Basic principles of Russian spelling with examples. Morphological principle of Russian spelling: examples and rules

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 are immediately recalled: “spelling”, “spelling errors”, “spelling parsing”, etc. All of them are related to the laws correct writing, 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") - a system of rules for the alphabetic writing of words, and punctuation- punctuation rules. The 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 (large) and lowercase (small) letters.

4. Word hyphenation rules.

5. Rules for the use of abbreviated words.

We can say that a spelling is a “mistakenly dangerous” place in a word.

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

Orthograms differ in types (letter spellings, continuous-hyphen-separate, capital and lowercase spellings), by type (root spellings, prefixes, suffixes, endings; hyphen spellings, etc.), within types they can also be subdivided ( for example, spellings of the root are checked - unchecked, with alternating vowels, etc.).

Determining the nature of spelling is the most important skill that helps to perceive the material being studied in the system and correlate it with right rule. In teaching practice, students often confuse spellings (for example, in the word "overnight" they often write the letter "o" after hissing on the grounds that the corresponding vowel is stressed). In this case, word-formation analysis is not performed, and the spelling error is due to a mixture of rules: spelling o-e after hissing in the root, suffixes and endings of nouns and adjectives.

In order to write correctly, one should be able to see "erroneous" places in writing and be able to apply the rule. Therefore, spelling is most often 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 correct understanding written by everyone who speaks the language.

Principles of Russian spelling

The formation of rules in the process of development and formation of the language is ongoing. The systematization of rules, their grouping does not occur by itself, but in accordance with those ideas and principles of spelling and punctuation that are leading in this historical period time. And although there are many rules and they are different, they obey 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 orthography is based on the rule "As we hear, so we write." Historically, the alphabetic-sound system of Russian writing was focused specifically on pronunciation: in birch bark letters, ancient Russian chronicles, for example, you can find such spellings as: fugitive (without him). Today, the phonetic principle as a leading principle has been preserved and is used, in particular, in Serbian and Belarusian orthography.

Applying the phonetic principle is not as easy as it seems at first glance. First, when writing, it is difficult to follow the pronunciation. 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 [sivodna, maya], but we write differently.

However, some of modern rules formed under the influence of phonetic patterns: for example, the spelling “ы” instead of “и” in roots after Russian-language prefixes ending in a solid consonant (except 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 associated 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 on h - s on the principle of "I write as I hear" is possible only with a reservation. This principle is observed in relation to the bulk of words with these prefixes - you know the rule or not, write, guided by the pronunciation (reckless, say goodbye, dodgy) but there are two groups of words that can be misspelled 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 prefix (tell, carefree). How to be? Words that begin with prefixes h - s-, and then they are followed by the letters “z”, “s” or hissing, you should first pronounce it without a prefix, and then decide on the use of one or another letter: demon, dishonest, merciless, laugh.

The traditional principle of Russian spelling

Spelling is based on the traditional, or historical, principle that a word is spelled 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 spelling after them reflected the pronunciation. By the 16th century, [w], [w], [c] 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 are most often unverifiable (they should be checked in dictionaries).

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

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

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

Spelling

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

Modern Russian orthography includes five sections:

1) the transfer by letters of the phonemic composition of words;

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

3) the use of capital and lowercase letters;

4) ways of transferring words;

5) graphic abbreviations words.

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

The spelling (from the Greek ortos - 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 spellings are letters about(may be spelled but), to(may be spelled G), l(possibly writing ll). Each of the five sections of orthography has specific spellings associated with it. So, for example, first, a certain letter in a word: we sweat And wabout rox, offerabout live And offerbut walk and others, and secondly, continuous, separate and hyphenated (semi-continuous) spelling of words: slowly, in an embrace, in spring; third, uppercase and lowercase letters: motherland And motherland; Fourth, word wrap: sister And sister, to-throw And over-break: Fifth, graphic abbreviations: etc. (etc), 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 by conventionally accepted graphic symbols - letters.

