules of Russian Spelling and Punctuation” were published, approved by the USSR Academy of Sciences, the USSR Ministry of Higher Education, and the RSFSR Ministry of Education. “Rules...” became a document, all points of which were mandatory for educational institutions, press organs, for state and public organizations in their official correspondence and open publications. “Rules...” became a source for all compilers of textbooks, Russian language dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books.

“Rules of Russian spelling and punctuation” is the first truly complete set of clearly formulated and scientifically based rules and regulations in the history of Russian spelling.

It is necessary to understand that the “Rules...” were aimed at streamlining and unifying Russian spelling based on the principle of historical and cultural continuity. This was not a reform of Russian spelling, since its fundamentals were preserved.

On the other hand, “Rules...” did not use all the opportunities to improve Russian writing. Its compilers were too careful about numerous exceptions, leaving cases of clearly outdated spellings. After the publication of the “Rules...” numerous letters and appeals were sent to the governing departments regarding spelling imperfections. In 1962, at the Institute of Russian Language of the USSR Academy of Sciences, an Orthographic Commission was created to improve Russian orthography under the chairmanship of Academician. V. V. Vinogradova. After the collapse of the USSR, the Spelling Commission works under the President of the Russian Federation. At the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. An attempt was made to improve Russian spelling. However, the reform project, when widely discussed, did not meet with the approval of Russian society.

The work of a document specialist and archivist necessarily requires such professional qualities as automatic spelling skills and spelling vigilance. Spelling skills must be maintained throughout the entire period of active professional activity. The main source and way to maintain the required level of professional qualifications is constant reference to standard dictionaries and linguistic reference books, as well as work with sets of spelling and punctuation rules.

List of used literature

1. Vetvitsky V.G., Ivanova V.F., Moiseev A.I. Modern Russian writing. – M.: Education, 1974.

2. Gvozdev A.N. Modern Russian literary language. Part I Phonetics and morphology. – M.: Education, 1973.

3. Gorbunova L.I. Writing in its history and functioning: educational method. allowance. – Irkutsk: Irkut Publishing House. state University, 2007.

4. Ivanova V.F. Modern Russian language. Graphics and spelling. M., 1976.

5. Ivanova V.F. Modern Russian spelling.

6. Modern Russian language / Ed. V.A. Beloshapkova. – M.: Azbukovnik, 1999.

7. Rozhdestvensky Yu.V. Lectures on general linguistics. M.: “Higher School”, 1990 (Lecture 1,2, 8, 11, 12).

8. Russian language. Encyclopedia/Ch. ed. Yu.N. Karaulov. – M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia; Bustard, 1998.

9. Linguistics. Large encyclopedic dictionary. – M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1998.

Questions for independent work and self-control

1. Define the concepts of orthography, spelling, spelling principle.

2. What is the essence of the morphological principle of Russian orthography?

3. Describe the traditional, phonetic ideographic principles of Russian spelling.

4. Define concepts punctuation, punctuation marks, principle of punctuation. What functions do Russian punctuation marks perform?

Spelling

Spelling(from the Greek ortos - straight, correct and grapho - I write) is a system of rules establishing the uniformity of spellings required for a given language. Orthography can also be called a branch of the science of language that studies the spelling of words at a certain stage of development of this language.

Modern Russian orthography includes five sections:

1) transmission of the phonemic composition of words in letters;

2) continuous, separate and hyphenated (semi-continuous) spellings;

3) use of uppercase and lowercase letters;

4) ways of transferring words;

5) graphic abbreviations of words.

The rules for transmitting the sound side of speech through letter symbols can be based on various principles. The principles of orthography are the basis on which the spelling of words and morphemes is based, given the choice of letters provided by graphics.

Spelling (from the Greek orthos - straight, correct and grámma - letter) is the correct spelling, which should be chosen from a number of possible ones. For example, in the word railway station letters are spellings O(a letter can be written A), To(a letter can be written G), l(possibly written ll). Each of the five sections of spelling has specific spellings associated with it. So, for example, firstly, a specific letter in a word: we sweat And wO roh, proposalO live And proposalA go away etc., secondly, continuous, separate and hyphenated (semi-continuous) spelling of words: slowly, in an embrace, like spring; third, uppercase and lowercase letters: Motherland And homeland; fourthly, word transfer: sister And sister, on-throw And over-break: fifthly, graphic abbreviations: etc. (and so on), and etc. (and others), cm. (Look).

