Variations of pronunciation within orthoepic norms.

the aggregate of norms in a national language that ensure the unity of the language’s phonetic shape. Likeorthography, uniformity in the phonetic shape of the spoken language contributes to rapid and easy languagecommunication. The concept of orthoepy includes pronunciation and the norms of suprasegmental phonetics(stress, tone and so forth). Pronunciation includes the phonetic system of a language—that is, the stock ofphonemes and the quality and realization of these phonemes under given conditions—and the phonetic shapeof individual words and grammatical forms. In Russian, for example, pl[a]tish ’ (“you [familiar] pay”) and [ sh]to (“what”) are correct, but pl[o]tish ’ and [ ch]to are not. The orthoepic significance of suprasegmental norms variesin different languages. In Russian, for example, stress that is linked to the creation of various grammaticalforms is of great importance. According to some scholars, orthoepy includes the creation of variantgrammatical forms, such as the Russian traktorá or tráktory (“tractors”).

Historically, the norms of orthoepy are established as a national language is being formed, when differentforms of speech are developing among people and the relative importance of the spoken language in the life ofa society is increasing. The strictness and uniformity of these orthoepic norms vary greatly from language tolanguage and from period to period, as does the sociolinguistic significance. Orthoepic rules have their ownlong history and are usually late in becoming established as norms of the national language.

The basic outlines of Russian orthoepic norms, the norms of the Moscow dialect, were formed as early as thefirst half of the 17th century. Only as the national language developed and was consolidated, however, did theMoscow norms become the national norms. These latter acquired their final form in the second half of the 19thcentury, although certain vacillations persisted. The orthoepic norms that existed before the OctoberRevolution of 1917 have been basically preserved. Some individual rules, however, have changed.Assimilation of soft consonants has become less regular, and, for example, [d]ve (“two [feminine]”) and [ z]ver’ (“beast”) can be heard along with [ d’]ve and [z’]ver’. Pronunciation has in certain instances become closer tospelling.

The theater, which cultivates orthoepic norms in their purest form, was of great importance in the developmentof orthoepy. Orthoepic norms in many languages are based on stage pronunciation. The importance of orthoepyhas increased with the growth of sound motion pictures, radio, and television.

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