Functions of Russian spelling. Principles of modern Russian spelling

Modern Russian spelling is based on certain principles. To understand the principle of spelling means to see its system and perceive each of its individual rules as part of the system, to understand the spelling rule and each spelling in the relationships of grammar, etymology, and the history of the language. In the theory of Russian spelling, morphological, phonetic, traditional principles, as well as differentiating spellings are indicated.

Morphological the principle of orthography implies a uniform, identical spelling of morphemes - root, prefix, suffix, ending, regardless of phonetic changes in the sounding word that occur during the formation of related words or word forms, that is, regardless of positional alternations, other traditional inconsistencies of writing and pronunciation. These inconsistencies include: all cases of unstressed vowels in different morphemes - root, prefix, suffix, ending, stunning of voiced consonants and voicing of voiceless before paired voiceless and voiced consonants, stunning at the absolute end of a word; orthoepic, traditional pronunciation of many words and combinations.

Checking spelling, written on a morphological basis, includes: firstly: meaning understanding a word or phrase to be checked, without which it is impossible to select a related check word, determine the case form, proper name, etc.; Secondly: analysis morphological word composition, the ability to determine the place of the spelling, which is important for the selection and application of the rule; third: phonetic analysis, definitions syllabic composition, stressed and unstressed syllables, highlighting vowels and consonants, understanding the weak and strong positions of phonemes, positional alternations and their causes; fourth, grammar analysis words (phrases) - definition of a part of speech, word form, for example: a noun, first declension, is in dp, singular, etc.

The leading position of the morphological principle of Russian spelling also determines the methodology for teaching spelling: the latter is based on a conscious, analytical approach to the language, on understanding the meanings of words and their combinations, text, grammatical categories and forms, the phonemic composition of the word.

The morphological principle corresponds to the following spelling themes studied in primary grades: spelling of unstressed vowels, voiced and voiceless consonants, unpronounceable consonants, except unverifiable words, which are written according to a different principle; spelling of unstressed vowels, voiced and voiceless consonants in prefixes and suffixes, at the junctions of morphemes (except for some cases, for example, prefixes on “-z”, which are written according to a different principle, this case is not studied in primary grades); spelling of unstressed vowels in the endings of word forms: in the case endings of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd declensions of nouns, in the case endings of adjectives, in the personal endings of verbs of the 1st and 2nd conjugations of the present and future tense; transfer of words from line to line, since during transfer not only syllabic, but also morphemic division of words is observed; to a certain extent, the morphological principle also operates in fused-separate spellings of words, in particular, in distinguishing prefixes and prepositions, as well as in the use of "b" after prefixes, since the application of the relevant rules requires a morphemic analysis of words and the definition of their morphological features.

Even such orthographic topics as the designation of the softness of consonants in writing, the use of a capital letter in names, double consonants also rely on the morphological knowledge and skills of children.

So, the morphological principle is the basic principle of Russian orthography. As mentioned above, its essence lies in the fact that all significant parts of the word (roots, prefixes, suffixes, inflections) repeated in different words and forms, are always written in the same way, regardless of how they are pronounced in one position or another (see Appendix 1) .

The unity of the spelling appearance of morphemes is achieved by the fact that the letter indicates not the pronunciation in one case or another, but the phonemic composition of the morpheme, formed by strong phonemes. Therefore, the basic principle of Russian spelling can also be called phonetic, meaning by this the principle of transmitting the phonemic composition of a morpheme in writing.

Deviations from the basic principle of Russian spelling are phonetic and traditional-historical principles.

Consider further phonetic principle. It is assumed that originally originated in different peoples sound-letter writing has always been phonetic: each sound of speech was recorded the way it sounds, the way the writer hears it. And in modern Russian writing there are many such spellings where there are no discrepancies between sound and writing: “moon”; "chair", "we", "cancer" and many others. In most words, along with checked or unchecked spellings, other sounds are denoted by letters, in essence, according to the phonetic principle. So, in the word "car" the sound [a] is unstressed, it is considered unverifiable, the letter -a- is written according to tradition, but the rest of the letters given word written according to sound. In essence, all these spellings should not be called phonetic, but phonetic-graphic.

Phonetic-graphic spellings do not cause writing difficulties, so usually they are simply not noticed; but in primary school their role is very great. Phonetic-graphic spellings do not contradict the morphological principle of Russian spelling, since they do not lead to unequal spelling of morphemes. But their danger is that they still create in students the illusion of well-being, the illusion that the letter corresponds to the sound, which in reality is far from always the case.