Russian writing, like the writing of most peoples of the world, is sound, that is, the meaning of speech in it is conveyed by conveying the sound side of the language with conventionally accepted graphic symbols - letters.

In writing, the sounds of the Russian language are conveyed through a certain number of letters, which together form the alphabet. As is known, graphics are the study of letters. The world's spelling systems vary in how they use graphics capabilities. For example, certain difficulties may arise when, in different phonetic conditions, one letter (due to its ambiguity) denotes different sounds. This situation can arise with qualitative reduction (in the word rivers letter e denotes the sound [e], and in a word river by the same letter e the sound [and e] is indicated), as well as when consonants are deafened at the absolute end of a word (in the word meadows letter G denotes the sound [g], and in the word meadow same letter G denotes the sound [k]). In such cases, the choice of letters is determined by spelling rules. Thus, it is spelling that regulates the spelling of a particular letter denoting a phoneme in a weak position.

In the modern Russian language there are three principles of spelling: morphological (phonemic, phonemic, morphophonemic, phonemic-morphological), phonetic and historical (etymological, or traditional).

The morphological principle is the main, leading principle of Russian orthography. According to tradition, this principle is called morphological, although it would be more correct to call it morphophonematic, since, firstly, the same letters of the alphabet designate a phoneme in all its modifications, and secondly, this principle ensures the same spelling of morphemes (prefixes, roots, suffix and ending) regardless of their pronunciation, for example, the root -mor- is written the same way, regardless of position, in words sea, maritime׳ yay, sailor etc.

The following spelling rules are based on the morphological principle:

    writing unstressed vowels, verified by stress: (in the roots of words: VO ׳ bottom - inO Yes׳ – VO dyanoy – navO day; in service morphemes: O׳ t-stranded And from-fight, wise׳ ts And old man, on the table' And on the chair).

    writing voiced and voiceless consonants at the end of a word ( luG – luG ah, luTo – luTo A) and at the root of the word before consonants ( laV ka-laV ok, frying pand ka - frying pand OK);

    writing verifiable unpronounceable consonants ( Bybuilding niy – opobuilding at, lest ny – lest b);

    writing prefixes on a consonant, excluding prefixes on h (OT give How OT catch, ond build How ond break etc.);

    use of letter e after sibilants in stressed position in the roots of words, as well as in suffixes of verbs and verbal words ( nighte Vka – nighte wow, wowe sweat - she bird, betweene vka – demarcatione wat);

    writing hard and soft consonants in combination with soft consonants ( most ik – most , but incm and – incm Ouch);

    writing unstressed endings of nouns, which are usually checked by the stressed endings of nouns of the same declension and in the same case form (cf.: in the village, in the park - in the saddle; in joy - in the steppe; in sky - in a bucket, etc.).

The phonetic principle (or phonetic spellings) is that the spelling conveys the sound of the word; in this case, the letter denotes not the phoneme, but the sound. Phonetic spellings are close to phonetic transcription (as is known, transcription is the transfer of spoken speech into writing).

The following spellings are based on the phonetic principle:

    writing prefixes ending in h (from-, through-, up-, bottom-, times-, rose-, without-, through-, through-) with a letter With before voiceless consonants and with a letter h before all other consonants and before vowels ( publish - write down, exalt - chant, rise - climb, depose - overthrow, distribute - distribute, wordless - impassability, extreme - striped);

    writing a letter A in an unstressed prefix times- (dis-), despite the fact that under the stress in this prefix it is written O (section׳ t - distributed, signed׳ t - painting, story׳ call - ro׳ tales, races׳ fall - ro׳ rash);

    writing a letter s after consonant prefixes (excluding inter-, super- and borrowed prefixes) before the initial letter And root (cf.: background - search - super interesting). In addition, after hard consonants in compound words, the letter and is retained (medical institute, sports equipment);

    writing a letter O in suffixes –onok –onka after hissing ones (bear cub, cap, etc.);

    writing a letter s after ts at the endings of nouns and adjectives ( streets, cucumbers, pale-faced, Ptitsyn, Kunitsyn, etc.);

    missing letter b in adjectives with the suffix –sk-, formed from nouns ending in b(Mozyr - from Mozyr, Zversky - from beast; cf.: September - from September, December - from December).

