Vowel reduction in Russian

Vowel reduction in Russian differs in the standard language and dialects, which differ from one another. Several ways of vowel reduction (and its absence) are distinguished.

There are five vowel phonemes in Standard Russian. Vowels tend to merge when they are unstressed. The vowels /a/ and /o/ have the same unstressed allophones for a number of dialects and reduce to an unclear schwa. Unstressed /e/ may become more central if it does not merge with /i/.

Other types of reduction are phonetic, such as that of high vowels (/i/ and /u/), which become near-close so игра́ть ('to play') is pronounced [ɪˈɡratʲ], and мужчи́на ('man') is pronounced [mʊˈɕːinə].

Russian orthography does not reflect vowel reduction, which can confuse foreign-language learners.

Other than in Northern Russian dialects as well as those of Kostroma and Vologda, Russian speakers have a strong tendency to merge unstressed /a/ and /o/, called akanye (аканье). It contrasts with okanye (оканье) pronunciations. It works in Standard Russian as follows:

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