Cases like "table", "hand", "lamp" (phonetic spellings) reflect the phonemic composition of these words and do not oppose the morphological principle of orthography. So, the phonetic principle of Russian spelling is that sounds are written in words as they are heard, i.e. writing conveys the sound of the word. Appendix B discusses spellings based on the phonetic principle.

In the system of spelling rules, there are also those that are based on the phonetic principle and are in sharp contradiction with the leading, morphological principle. The contradiction lies in the fact that morphemes (in this case, the prefixes na- -з) are not written uniformly, but depending on the pronunciation, reflecting the positional alternation. Prefixes from-, is-, times-, race-, vz-, sun-, through-, through- and others do not obey the morphological principle. According to the rule, these prefixes are written with the letter Z before vowels or voiced consonants, and in other cases - with the letter C: "nameless, but" endless ". It is easy to see that the spelling З- (С- in this example corresponds to the pronunciation, that is, it is subject to the phonetic principle.

The rules based on the phonetic principle and contradicting the morphological one cause difficulties for students, destroy their ideas about the spelling system that have just begun to form, contradict general principle checking vowels and consonants in weak positions.

Since the rules based on the phonetic principle contradict the understanding of the Russian spelling system that is being formed in children and, in general, are difficult to learn, then in the course elementary school they are not studied. But the words containing such orthograms, younger students meet in written speech and write them, assimilating them on a practical basis by memorizing.

It can be emphasized that cases similar to the spelling of prefixes on -з- are not numerous: other principles of orthography, in general, do not contradict, but, on the contrary, support the morphological principle of Prussian orthography. This is the third principle traditional(historical). According to this principle, many words are written according to tradition, without checking the rules.

Words that are not checked by the rules are very numerous: in a text characteristic of written speech junior schoolchildren, their number reaches 20% (many of these words later, in high school, will become verifiable for students). For the most part, these are words borrowed from other languages. Many of them entered the Russian language relatively recently: “bath” - German, “suitcase” - Persian, others in ancient times: “watermelon”, “balyk”, “sheepskin coat” - Turkic. and etc.

Many of the spellings considered traditional can in fact be checked against the source language: "cardboard" from Latin; "suit" - from French, etc.

Sometimes a spelling that is considered traditional can be verified on the basis of knowledge of the history of the etymology of words and historical changes in the phonetics of the Russian language: “rooster” - from the old Russian “peti”, “peas” - contains a full vowel -oro-, in which there is no -a- . Appendix B describes spellings based on the traditional-historical principle.

So, traditional-historical spellings are spellings that do not depend on either morphemes or pronunciations, but the writing is preserved according to tradition.

As part of traditional principle, which on the whole does not contradict the general rules of Russian writing and the leading principle of Russian spelling - morphological, there are several cases that contradict the general system.

The traditional spelling of the combinations ZhI, SHI, with the letter “i”, CHA, SCHA, with the letter “a”, CHU, SCHU with the letter “y” contradicts general rule Russian orthography, according to which after hard consonants one should write not “i”, but “s”, after soft ones - not “u”, “a”, but “u”, “i”.

In the primary grades, the spelling of these combinations is memorized without any explanation, and, of course, cannot but damage the formation of the concept of the spelling system in the minds of students.

The morphological principle contradicts the traditional spelling of individual words: “kalach” (according to the morphological principle, one should write “kolach”).

If morphological spellings are checked and assimilated on the basis of phonetic, word-formation and grammatical analysis of words and their combinations, then traditional spellings are mainly based on memorization, in the order of the so-called vocabulary and spelling work. Memorization in elementary grades plays important role, they cannot be neglected, on the contrary, it is necessary to develop a deep system of motivations, game methods that make it easier for children to memorize words with difficult spellings.

With the development of phonology, with the introduction of the concept of phoneme into scientific use, a new, phonemic principle was proposed, which some linguists define as the basic principle of Russian orthography. But, as mentioned above, the leading role in spell checking belongs to the morphological approach: you need to know whether the spelling is in the root, suffix, prefix or ending. And without a morphological approach, the phonemic method of verification is blind and applicable only in the simplest, most obvious cases such as “water” - “waters” or “meadow” - “meadows”.

It is impossible to check the spelling of the words [r shot], [long], [shit] and many other spellings, if you do not resort to morphological analysis. The morphological principle explains all these cases; in other words, the morphological principle is wider than the phonemic one, it covers much large quantity spelling than phonetic. Majority authors teaching aids for universities, morphological and phonemic principles are considered in close connection, but, however, not equal, since the phonetic principle is part of the morphological one.

Both pedagogical science and school practice in last years significantly advanced in the issue of determining rational ways of forming schoolchildren's learning skills. The data of studies conducted by psychologists and methodologists confirm that only a system of exercises provides students with the skills of literate writing.

