ARRIGHTY. xD
Аа = Like the "A" in "car."
Бб = Equivalent to the English letter B.
Вв = Similar to the English letter V, but your teeth remain on the inside of your lip.
Гг = Equivalent to the English letter G.
Дд = Equivalent to the English letter D.
Ее = Sounds like the "ye" in "yet."
Ёё = Sounds like the "yo" in "yonder."
Жж = Sounds like the "S" in "pleasure" or the "Z" in "azure."
Зз = Sounds like the "Z" in "zebra."
Ии = Sounds like the "I" in "machine."
Йй = Equivalent to the English consonant "Y" -- "boy," "guy." Never like the vowel "Y" in "definitely" or "myth."
Кк = Equivalent to the English letter K.
Лл = Pretty much equivalent to the English letter L.
Мм = Equivalent to the English letter M.
Нн = Equivalent to the English letter N.
Оо = It sounds fairly similar to the "aw" in the British pronunciation of "awful."
Пп = Equivalent to the English letter P.
Рр = A rolled R, heavier than the Spanish R.
Сс = Equivalent to the English letter S.
Тт = Equivalent to the English letter T.
Уу = The vowel sound you find in "foot" or "put", not as in "boot."
Фф = Sounds like the English F, except the same pronunciation rule as B applies.
Хх = A heavily aspirated H, sounds like the "ch" in the Scottish "loch."
Цц = Sounds like the "ts" in "cats".
Чч = Sounds like the "ch" in "church."
Шш = Sounds like the "sh" in "ship," for the most part.
Щщ = Similar to Ш, but a bit harder. Sounds as if it is followed by a "й" consonant sound.
Ъъ = Called the твёрдий знак, meaning "hard sign." It means that the preceding consonant is not palatised, which we will get into later.
Ыы = Sounds like the "Y" in "myth," except it's farther back in the throat. This sound really does not have an equivalent in English.
Ьь = Called the мягкий знак, meaning "soft sign." It means that the preceding consonant IS palatised, which we will still get into later.
Ээ = A similar sound to the "e" in "pet."
Юю = Sounds roughly like the English pronoun "you," except that the "u" is more like "foot" and less like "fool."
Яя = Sounds like the "ya" in "yard".
In declensions where the ending is "гo," and the word "сегодня", it is pronounced as a в -- русского sounds like руссково, and so on.
Е, Ё, И, Ю, and Я are considered the soft vowels. Before these vowels, the consonants are palatalised.
А, О, У, Ы, and Э are considered the hard vowels. Before these vowels the consonants are NOT palatalised. To change either of these, one adds either the твёрдий знак or the мягкий знак. The твёрдий знак is swiftly growing obselete, though.
The letters Д and Т change the most when palatalised. I'll try to explain:
Try pronouncing the word "cats," but cut off right before you get into the S. Make sure to pronounce the T sound as if it's still plural! You'll get a bit of an S sound anyways, and your tongue will be touching the roof of your mouth halfway in between a K and a T. Got it? Good.
This sound is replicated in English when one says, for instance, "did you eat yet?"
Both the second D and the first T are palatalised.
When palatalised, the letter Р is not rolled. The letter Л is also brought back on the tongue, just like Д and Т.
The letter Н sounds like the first N in "onion."
З and С end up being pronounced a
little bit more like Ж and Ш.
П and Б take the same mouth position as the first sound in the English word "pure." Ф and В take the same mouth posision as the first consonant in the English word "few."
The letters Ж, Ш and Ц are completely hard consonants and are never palatalised. You will find many cases in which Ж and Ш are followed by the мягкий знак, but this does not affect pronunciation at all.
As you will see, the letters Я, Ю and Ё can never follow these consonants. When Е and И follow them, they must be pronounced like Э and Ы respectively. The letter Ы can never be written after these consonants, but it can be pronounced.
The letter О, when unstressed, never follows Ж, Ц, Ч, Ш or Щ. The letter Е is used instead.
The letters Й, Ч and Щ are always soft. After them, the letters Я and Ю can never be written, but А and У are always pronounced like them.
The letters Г, К and Х are only ever soft before Е and И.
The letters П, Б, Д, Т, В, Ф, З, С, Л, М, Н and Р are all hard, but can be palatalised (as explained above).
Voiced and unvoiced consonants:
The letters Б, В, Д, Г, Ж and З are considered voiced, while the letters П, Ф, Т, К, Х, Ш, Ч, Щ, С and Ц are unvoiced. See a pattern?
At the end of a word and before an unvoiced consonant, the voiced consonants become their unvoiced equivalents. Thus, "хлеб" is pronounced as "хлеп," and "ложка" as "лошка." Before a voiced consonant (except for В), an unvoiced consonant becomes its voiced equivalent if it has one.
Here are the equivalents:
Б <-> П
В <-> Ф
Д <-> Т
Ш <->Ж
З <->С
Г <-> К or Х
The other unvoiced consonants, not having voiced equivalents in the Russian language, are just left unvoiced.
Syllable stress:
The vowels can either be stressed or unstressed. Russian words have just
one syllable stress the vast, vast majority of the time. The letter Ё is always stressed, which leads to the only possible exceptions to this rule.
The syllable stress is vital to the meaning, as you will soon find out if you manage to botch it.
wink The letter А, when stressed, is pronounced as I told you above. It is pronounced rather forcefully. When it is the vowel of the syllable preceding the stressed syllable, it is pronounced as the U in words such as "bud" or "cut." When it is anywhere else in the word, it is pronounced like the final vowels in the word "destinat
ion."
The same rule for А applies for О.
Unstressed Е and Я are often pronounced similarly to И; for instance, the word "язык" sounds like "изык." At the end of words, they maintain a similar pronunciation to their stressed forms, but it is less forceful.
У, Ы, Э and Ю are pronounced the same as they would be if they were stressed, but it's less forceful.
Note that the pronunciation rules that I talked about before still apply to syllable stress; when Е after certain consonants is not stressed, it is still pronounced as Э and not as И.
When giving you vocabulary, I will make sure to turn the stressed vowel
red, to make it more clear.
Russian is not a perfectly phonetic language. The greeting "здравствуйте," for instance, is pronounced more like "здраствиче." The word "пожалуйста" is pronounced more like "пожальста." You'll get used to this eventually.
xd NOW, we've covered the basics of pronunciation. Here are some words to practice on:
В
одка -- vodka
Журн
ал -- journal, magazine
Иди
от -- idiot
Елем
ент -- element
Опера -- opera
Др
ама -- drama
Also, take a shot at Kokoroki's list. xD
Reply