In writing, the sounds of the Russian language are transmitted through a certain number of letters, which together form an alphabet. The study of letters, as you know, is engaged in graphics. The spelling systems of the world differ in how they use the power of graphics. So, for example, certain difficulties may arise when, under different phonetic conditions, one letter (due to its ambiguity) denotes different sounds. Such a situation can arise under qualitative reduction (in the word rivers letter e denotes the sound [e], and in the word river by the same letter e the sound [and e] is indicated), as well as when stunning consonants at the absolute end of the word (in the word meadows letter G denotes the sound [g], and in the word meadow the same letter G denotes the sound [k]). In such cases, the choice of letters is determined by spelling rules. Thus, it is the spelling that regulates the spelling of a particular letter denoting a phoneme in a weak position.

In modern Russian, 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. By tradition, this principle is called morphological, although it would be more correct to call it morphophonemic, 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, sea׳ y, sailor etc.

The following spelling rules are based on the morphological principle:

writing unstressed vowels, checked by stress: (in the roots of words: inabout ׳ bottom - inabout Yes׳ – inabout diana - navabout donation; in service morphemes: about׳ t-stranded And fight, wise׳ c 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 but) and at the root of the word before consonants ( lain ka-lain ok, fryd ka - fryingd OK);

writing checkable unpronounceable consonants ( onzd ny - opozd at, lest ny - lest b);

writing prefixes on a consonant, excluding prefixes on h (aboutT give how aboutT catch, on thed build how on thed ache etc.);

letter usage yo after hissing in a stressed position in the roots of words, as well as in the suffixes of verbs and verbal words (nightyo vka - nighte wat, shyo sweat - we to drink, to spityo vka - demarcatione vat);

writing hard and soft consonants in combination with soft consonants ( most ik - most , but insee and - insee Oh);

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

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

The following spellings are based on the phonetic principle:

writing prefixes ending in h (from-, air-, vz-, bottom-, times-, roses-, without-, through-, through-) with letter from before voiceless consonants and with a letter h before all other consonants and before vowels ( publish - write, exalt - sing, get up - climb, overthrow - overthrow, distribute - distribute, wordless - impassability, emergency - striped);

writing a letter but in a shockless attachment times- (ras-), despite the fact that it is written under stress in this prefix about (distribution׳ t - distributed, painted׳ t - painting, story׳ call - ro׳ tell me races׳ pat - ro׳ rash);

writing a letter s after consonantal prefixes (excluding prefixes inter-, over- and borrowed prefixes) before the initial letter And root (cf .: background - search - super interesting). In addition, after solid consonants in complex abbreviated words, the letter and is preserved (medical institute, sports equipment);

writing a letter about in suffixes -onok -onka after hissing (bear cub, hat, etc.);

writing a letter s after c in the endings of nouns and adjectives ( streets, cucumbers, pale-faced, bird, Kunitsyn, etc.);

absence of a letter b in adjectives with the suffix -sk- formed from nouns ending in b(Mozyr - from Mozyr, brutal - from the 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 spelling is that this or that 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) spellings include the following:

1) spelling of words (often borrowed) with unchecked unstressed vowels a, o, e, i, i (boots, laboratory, panorama, collective, sense of smell, vinaigrette, conductor, deficit, intellectual, confusion, month, hare etc.);

2) writing roots with alternating vowels a/o, e/i (dawn - illumination - dawns; tan - sunbathe - burn; touch - touch; bow - bow - declination; offer - attach - canopy; plant - sprout - grow - grown; skip - jump - jump; to collect - I will collect; run away - run away; to shine - to shine; unlock - unlock, spread - spread; wipe - wipe and etc.);

3) writing letters i, e after letters w, w And c(as you know, the sounds [zh], [sh] were soft until the 16th century, and [ts] - until the 11th century): six, tin, skis, width, dogrose, 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 the endings -oh, -his genitive case of adjectives and participles ( strong, blue, going and etc.);

