Editing Russian language (section)

=== Consonants ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|- style="font-size: 90%;"
|+ Consonant phonemes
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | 
! colspan="2" | [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan="2" | [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]<br/>/[[Dental consonant|Dental]]
! colspan="2" | [[Postalveolar consonant|Post-<br/>alveolar]]
! rowspan="2" | [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! colspan="2" | [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
|-
! plain
! [[Palatalization (phonetics)|pal.]]
! plain
! [[Palatalization (phonetics)|pal.]]
! plain
! [[Palatalization (phonetics)|pal.]]
! plain
! [[Palatalization (phonetics)|pal.]]
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}}
| {{IPA link|mʲ}}
| {{IPA link|n}}
| {{IPA link|nʲ}}
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[Stop consonant|Stop]]
! voiceless
| {{IPA link|p}}
| {{IPA link|pʲ}}
| {{IPA link|t}}
| {{IPA link|tʲ}}
|
|
|
| {{IPA link|k}}
| {{IPA link|kʲ}}
|-
! voiced
| {{IPA link|b}}
| {{IPA link|bʲ}}
| {{IPA link|d}}
| {{IPA link|dʲ}}
|
|
|
| {{IPA link|ɡ}}
| {{IPA link|ɡʲ}}
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Affricate]]
|
|
| {{IPA link|t͡s}}
| ({{IPA link|t͡sʲ}})
|
| {{IPA link|t͡ɕ}}
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[Fricative]]
! voiceless
| {{IPA link|f}}
| {{IPA link|fʲ}}
| {{IPA link|s}}
| {{IPA link|sʲ}}
| {{IPA link|ʂ}}
| {{IPA link|ɕ}}ː
|
| {{IPA link|x}}
| {{IPA link|xʲ}}
|-
! voiced
| {{IPA link|v}}
| {{IPA link|vʲ}}
| {{IPA link|z}}
| {{IPA link|zʲ}}
| {{IPA link|ʐ}}
| ({{IPA link|ʑ}}ː)
|
| ({{IPA link|ɣ}})
| ({{IPA link|ɣʲ}})
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Approximant]]
|
|
| {{IPA link|ɫ}}
| {{IPA link|lʲ}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|j}}
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Trill consonant|Trill]]
|
|
| {{IPA link|r}}
| {{IPA link|rʲ}}
|
|
|
|
|
|}

Russian is notable for its distinction based on [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalization]] of most of its consonants. The phoneme /{{IPA|ts}}/ is generally considered to be always hard; however, loan words such as [[Zürich|Цюрих]] and some other neologisms contain /{{IPA|tsʲ}}/ through the word-building processes (e.g., фрицёнок ["фриц" plus diminutive "ёнок"], шпицята ["шпиц" plus diminutive "ята"]). Palatalization means that the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant. In the case of {{IPA|/tʲ/}} and {{IPA|/dʲ/}}, the tongue is raised enough to produce slight frication (affricate sounds; cf. Belarusian ць, дзь, or Polish ć, dź). The sounds {{IPA|/t, d, ts, s, z, n, rʲ/}} are [[dental consonant|dental]], that is, pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the teeth rather than against the [[alveolar ridge]]. According to some linguists, the "plain" consonants are velarized as in [[Irish language|Irish]], something which is most noticeable when it involves a labial before a hard vowel, such as мы, {{IPA|/mˠɨː/}}, "we" , or бэ, {{IPA|/bˠɛ/}}, "the letter Б".