    Writing individual words (wedding - cf.: matchmaker, woo; hole - cf.: open; kalach - cf.: colo, etc.).

The traditional (historical) principle of Russian orthography is that a particular spelling is determined by the laws of the language at a certain stage of its historical development. In modern language, such spellings are preserved by tradition.

Traditional (historical) writings include the following:

1) writing words (usually borrowed) with unverified unstressed vowels a, o, e, and, i (boots, laboratory, panorama, team, smell, vinaigrette, conductor, deficit, intellectual, confusion, month, hare etc.);

2) writing roots with alternating vowels a/o, e/i (dawn - illumination - dawn; tan – sunbathe – burn; touch – touch; bow – bend over – inclination; proposal – attach – canopy; plant – sprout – grow – grown; gallop - jump - jump; collect - I will collect; run away - I'll run away; shine - shine; unlock - unlock, spread - spread; wipe - wipe and etc.);

3) writing letters i, e after letters f, w And ts(as is known, the sounds [zh], [sh] were soft until the 14th century, and [ts] – until the 19th century): six, tin, skis, width, briar, goal, whole, qualification, quote, circus and etc.

4) writing double consonants in the roots of borrowed words ( kilogram, coral, highway, baroque, antenna, assimilation and etc.);

5) writing a letter G in place of the sound [v] in endings -wow, -him genitive case of adjectives and participles ( strong, blue, walking and etc.);

6) writing a letter b after hard sizzling f, w at the endings of 2nd person singular verbs in the indicative mood ( go, look, read) and in forms of the imperative mood ( eat, cut, spread). In addition, according to tradition it is written b after hissing adverbs at the end, with the exception of words already, married, unbearable (just, completely, exactly, backwards, wide open and etc.);

7) writing words with unverifiable vowels in combinations oro, olo (milk, cow);

8) writing individual words ( backpack, asphalt, station and etc.) .

Differentiating (different) spellings explain the spelling of words and word forms that have different meanings and are related to homonyms. It is thanks to the presence of differentiating spellings that homonyms, homoforms, and homophones are distinguished. For example, writing letters A or O helps to understand in what meaning words are used ToA company"event, exercise" and ToO company(a group of people). The meaning of homonyms can differ by writing a single and double letter: ball(celebratory evening) and point(grade); writing in uppercase and lowercase letters: Novel(male name) and novel(literary genre), Eagle(city) and eagle(bird), etc.

The differentiating spellings include the following:

1) presence or absence of a letter b for words with a hissing stem (the presence b for feminine words: daughter, oven, rye, power; absence b for masculine words: guard, march, cloak);

2) writing letters O or e to distinguish between nouns and verb word forms ( coolO g, podzhO G– nouns and coole g, podzhe G– verbs in the masculine past tense form);

3) writing some roots with alternating vowels, the choice of which is determined by the semantics of the word (cf.: dip a pen in ink - get wet in the rain; trim (make even) - leveled (made equal);

4) writing prefixes pre-, pre- also depends on the semantics of the word (cf.: betray a friend - give form, successor (follower) - receiver (apparatus));

5) writing endings -om, -th in the instrumental case singular form of nouns in – ov, -in, indicating the names of people and names of settlements (cf.: with Sergei Borisov - with the city of Borisov);

6) writing ъ, ь depends on the location of these letters in the word ( cf.: entrance, volume, pre-anniversary, immense - sparrows, bindweed, pouring, bench, on the bench);

7) some continuous, separate or hyphenated spellings, with the help of which the lexico-grammatical meanings of homonymous words are clarified ( Wed: too(union) – Same(pronoun with particle), that's why– adverb or part of a conjunction, from that– pronoun with preposition, etc.).

Despite the fact that the general rules for separate writing are quite simple (words in phrases and sentences are written separately from each other, and morphemes in a word are written together), there are many cases when it is difficult to make a choice: before us are individual words or parts of words, for example : dear or deeply respected, no or none, bad weather or bad weather etc.

Many spellings are very contradictory. Thus, there is still no single approach to writing adverbs, and they are written either together, sometimes with a hyphen, sometimes separately (cf.: to the top - to capacity, slowly - like spring). Nouns and adjectives of the same type are also written differently (cf.: checkpoint - checkpoint, national economic - people's democratic etc.).