6) writing a letter b after hard sizzling w, w in the endings of 2nd person verbs singular in the indicative mood ( go, look, read) and in the forms imperative mood (eat, cut, spread). In addition, by 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) spelling words with unchecked 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 are different in meaning and related to homonyms. It is due to the presence of differentiating spellings that homonyms, homoforms, and homophones are distinguished. So, for example, writing letters but or about helps to understand the meaning of the words used tobut company"event" and toabout company(a group of people). The meaning of homonyms can differ by writing a single and a double letter: ball(holiday evening) and score(grade); uppercase and lowercase letters: novel(male name) and novel(literary genre) Eagle(city) and Eagle(bird), etc.

Differentiators include the following spellings:

1) the presence or absence of a letter b words with a stem in hissing (presence b at the words female: daughter, oven, rye, power; absence b at the words male: guard, march, cloak);

2) writing letters about or yo to distinguish between nouns and verb word forms ( ohabout g, podjabout G- nouns and ohyo g, podjyo G– masculine past tense verbs);

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-, at- also depends on the semantics of the word (cf.: betray a friend - give shape, successor (follower) - receiver (apparatus));

5) writing endings -ohm, -th in the shape of instrumental singular nouns in - ov, -in denoting the names of people and the names of settlements (cf .: with Sergey Borisov - with the city of Borisov);

6) writing b, b 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 lexical and grammatical meanings of homonymous words are specified ( cf.: also(union) - Same(pronoun with a particle), because- an adverb or part of a conjunction from that- a pronoun with a preposition, etc.).

Though general rules are simple enough for separate writing (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: we have separate words or parts of words, for example: dear or deeply respected, no or nor any, bad weather or no weather etc.

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

Principles of Russian spelling

Russian orthography is based on three principles:

1. Phonemic- the spelling reflects the composition of the phonemes that form it: milk ([málako]; spring ([v "and e sná]). The phonemic principle is the main one in Russian spelling

2. Phonetic- spelling reflects the real sound. An example of this is the spelling of prefixes ONCE / ROS - RAS / ROS (it is written O under stress, without stress A; Z is written before a voiced consonant and before a vowel, C is written before a deaf consonant):

3. Traditional- writing reflects the historical tradition. An example is the spelling of the endings of adjectives, participles and some pronouns and masculine numerals, singular, genitive case: bad, done, mine, one. Phonetically, this ending sounds [óva], [wa], [vo].

Principles of Russian spelling

Spelling principles- These are the patterns that underlie the spelling system. Every spelling principle unites a group of rules that are an application of this principle to specific linguistic phenomena.

Morphologicalprinciple consists in requiring the same spelling of the same morphemes: prefixes, roots, suffixes, etc. For example: steppe- steppe, rowan- pine, sign- signature, to the wound- to the water. This principle is an leading in Russian spelling; the spelling of most of the words is subordinated to him.

Phoneticprinciple is that the spelling must match the pronunciation. The principle spelling usually manifests itself when writing alternations in the same morpheme, for example: paint-painting, homeless- ownerless.

Traditionalprinciple lies in the fact that the spelling fixed by tradition is recognized as correct. This, for example, is the spelling of Russian and borrowed words with unchecked vowels, unchecked, unpronounceable or doubled consonants in the root: dog, axe, station, football, health, alley etc. In school practice words with unchecked vowels and consonants are called vocabulary words.

differentiatingprinciple spelling is implemented in situations where it is necessary to distinguish between the same-sounding words by means of spelling: score(score) and ball(dance night), burn(verb) and burn(noun), cry(verb) and cry(noun), carcasses(masculine noun) and ink(feminine noun) Eagle(bird), and Eagle(city).

In addition to those named Russian spelling has principles, regulating integrated, separate and hyphenation, the use of capital letters, the rules of word hyphenation, etc.

The basic principle of Russian spelling

The leading principle of Russian spelling is morphological principle.

The essence of the morphological principle of Russian spelling lies in the fact that significant parts (morphemes) common to related words retain a single style in writing, although they differ in pronunciation depending on the phonetic conditions in which the sounds that make up meaningful parts words.

