What distinguishes the "hushers" (ч, ш, щ, ж) linguistically from other consonants?

Question

I've seen the word "hushers" used to describe the Russian consonants ч, ш, щ, ж (especially in the context of spelling rules). Is this an accepted linguistic concept or is it just a convenient name coined to help language learners?

I understand that they make a "hushing" sound, but what actually distinguishes these consonants linguistically (phonetically/phonologically)? It seems that the letters ш/ж are retroflex consonants and ч/щ are alveolo-palatal. Are these the only distinguishing feature that makes them "hushers"?

If I want to be more precise linguistically, could I just refer to them as "retroflex and alveolo-palatal consonants"? Or is there some other feature I am missing?

Answer 1

As for me, I've never encountered the word "hushers" before, but since you are writing about ч, ш, щ, ж, I guess you mean what is called шипящие звуки in Russian. Шипящие звуки can be translated as "hissing sounds" into English, but there is a conceptual difference between the ideas behind the English hissing and Russian шипящий: in English snakes hissssssss, in Russian snakes шшшшшшшипят, that is they say not "s-s-s-s", but "sh-sh-sh-sh", hence the sounds that are sh-like are called шипящие звуки in Russian. So, the term hushers sounds rather apt, since "sh-sh-sh-sh" is exactly the way you hush someone. To sum it up,

Hushers are sh-like sounds.

Why these four sounds are groupped together and considered sh-like is rather logical:

ж is a voiced counterpart of ш,

щ is a long palatalised ш,

ч is an affricate that includes a palatalised version of ш as its second component.

Answer 2

The Linguistic term of these sounds is sibilant consonants.

Apart from their differences, what they have in common is that they all have a more or less hissing sound.

Answer 3

I think you need to take a look at the following table. As you can see there are other consonants in the system. From the 4 consonants that you mention 3 belong to the same group but still differ in some way.

As to your question about "retroflex and alveolo-palatal consonants", I found this in Wikipedia's Retroflex consonant article:

Retroflex sounds need to be distinguished from other consonants made in the same parts of the mouth (postalveolar, alveolar, or palatal).

Does that mean that a consonant cannot be retroflex and alveolo-palatal at the same time and your question is erroneous per se? I am not sure, I am not a phonologist, but I hope my answer helps you to work in the right direction.

Russian phonetics (in Russian)

Answer 4

I disagree with Ш in the following statement by Serge Seredenko: "Ж is always 'hard', Ч, Ш, Щ are anyway 'soft'. I have been taught from a native St. Petersburg Russian literature professor that Ш is always hard. And Щ is always soft. That is the difference between Ш and Щ. These two letters are respectively hard and soft -- just as Serge writes, "ж is always hard". As in жизнь, they are exceptional consonants, whose hardness/softness is not controlled by the vowel that follows them.

Answer 5

Yeah, quite easy. They cannot be both 'soft' and 'hard' depending on the vowel next to it. Example, take letter К. It can be Ка or Кя — different sound. Your hushers may be only one: Ж is always 'hard', Ч, Ш, Щ are anyway 'soft'.