The word “spelling” (Greek orihos - correct, grapho - writing) means “correct spelling”. Spelling is a system of rules that establishes the uniform spelling of words and their forms.

Russian orthography is based on three principles: morphological, phonetic and traditional.

The leading principle is morphological. It consists in the same spelling (regardless of their pronunciation) of morphemes - meaningful parts of a word (roots, prefixes, suffixes, endings). For example, the root house- is in all cases denoted by these three letters, although in the words home and house the sound [o] of the root is pronounced differently: [da]mashny, [dъ]movoy; the prefix from- is always written with the letter t: vacation -■ start, lights out - [hell] fight. The morphological principle is also implemented in suffixes; for example, the adjectives linden and oak have the same suffix -ov-, although it is pronounced differently in these words: льп[ъв]й, oak. Unstressed endings are indicated in writing in the same way as stressed endings, although vowels in an unstressed position are pronounced differently; compare: in the ground - in the gallery, underground - under the gallery. The morphological principle of spelling helps to find related words and establish the origin of certain words.

For example, the spelling of prefixes ending in z is based on the phonetic principle: without-, voz-, iz-, niz-, raz-, through- (through-). The final [z] of these prefixes before the voiceless consonant of the root is deafened in oral speech, which is reflected in writing; cf.: toothless - heartless, object - educate, expel - drink, overthrow - descend, break - saw, excessive - striped.

The traditional principle is that words are written as they were written in the old days. Traditional spellings are not justified either phonetically or morphologically. The spelling of words such as cow, dog, axe, carrot, sorcerer, giant, noodles, drum, feeling, holiday, etc., has to be memorized. Among the words with traditional spelling there are many borrowed ones: acidophilus, color, component, intellectual, terrace, neat, opponent, etc.

Differentiating spellings occupy a special place in the Russian spelling system. These are different spellings of the same or similar-sounding, but different in meaning words: ball (‘assessment’) and ball (‘dance evening’). There are few cases of differentiating spelling in Russian: company (‘group of people’) and campaign (‘event’), crying (eusch.) and cry. (v.), burn (n.) and burn (v.), etc.

The use of capital letters is also based on the semantics of words. For example, in contrast to the common nouns respectable person, warm fur coat, proper names are written with a capital letter: Venerable, Shuba (surnames). (For more information on the use of capital letters, see § 47-49.)

In addition to these principles, the Russian spelling system uses the principle of continuous, separate or hyphenated (semi-continuous) spelling. The words are written together or with a hyphen: blue-eyed, one by one; separately - phrases: dazzlingly bright. But in practice, the choice of one of the spellings is related to the degree of lexicalization of the elements of the phrase. Some phrases have already become words and therefore are written together: crazy, others still obey the rule of writing phrases separately: a narrowly utilitarian approach.

Word hyphenation rules are not directly related to spelling, as they are caused by the need to place words on a line. But the chaotic breakdown of words during transfer makes reading difficult, so it is recommended to transfer words by morphemes and syllables. (For more details, see the section “Word hyphenation rules.”)

Brief information from the history of Russian spelling

In Ancient Rus' (X-XII centuries) writing was phonetic: they wrote as they spoke. In the XII-XVII centuries. Significant changes have occurred in the phonetic system of the Russian language: the fall of the reduced [ъ] and [ь], the development of akanya, the loss of qualitative differences in the pronunciation of sounds denoted by the letters ѣ and e. This led to the fact that the spelling began to differ significantly from the pronunciation. Pronunciation begins to influence writing: the spellings zdrav vm appear. sdrav, where is vm. kadg and others. By the 16th century. the text begins to be divided into words (before this they wrote without spaces between words), capital letters are introduced.

In the 17th century The first works on Russian orthography appeared, among which the most popular was the grammar of M. G. Smotritsky. It proposed spelling rules, often artificial. However, this attempt to unify spelling was a positive development.

Spelling problems became particularly acute in the 18th century. Writers of that time complained about the diversity of spelling. For example, A.P. Sumarokov in his article “On Spelling” noted that “nowadays scribes have lost all measures and write not only without shame, but, looking around lower: and the audacity of ignorance has surpassed all measures.” In V. K. Trediakovsky’s treatise “A conversation between a foreigner and a Russian about ancient and new spelling” (1748), a phonetic principle of spelling based on literary pronunciation (“to write according to the bells”) was proposed.