Regardless of pronunciation, the morphological principle of spelling is applied when writing roots and endings. Morphological is also the principle of graphically uniform design of spellings of words related to some grammatical categories. These include:

1. spelling of feminine nouns with final hissing: rye, night, mouse, thing. Writing a soft sign at the end of these words does not have a phonetic meaning, but serves as an indicator of grammatical gender and graphically combines all nouns in one type of the 3rd declension ( new, blizzard, shadow, bed, notebook etc.);

2. writing an infinitive with a final sibilant: save, reach. And in this case soft sign is not a sign of softness, but serves as a formal sign of the indefinite form of the verb, and its spelling creates a graphic uniformity in the design of the infinitive ( shave, believe, write etc.);

3. writing the form of the imperative mood with the final hissing: multiply, assign, console. Also here, writing a soft sign serves the purposes of morphology: a uniform external design imperative ( correct, discard, discard, measure etc.).

In addition to the morphological principle, which is the main one in Russian orthography, phonetic spellings, i.e. spellings that match the pronunciation. The most striking example of such spellings is the writing of prefixes ending in h: without-, air-, from-, times-, bottom-, through-, through-. The final sound [z] in these prefixes before the deaf consonants of the root is stunned, which is reflected in the letter: soulless - stupid, lead - exclaim, publish - interpret, overthrow - send down, smash - disband, excessive - interlace. Phonetic spellings include the spelling of prefixes grew- under stress and race- without accent: painting - receipt. Also spelling s instead of initial And after prefixes ending in a hard consonant unprincipled, find, previous, play.

TO differentiating include spellings that serve to distinguish homophones in writing: arson(noun) - set fire to(verb), ball - ball, campaign - company, Eagle(city) - Eagle(bird).

Finally, there are also traditional, or historical, spellings An example would be the writing of a letter and after hard hissing w, w and after c: in the Old Russian language, the sounds [zh], [sh] and [ts] were soft and the writing of the letter after them was natural, as it corresponded to the pronunciation.

Fused, semi-fused and separate spellings are associated with compound words different parts speech (nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns, adverbs), with the repetition of words, with the writing of foreign prefixes, etc.

Principles of Russian spelling, spelling

SPELLING - a system of spelling rules. The main sections of spelling:

• writing morphemes in various parts speech,
• continuous, separate and hyphenated spelling of words,
• the use of uppercase and lowercase letters,
• hyphenation.

Principles of Russian spelling. The leading principle of Russian orthography is the morphological principle, the essence of which is that morphemes common to related words retain a single style in writing, and in speech they can change depending on phonetic conditions. This principle applies to all morphemes: roots, prefixes, suffixes and endings.

Also, on the basis of the morphological principle, a uniform spelling of words related to a certain grammatical form. For example, ь (soft sign) is a formal sign of the infinitive.

The second principle of Russian spelling is phonetic spelling, i.e. words are spelled the way they are heard. An example is the spelling of prefixes on z-s (incompetent - restless) or a change in the root of the initial and on s after prefixes ending in a consonant (play).

There is also a differentiating spelling (cf.: burn (n.) - burn (vb)) and traditional spelling (the letter and after the letters zh, sh, ts - live, sew).

A spelling is a case of choice where 1, 2, or more different spellings are possible. It is also a spelling following the spelling rules.

The spelling rule is the spelling rule of the Russian language, which spelling should be chosen depending on the language conditions.

Basic principles of orthography

Spelling principles are the ideas that underlie the spelling rules of a particular language. There are three of them: morphological, phonetic and traditional.

The leading principle in Russian writing is the morphological principle. It consists in the uniform spelling of words and parts of words (morphemes). Uniformity in the spelling of significant parts of the word is achieved by the fact that in the same part of the word the same letters are written mainly, regardless of pronunciation: cube [p] - cube [b]; boot [k] - in a boot; distant - distance; run away, do The morphological principle makes it possible to identify words that are related in meaning and identical in structure.

