The Pronunciation of Consonants Before the Letter e in the Words of Foreign Origin

The continuous process of borrowing, proceeding with varying intensity and activating innovations from a particular language in certain epochs, requires constant attention to the orthoepy of this category of words by both non-specialists and phonetic scientists, including lexicographers. For this topic, the question of the pronunciation of the consonant before the letter e has always been and remains one of the most relevant, because, unlike native Russian words, where it indicates the softness of the preceding consonant, foreign-language borrowings in this regard are not the same: for some words, a soft consonant (term) will be correct, for others – a hard one (fake), for the third – the literary norm permits the use of both soft and hard consonants (aggression). How not to make a mistake in choosing the “right” consonant? The answer to this question is not at all simple, because: 1) the pronunciation of consonants before e (with the exception of the position of the end of unchangeable words) cannot be described using rules; 2) the general process of phonetic development of words like progress is contradictory and therefore does not exclude the updating of recommended norms; 3) a large number of lexicographic sources does not guarantee that the word of interest to the speaker will be fixed by them and provided with orthoepic instructions; 4) there is no consensus on the norm for a number of even common and at the same time long-standing borrowings; 5) when evaluating the option as correct, not only average native speakers, but also teachers do not always understand the nature of the differences between the two phenomena – the literary norm and the norm for working in the media. To learn the pronunciation of foreign words, the efforts of native speakers themselves are necessary (without studying scientific recommendations and observing the pronunciation of the word professionals can not do), and orthoepists (a resource similar to an academic Spelling project is needed).

russian orthoepy, borrowed words, reading rules, literary norm, normativity scale, system of normative litters, pronunciation variants, academic orthoepic dictionaries, dictionaries for media workers