Considering the lack of a unified national pronunciation (the existence of many dialects), M. V. Lomonosov advocates a reasonable combination of morphological (by this time established in the language) and phonetic principles of spelling, taking into account historical tradition. In the chapter “On Spelling” (“Russian Grammar”, 1755, published 1757), Lomonosov gave rules for spelling roots, prefixes, etc., in which the morphological principle was consistently followed. In some cases, Lomonosov recommended preserving traditional spellings.

In the first half of the 19th century. grammarians N.I. Grech, A.Kh. Vostokov, I.I. Davydov, F.I. Buslaev appeared, who played a positive role in the unification of spelling. But nevertheless, Russian spelling remained disordered.

A significant event in the development of Russian spelling was the work of J. K. Grot “Controversial Issues of Russian Spelling from Peter the Great to the Present” (1873). Groth's work consisted of two parts: a historical and theoretical description of spelling and an analysis of difficult spelling cases.

In addition, Grot compiled a reference book “Russian Spelling” (1885) for schools. Grot's works to a certain extent streamlined Russian spelling.

In 1904, the Academy of Sciences created the Spelling Commission. A subcommittee emerged from it (it included A. A. Shakhmatov, F. F. Fortunatov, A. I. Sobolevsky, F. E. Korsh, I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, etc.) to work on simplifying Russian spelling. The subcommittee published a draft to simplify Russian spelling, but it was not adopted.

Russian spelling was simplified only by decrees of the Soviet government. The decree of the Council of People's Commissars of October 13, 1918 established the following spellings: 1) the ending -ого (-й) in the form of the genitive case of masculine and neuter adjectives [previously they wrote -ago (-yago) in the unstressed position: red scarf; -ogo (-his) - in shock: gray-haired man]; 2) ending -y(s) in the form of the nominative plural of adjectives, participles and pronouns in all genders [previously they wrote -y(s) in feminine and neuter words: red roses; -y(s) - in masculine words: red tulips]-, 3) writing prefixes without-, voz-, from-, niz-, (raz-)rose-, through-(through-) according to the phonetic principle: before voiceless consonants it was recommended to write s (previously they wrote s in all cases: homeless, boundless).

But decrees could not eliminate all particular contradictions in Russian spelling. For example, the spelling of adverbs formed from a preposition and a noun was not regulated (they wrote without restraint and without restraint), the spelling of double consonants was not unified (they wrote gallery and gallery), etc. Practice required further simplification of spelling and its systematization.

In 1929, a commission under the Main Science of the People's Commissariat for Education took up the issue of spelling. The “project” of the Main Science on a new spelling (1930) was not accepted, since the proposals made in it were not based on scientific foundations (the spellings black, cut, revolution, kind, delaish, etc. were proposed).

In the 30s, several commissions were organized (Commission under the Scientific Language Committee of the People's Commissariat for Education, Commission under the USSR Academy of Sciences, Government Commission for the Development of a Unified Spelling and Punctuation of the Russian Language), which were engaged in streamlining spelling and punctuation. As a result of the work of the commissions, in 1940 the draft “Rules of Unified Spelling and Punctuation” was published with the appendix of a short spelling dictionary. For the first time, the draft “Rules” provided a comprehensive statement of the basic rules of Russian spelling; the experience of written language practice in schools, higher educational institutions, and publishing houses was taken into account. However, the draft “Rules” needed some refinement and clarification. The Great Patriotic War interrupted this work for a long time. Only in 1947 was the government spelling commission able to publish a new draft of the “Unified Code of Rules for Russian Spelling and Punctuation.” The 1950 discussion on linguistics also touched upon issues of spelling. This caused a revision of the draft “Unified Code of Rules”.