With the maximum correspondence between the sound and graphic appearance of the word (i.e., the word is written as it is heard), it is customary to talk about the phonetic principle. In the spelling systems of other languages, where the word is written as close as possible to its pronunciation, the phonetic principle is the leading one. In Russian spelling, this spelling principle is partially represented. In accordance with the phonetic principle, prefixes are written in Russian in -з; -s (voiceless, powerless, used, expired) and the initial root letter s after the original Russian prefixes on a solid consonant (search, detective).

The spelling of prefixes on -з, -с is the only rule in Russian orthography based on the phonetic principle and consistently observing this principle.

The traditional principle suggests a large gap, a discrepancy between the spelling and pronunciation of a word. The spellings of words and morphemes that obey this principle should be memorized. In russian language traditional principle is present in the spelling of the endings of adjectives and words that change like adjectives (beautiful, third, which), in the presence / absence of the letter ь at the end of adverbs and particles (jump, marry, only, already).

THIRD CONCLUSION: in order to consciously apply the morphological principle of spelling, it is necessary to have an idea of grammatical meaning both the word as a whole and its individual parts in particular.

The morphological principle of Russian spelling is so logical and generally consistent that it practically knows no exceptions. (It is estimated that 96% of spellings in Russian texts correspond to this principle.) One can easily imagine what a storm of indignation this peremptory statement will cause among diligent readers grammar guides, where almost every rule is accompanied by a long list of notes and exceptions, bashfully compressed into small lines of petite. However, most of these seemingly anomalous spellings are by no means exceptions. They were born as a result of the action of certain restrictions and violations of the morphological principle, which, in turn, also have their own historical pattern and are subject to the logic of the centuries-old development of the very system of our language.
Let's compare two well-known verbs - get angry and quarrel. It is easy to see that both of them are written through a double C, although such a spelling corresponds to the morphological composition of the word only in the first case (prefix ra s + angry), and in the second (prefix ra s + ss quarrel) - the word, according to the morphological principle, should to write through the triple C: sss to ss. However, the absence of such a form is well explained. The fact is that in Russian "there are only two degrees of longitude of consonants: consonants can be either long (which is conveyed in writing by writing two letters, cf. kassa), or short (which is conveyed by writing one letter, cf. braid). The third there is no degree of longitude of consonants, so writing three identical consonants is phonetically meaningless" [Ivanova V.F. Modern Russian language. Graphics and spelling. M., 1976. S. 168-169]. Thus, it turns out that the spelling of only two consonants at the junction of morphemes, although morphologically there should be three such consonants (bath - but bathroom, although the adjective suffix -n- is attached to the root of baths), or one consonant, when, according to the morphological principle, they should be written two (crystal - but crystal, Finn - but Finnish, Finn, column - but column, semolina - but semolina, shaped - but uniform, operetta - but operetta, ton - but five-ton, antenna - but antenna), is explained by the action historically the established phonetic patterns of the Russian language.
Now the spelling of adjectives such as Nice, Cherepovets, German is becoming clear, which, at first glance, contradicts the spelling of Konstanz, which was mentioned above. Indeed: adding the suffix -sk- to the stem nice-, according to the morphological principle, we would expect to see the form nice. However, such a form would reflect the third degree of longitude of consonants, which is absent in the Russian language. Our orthography was free to choose from two options (Nice or Nice), equally violating the morphological principle for the sake of phonetic regularity. Reasonableness of preference for the first of options is obvious: at least he keeps intact the spelling of the generating stem of the word, especially the word of a foreign language.
We must not forget that spelling norms developed gradually, preserving the heritage of the past, and therefore they cannot but reflect the linguistic state of previous eras. It is safe to say that the remaining 4% of "anomalous" spellings that do not fall within the scope of the morphological principle of spelling did not arise spontaneously, but under the influence of certain phonetic traditions that have developed over the long centuries of the existence of our language. On the pages of various manuals, textbooks and grammars, the same orthograms are often interpreted differently (for example, spellings in root morphemes with alternating vowels like -zor- -zar- are subject to the phonetic principle of spelling, while others consider it a consequence of the principle of traditional ). However, since you and I are in this moment we are concerned about problems not so much scholastic as practical, let's forget about terminological accuracy and ask ourselves a more specific question: "What, in fact, are these phonetic traditions and what mark did they leave in Russian orthography?".

