Dear RLM,
What's the purpose of a "soft sign" (ь) in words like мышь mouse, ложь lie, falsehood, ночь night, and вещь thing? How can a "hard consonant" be made "soft?" How can a "soft consonant" be made "softer?"

Gentle Linguist,

You're correct - "hard" consonants can't be softened, and "soft" consonants can't be made "softer."

When the "soft sign" (ь) occurs after the unpaired "hard" consonants ж and ш or the unpaired "soft" consonants ч and щ, it is not a phonetic marker but a grammatic marker which indicates that the noun in question is feminine in gender and belongs to the fem. II paradigm.

Other examples include: молодежь youth (collective), рожь rye, дрожь shivers, tremor, печь oven, stove, речь language, speech, глушь backwoods, роскошь luxury, and помощь help, aid. All feminine!

Peace,

The RLM