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 separate 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 of grammar reference books, where almost every rule is accompanied by a long list of notes and exceptions, bashfully compressed in small lines of petita. 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 orthographic 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?".

Morphological principle .

Spelling principles are the guiding ideas for the choice of letters by a native speaker where the sound can be designated variably. The nature and system of Russian spelling is revealed using its principles: morphological, phonemic, traditional-historical, phonetic and the principle of differentiation of meanings.

The morphological principle requires that the spelling check be oriented to the morphemic composition of the word, it assumes uniformity, the same spelling of morphemes: root, prefix, suffix, ending, regardless of positional alternations (phonetic changes) in the sounding word that occur during the formation of related words or word forms. These inconsistencies in writing and pronunciation include: unstressed vowels in different morphemes - in the root, prefix, suffix, ending; stunning voiced and voicing deaf consonants in weak positions; unpronounceable consonants; orthoepic, traditional pronunciation of many words and combinations: [siniev] - blue, [kan`eshn] - of course and many others. etc. Spelling, based on the morphological principle, outwardly diverges from pronunciation, but not sharply and only in certain parts of speech. At the same time, the discrepancy between spelling and pronunciation is carried out with morphological writing on the basis of strictly defined relationships with pronunciation. Morphological writing is a consequence of the understanding by the seeker of the structural division of the word into its significant parts (morphemes) and results in the most uniform transmission of these parts in writing. The way of writing with a uniform graphic transmission of significant parts of words makes it easier to “grasp” the meaning when reading. The preservation of the graphic unity of the same morphemes in writing, where possible, is feature Russian spelling. The uniformity of the spellings of significant parts of words is achieved by the fact that positional alternations of vowels and consonants are not reflected in Russian writing.

Checking spelling, written according to the morphological principle, includes:

a) understanding the meaning of the word or combination of words being checked, without which it is impossible to select a related test word, determine the grammatical form of the word, etc.;

b) analysis of the morphemic composition of the word, the ability to determine the place of the spelling - in the root, in the prefix, in the suffix, in the ending, which is necessary for choosing and applying the rule;

c) phonetic analysis, determination of stressed and unstressed syllables, selection of vowels and consonants, understanding of strong and weak phonemes, positional alternations and their causes. Next - the solution of the spelling problem according to the algorithm.

It should be noted that the assimilation of spellings corresponding to the morphological principle cannot be effective without strong speech skills of students: the choice of words, the formation of their forms, the construction of phrases, sentences.

Since ancient times, the morphological principle in spelling has been considered the main, leading one, because it ensures the leading role of semantics in language teaching. But in recent decades, a new, phonemic principle claims to be the leading principle.

phonemic principle.

In modern phonology, it is generally accepted that if two or more sounds alternate positionally, then in the language system they are an identity. This is a phoneme - a linguistic unit, represented by a number of positionally alternating sounds. So, the phoneme [o] can be represented by the following sounds, regularly reproduced in the speech of native speakers of the Russian language: strong position - under stress [house]; weak position - unstressed [lady]; weak position - reduced [málako], [cloud].

The phonemic principle of spelling says: the same letter denotes a phoneme (not a sound!) In strong and weak positions. Russian graphics are phonemic: the letter denotes in its strong version and in a weak position also in the same morpheme, of course. The phoneme is a semantic distinction. The letter, fixing the phoneme, provides a unified understanding of the meaning of the morpheme (for example, the root) regardless of the variants of its sound.

The phonemic principle explains basically the same orthograms as the morphological principle, but from a different point of view, and this allows a deeper understanding of the nature of orthography. He more specifically explains why, when checking an unstressed vowel, one should focus on the stressed variant, on the strong position of the morpheme.

The phonemic principle allows you to combine many disparate rules: checking unstressed vowels, voiced and voiceless consonants, unpronounceable consonants; contributes to the understanding of consistency in spelling; introduces teachers and students to a new linguistic doctrine - phonology.

Morphological and phonemic principles do not contradict each other, but deepen each other. Checking vowels and consonants in a weak position through a strong one - from phonemic; reliance on the morphemic composition of the word, on parts of speech and their forms - from the morphological (morphematic) principle.

Some modern programs and textbooks of the Russian language (for example, the school of V.V. Repkin) provide elementary information on phonology, and in those schools where the textbook by V.V. Repkin is used, the interaction of the two considered principles and practical methods is already being implemented.

There is also a phonetic principle, that is, one in which successive chains of sounds in words are indicated on the basis of a direct connection “sound - letter”, without taking into account any other criteria. Briefly, this principle is defined by the motto "write as you hear." But a very important question is what sounds should be designated with the phonetic principle, with what detail. In practical writing, which is any letter-sound writing, and with the phonetic principle of spelling, only phonemes can and should be designated.