The word "spelling" (gr. orihos - correct, grapho - I write) means "correct spelling". Spelling is a system of rules that establishes a 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 - the meaningful parts of a word (roots, prefixes, suffixes, endings). For example, the root house- in all cases is denoted by these three letters, although in the words home and house sound [o] of the root is pronounced differently: [yes] home, [d] movoy; the prefix from- is always written with the letter t: vacation - ■ start, hang up - [hell] fight. The morphological principle is also realized in suffixes; for example, the adjectives lime and oak have the same suffix -ov-, although it is pronounced differently in these words: lyp [yv], oak. Unstressed endings are written in the same way as stressed endings, although unstressed vowels are pronounced differently; cf .: in the ground - in the gallery, underground - under the gallery. The morphological principle of spelling helps to find related words, to establish the origin of certain words.

For example, the spelling of prefixes ending in z is based on the phonetic principle: without-, voz-, out-, bottom-, times-, through- (through-). The final [h] of these prefixes before the voiceless consonant of the root in oral speech stunned, which is reflected in the letter; cf .: toothless - heartless, object - educate, expel - drink, overthrow - descend, smash - saw, excessive - striped.

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

In the Russian spelling system special place occupy differentiating spellings. This different spellings words that sound the same or similar, but have different meanings: score (‘assessment’) and ball (‘dance evening’). There are few cases of differentiating spelling in Russian: company (‘a group of people’) and campaign (‘event’), crying (eush.) and crying. (ch.), burn (n.) and burn (ch.), etc.

The use of capital letters is also based on the semantics of words. For example, unlike common nouns, a respectable person, a warm fur coat, proper names are written with a capital letter: Honorable, Fur Coat (surnames). (See § 47-49 for more on capitalization.)

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 through a hyphen: blue-eyed, one by one; separately - phrases: dazzlingly bright. But in practice, the choice of one of the spellings is associated with the degree of lexicalization of the elements of the phrase. Some phrases have already become words and therefore are written together: insane, others still obey the rule of separate spelling of phrases: 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 it difficult to read, so it is recommended to transfer words by morphemes and syllables. (See section "Word Wrapping Rules" for more details.)

Brief information about the history of Russian orthography

IN Ancient Russia(X-XII centuries) the letter was phonetic: they wrote as they spoke. In the XII-XVII centuries. Significant changes have taken place in the phonetic systems of the Russian language: the decline of the reduced [ъ] and [ь], the development of akanya, the loss of a qualitative difference in the pronunciation of sounds denoted by the letters ѣ and е. This led to the spelling becoming significantly different from the pronunciation. Pronunciation begins to influence writing: spellings of zdravvm appear. hello, where vm. kadg and others. By the 16th century. the text begins to be divided into words (before that, they wrote without gaps between words), capital letters are entered.

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

The problems of spelling became especially acute in the 18th century. Writers of that time complained about the variegated spelling. For example, A.P. Sumarokov in his article “On Spelling” noted that “now scribes have lost all measures and write not only not ashamed, but looking lower: and the audacity of ignorance has surpassed all measures.” In the treatise by V. K. Trediakovsky “A Conversation between a Foreign Man and a Russian on the Old and New Spelling” (1748), a phonetic principle of spelling was proposed based on literary pronunciation (“writing by bells”).

Given the lack of a single 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 in 1757), Lomonosov gave rules for the spelling of roots, prefixes, etc., in which the morphological principle was consistently carried out. In some cases, Lomonosov recommended keeping traditional spellings.