In 1951-1954. The spelling commission continued to work on improving the draft “Unified Code of Rules”. In 1954, on the pages of the magazine “Russian Language at School” and “Teacher’s Newspaper”, a wide discussion was held on issues of Russian spelling in connection with the project of the “Unified Code of Rules”. School and university teachers, researchers, and editorial staff took part in the discussion. During the discussion, various opinions were expressed regarding the draft “Unified Code of Rules” and on general and specific issues of Russian orthography. A number of proposals were reflected in the “Rules of Russian Spelling and Punctuation” (1956) approved by the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the USSR Ministry of Higher Education and the RSFSR Ministry of Education. Thus, it was customary to write ы after consonant prefixes (to improvise), to write monosyllabic nouns in the form of the prepositional case in -iy (about cue), to write hyphenated complex adjectives denoting shades of colors (pale pink), to write together not with nouns, expressing new concepts (non-Marxist, non-specialist), etc.

“Rules of Russian spelling and punctuation” were of great importance for improving the spelling of the Russian language; they became the first officially approved set of Russian spelling rules, mandatory for all institutions and citizens. In accordance with the “Rules,” the “Spelling Dictionary of the Russian Language” was compiled (edited by S. I. Ozhegov and A. B. Shapiro, 1956). In 1982, the 19th edition of this dictionary was published (edited by S. G. Barkhudarov, I. F. Protchenko, L. I. Skvortsov).

"Rules" played an important role in unifying spelling. However, many of the most complex issues of Russian orthography were not resolved in them: the spelling of complex words, adverbs, particles and others still awaits simplification. In 1964, the commission for the improvement of Russian orthography at the Institute of Russian Language of the USSR Academy of Sciences published new “Proposals for the improvement of Russian orthography” . Widespread discussion in the press of this draft showed that many of its provisions were objectionable. The spelling commission continues its work.

Spelling issues constantly attract the attention of linguists. Many studies have been devoted to the scientific basis of Russian spelling: Ivanova V.F. Difficult cases of using and spelling particles not and neither. M.-, 1962; Questions of Russian spelling. M., 1964; About modern Russian spelling. M., 1964; Problems of modern Russian spelling. M., 1964; Spelling of proper names. M., 1965; Butina B. 3., Kalakutskaya L. P. Compound words. M., 1974; Unresolved issues of Russian spelling. M., 1974; Ivanova V.F. Difficult issues of spelling. M., 1975; its ok. Modern Russian language. Graphics and spelling. M., 19fj6; hers. Principles of Russian spelling. L., 1977; Kuzmina S. M. The theory of Russian orthography: orthography in its relation to phonetics and phonology. M, 1981.

CHAPTER 7. NORMS OF RUSSIAN SPELLING

The concept of spelling, types and types of spelling

The concept of spelling is familiar to everyone from school. Well-known terms immediately come to mind: “spelling”, “spelling errors”, “spelling parsing”, etc. All of them are related to the laws of correct writing and spelling.

In modern Russian, all the rules of “correct writing” are contained in two main sections: spelling and punctuation.

Spelling(from Greek orthos – “correct” and grapho – “I write”) is a system of rules for the alphabetic writing of words, and punctuation– rules for placing punctuation marks. Spelling is divided into five sections.

1. Rules for designating sounds with letters.

2. Rules for the use of continuous, hyphenated and separate spellings.

3. Rules for the use of uppercase (capital) and lowercase (small) letters.

4. Word hyphenation rules.

5. Rules for the use of abbreviated words.

We can say that the spelling is a “mistaken” place in a word.

The word “orthogram” comes from the Greek [orthos] - “correct” and [grama] - “letter”. But not only the letter is included in the concept of spelling. What to do with word hyphenation (wrong hyphenation is also a mistake), with combined and separate spelling, capital letters, hyphens? Consequently, the spelling is a “mistake-dangerous” place not only in a word, where you can make a mistake in choosing a letter, but also in spelling in general.

Spelling patterns differ by type (letter spellings, continuous-hyphen-separate spellings, spellings with uppercase and lowercase letters), by type (spellings of roots, prefixes, suffixes, endings; hyphenated spellings, etc.), within types they can also be subdivided ( for example, root spellings are verifiable – unverifiable, with alternating vowels, etc.).

Determining the nature of spelling patterns is the most important skill that helps to perceive the material being studied in the system and relate it to the desired rule. In teaching practice, students often confuse spellings (for example, in the word “overnight” the letter “o” is often written after the sibilant on the grounds that the corresponding vowel is stressed). In this case, no word-formation analysis is performed, and the spelling error is caused by a confusion of rules: spelling o–e after sibilants in the roots, suffixes and endings of nouns and adjectives.