The phonetic principle of spelling with the advent of the concept and the term "phoneme" could be called the phonemic principle of spelling, but since the latter term is used in a different sense in modern linguistic literature, it is more convenient to leave the former name for it.

The phonetic principle as a certain orthographic beginning is proclaimed when positional alternations of phonemes (if any) are specifically reflected in the letter. The phonetic principle is such a principle of designating phonemes when the phonemes of weak positions, with which the phonemes of strong positions alternate, are indicated by letters adequate to the phonemes weak positions on the basis of a direct connection “a phoneme is an adequate letter to it.

In addition, there are many words in Russian that are impossible (or difficult) to check with the rules, and they are written in the usual way, as usual, i.e. traditionally.

Traditional principle - this is such a principle in which phonemes that are in weak positions are indicated by one of a number of letters that are phonologically possible to designate a given phoneme. Phonologically, letters are possible that are adequate to the phonemes that head the phonemic series of the morphological system of the language, which could include one or another phoneme of a weak position to be designated. The traditional principle is, as it were, a morphological principle intended for implementation, but not having the opportunity to pass into it. Since phonemic oppositions in word forms are not violated when designating phonemes of weak positions on the basis of the traditional principle, this principle could be called phonemic-traditional.

In this principle, the final choice of a letter is based on tradition (based on etymology, transliteration, transcription, or simply convention). But the set of letters to choose from is also limited and quite specific. Only phonemic sequences that can be called potential are presented here.

Unverifiable words are acquired on the basis of memorizing the literal composition, the whole "image" of the word, comparison and opposition, i.e. visually, by pronunciation, based on kinesthesia, speech-motor memory, through use in speech in writing and orally, etc.

So, knowledge of the basic principles of Russian spelling allows us to generalize the studied rules, to find a single pattern in them. Spelling is necessary to ensure full-fledged communication, and it is natural that each of its principles is communicatively expedient.

differentiating principle is used where two words or two forms that have the same phonemic structure are conditionally distinguished using spelling (burn - burn, ink - ink). Consolidated, separate and hyphenated spellings using three graphic characters (continuous spelling, space and hyphen) include different grammatical categories of words: compound nouns, adjectives, pronouns, numerals, adverbs, as well as spelling particles with different parts of speech. The principles on which the spelling rules of this section are built are called: - lexical-syntactic - to distinguish between a word and a phrase (long-playing record - a child playing in the yard for a long time; finally, I did all the work - we are planning a trip for the end of summer);

Word-building and grammatical - for writing complex adjectives and nouns: automobile-road and road, gas-oil and gas-oil; forest park and diesel engine.

The separate spelling of words is based on the principle: to write all the words of the Russian language, independent and official, separately, for example: “A month looks from the middle of the sky.” In the course of the life of a language, prepositions and particles sometimes merge with the words they refer to, forming new words, for example: on the right, for the first time, not bad. In this case, there are transitional cases, for example: on the go, for memory. A capital letter is used to highlight the beginning of a sentence and to highlight proper names, for example: “Our great poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin lived at that time in the Pskov province.”

Transfer rules are based on the division of words into syllables, taking into account the composition of words: smell, swim.

Spelling, reflecting a complex and lively language process, is constantly being improved on the basis of spelling practice and theoretical linguistic research.

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 deaf consonant of the root in oral speech is 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.

Differentiating spellings occupy a special place in the Russian spelling system. These are different spellings of 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

AT 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 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 cases of spelling.

In addition, Grot compiled a Russian spelling guide for schools (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 spelling. 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. In the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of 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: 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 the 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 proposed).

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 to a consonant (improvise), writing in the form prepositional monosyllabic nouns in -y (o cue), hyphenated complex adjectives 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" were of great importance for improving 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" was drawn up " orthographic dictionary Russian language” (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. A lot of research has been devoted to the scientific justification of Russian spelling: Ivanova VF 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 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.

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 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 designations can be based on different 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 a), 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 offera 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. (other), 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 a) 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 to give as aboutt catch, on thed build as 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 nouns, which are usually checked by the accented 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 with 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 a in shockless prefix 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. AT 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 verbs of the 2nd person singular in the form of the indicative mood ( go, look, read) and in imperative mood forms ( 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 a or about helps to understand the meaning of the words used toa 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 for feminine words: daughter, oven, rye, power; absence b for masculine words: 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 form of the instrumental case of the singular number of nouns on - 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.).

Despite the fact that the general rules for separate spelling are quite simple (word combinations 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 : respected 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.).