In the first half of the XIX century. the grammarians of N. I. Grech, A. Kh. Vostokov, I. I. Davydov, F. I. Buslaev appeared, which played a positive role in the unification of spelling. Nevertheless, Russian spelling remained disordered.

A significant event in the development of Russian spelling was the work of Ya-K. Grot “ controversial issues 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 cases of spelling.

In addition, Grotto compiled a guide for schools " Russian spelling» (1885). Grot's works to a certain extent streamlined Russian orthography.

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

Russian spelling was simplified only by decrees of the Soviet government. By decree of the Council People's Commissars dated October 13, 1918, the following spellings were established: 1) the ending -th (-th) in the form of the genitive case of masculine and neuter adjectives [previously they wrote -ago (-yago) in an unstressed position: a red scarf; -th (-his) - in shock: a gray-haired person]; 2) ending -s (s) in the form of the nominative case plural adjectives, participles and pronouns in all genders [previously they wrote -yya (-iya) in feminine and neuter words: red roses; -s (s) - in masculine words: red tulips] -, 3) writing prefixes without-, voz-, out-, bottom-, (raz-) rose-, through- (through-) according to the phonetic principle: before deaf consonants, it was recommended to write with (earlier they wrote z in all cases: homeless, limitless).

But decrees could not eliminate all the particular contradictions of Russian orthography. 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 Glavnauka of the People's Commissariat for Education dealt with spelling issues. The “project” of Glavnauka on the new spelling (1930) was not adopted, since the proposals made in it were not based on scientific foundations(spellings black, cut, revolution, kind, delaish, etc. were suggested).

In the 1930s, several commissions were organized (the Commission under the Scientific Committee of the Language of the People's Commissariat of Education, the Commission under the USSR Academy of Sciences, the 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 a draft "Rules for Uniform Spelling and Punctuation" was published with a brief spelling dictionary attached. In the draft "Rules" for the first time an exhaustive presentation of the basic rules of Russian spelling was given, the experience of written language practice of schools, higher educational institutions, publishing houses. However, the draft "Rules" needed some refinement and clarification. Great Patriotic War interrupted this work for a long time. Only in 1947 was the government spelling commission able to publish new project"Unified set of rules of Russian spelling and punctuation". The 1950 discussion on linguistics also touched upon the 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 journal "Russian Language at School" and "Teacher's Newspaper" a broad discussion was held on the issues of Russian spelling in connection with the project "Unified Code of Rules". The discussion was attended by teachers of schools and universities, scientists, editorial staff. In the course of the discussion, various opinions were expressed regarding the draft "Unified Code of Rules", on general and particular issues of Russian spelling. A number of proposals were reflected in the approved by the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the Ministry higher education USSR and the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR "Rules of Russian Spelling and Punctuation" (1956). So, it was accepted to write s after prefixes on a consonant (improvise), writing in the form of a prepositional case of monosyllabic nouns on -y (about cue), writing complex adjectives with a hyphen, denoting shades of colors (pale pink), continuous spelling not with nouns, expressing new concepts (non-Marxist, non-specialist), etc.

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

"Rules" played an important role in the unification of spelling. However, they did not resolve many the toughest questions Russian spelling: the spelling of complex words, adverbs, particles not, etc., is still waiting for simplification. An extensive discussion in the press of this draft has shown that many of its provisions are objectionable. The orthographic commission continues its work.

Spelling issues constantly attract the attention of linguists. scientific justification Russian orthography has been the subject of many studies: Ivanova V.F. Difficult cases the use and spelling of 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. Z., Kalakutskaya L. P. Difficult words. M., 1974; Unresolved issues of Russian spelling. M., 1974; Ivanova VF Difficult questions of spelling. M., 1975; her okay. Modern Russian language. Graphics and spelling. M., 19fj6; her own. Principles of Russian spelling. L., 1977; Kuzmina S. M. Theory of Russian orthography: orthography in its relation to phonetics and phonology. M, 1981.