To write correctly, you should be able to see “erroneous” places in writing and be able to apply the rule. Therefore, most often a spelling is understood as a spelling determined on the basis of rules or a dictionary. There are rules for writing in every language - they ensure the accurate transmission of speech and the correct understanding of what is written by everyone who speaks a given language.

Principles of Russian spelling

The formation of rules in the process of development and formation of a language is ongoing. The systematization of rules and their grouping do not occur on their own, but in accordance with those ideas and principles of spelling and punctuation that are leading in a given historical period of time. And although there are many rules and they are different, they are subject to only a few basic principles. The spelling systems of languages ​​differ depending on what principles underlie the use of letters.

Phonetic principle

Phonetic principle Russian spelling is based on the rule “As we hear, so we write.” Historically, the letter-sound system of Russian writing was focused specifically on pronunciation: in birch bark letters and ancient Russian chronicles one can, for example, find spellings such as: bezhny (without him). Today, the phonetic principle as a leading one has been preserved and is used, in particular, in Serbian and Belarusian orthography.

Applying the phonetic principle is not as simple as it seems at first glance. Firstly, it is difficult to follow pronunciation when writing. Secondly, everyone’s pronunciation is different, everyone speaks and hears in their own way, so learning to “decipher” texts written strictly within the phonetic principle is not easy. For example, we pronounce [sivodnya, maya], but write it differently.

Nevertheless, some of the modern rules have developed under the influence of phonetic patterns: for example, writing “ы” instead of “and” in roots after Russian-language prefixes ending in a hard consonant (except for prefixes inter- And super-): artless, previous and etc.; writing "s" rather than "z" at the end of some prefixes before the following voiceless consonant: armless, story. The rules for writing “s” and “z” at the end of prefixes are connected with the history of the Russian language. These prefixes, unlike all the others, were never prepositions, that is, independent words, and therefore there was no “gap” between the final sound of such a prefix and the initial sound of the next part of the word. However, it should be remembered that talking about the use of prefixes in writing h – s According to the principle “I write as I hear” it is possible only with a reservation. This principle is observed in relation to the bulk of words with these prefixes - whether you know the rule or not, write, guided by the pronunciation (reckless, say goodbye, quirky), but there are two groups of words in the spelling of which you can make a mistake if you use this principle. These are words in which the prefix is ​​followed by a hissing (expand, disappear) or a sound similar to the final sound of the console (tell, carefree). How to be? Words that begin with prefixes z – s-, and then they are followed by the letters “z”, “s” or hissing, you should first pronounce without a prefix, and then decide on the use of one or another letter: be?sonica, be?honest, be?ruthless, make you laugh.

Traditional principle of Russian spelling

Spelling is based on the traditional, or historical, principle, when a word is written the way it was once pronounced. This principle underlies English spelling. There are such words in Russian, for example sew. In the Old Russian language, the sounds [zh], [sh], [ts] were soft, so the writing after them reflected the pronunciation. By the 16th century [zh], [sh], [ts] hardened, and after them the sound [s] began to be pronounced, but according to tradition we write after them -i (lived, sewed, circus). Traditional spellings most often include unverifiable spellings (they should be checked in dictionaries).

The rules for combined and separate, as well as hyphenated writing are based on the concept of a word, and the principle is this: individual words in the Russian language should be written separately. The rules for transferring words from one line to another are based on the principle of syllabification (dividing words into syllables).

In cases with word hyphenation, one should take into account the morphemic composition of the word (dividing a word into syllables, taking into account the composition of the word) and the prohibition of hyphenation of one letter (for example, although in the word “family” the final orthographic “I” represents the ending and syllable, one cannot hyphenate one letter to another line).

In cases of continuous and separate spelling or writing with a hyphen, not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance: for example, when writing complex adjectives or a number of adverbs, it can be difficult to determine the boundaries of words in the speech stream, and the question of how such words should be written (jointly, separately or through a hyphen), is decided on the basis of knowledge of the meaning of the word as a lexical and grammatical unit, on the basis of contrasting the morphemes of words. For example, it is necessary to decide whether a certain segment of speech is a word, or a morpheme, or two words, that is, first of all, determine the boundary of the words, and then apply the rule: in our opinion and in our opinion.