Help with Russian pronunciation?
Sunday, July 18th, 2010 at
10:47 am
How would I pronounce the following letters when they appear in a word?
1. Ы
2. Ь
3. Ъ
(Give examples using Russian alphabet and English pronunciation i.e. девочка (Deevochka))
Thankyou so much!
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Tagged with: english pronunciation • russian alphabet
Filed under: Russian - Written and Spoken
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It is not easy to explain it in here. I will try to do my best
Ы is a letter that can be kind of pronounced as the vowel ‘E’ in the English word ME. HOwever, when you pronounce this letter you should take your tongue closer to your palate. It is not an easy vowel.
THe action of putting your tongue close to the palate is called to palatalize. It is important to understand this before you move on.
2. Ь When you see this character after a consonant, you have to palatalize that consonant. FOr example, пить. In this word you have to palatalize the consonant T.
3. Ъ This character is exactly the opposite to Ь. If you see Ъ after a consonant you do not palatalize that consonant.
I hope some of your doubts are clarified. As you can see, Ь and Ъ do not have a pronunciation, they are only to modify the pronunciation of the other letters.
1. "i" in "hit" is the closest equivalent in English, but with more pursed lips. Move your mouth to say "ee" but actually try to say "i" (as in "hit")
2 & 3 do not have their own sounds. They simply modify the sound (sometimes) of the letter before it.
Ъ (the "hard" mark) "hardens" the previous letter, technically speaking, but has no sound effect.
Ь (the "soft" mark) softens the previous letter. It can make the previous consonant have a more "y" sound to it at the end.