Hard to pronounce Russian words

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

A long time ago, I came across a list of Russian words that are exceptionally hard to pronounce due to the combination of sounds. I think that some of them were "standard" examples of hard-to-pronounce words, because this was an LJ discussion and several people accidentally repeated each other.

Unfortunately, I lost the link.

But perhaps you can help me again, by pointing me to a similar list or providing hard-to-pronounce words of your own. I've tried Google, but I don't know what search terms to use and keep getting pronunciation guides.

Comments

[audel-.livejournal.com]

well, I'm not sure what how hard those words should be, but...

We have some Erasmus students at my University this year, and German guy cam up with the word which is too hard to pronounce for English-speakers.

I didn't even try, to come up with something like that from Russian, but i tried to teach them simple "Hello" - Здравствуйте.

Germans found it not too bad, and pronounced it after 3-4 tries.
Watching Irish trying to say it was soooo fun :)

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

That was the very first word we learned in Russian at my university. To make matters worse, we only had it written in Cyrillic, and it was the first day of class and none of us could read it.

I think our professors enjoy making us panic.

[mithgol.livejournal.com]

„Выкарáбкивающиеся“ is notoriously hard for some foreigners.

[sventhelost.livejournal.com]

I've always found workds with "мр" to be difficult. Like "мрачный"

And все. Took me forever to really get that one.

Any words that use combinations of consonants not typically found in English words are tough for me.

[gera.livejournal.com]

Are you talking about words that are hard to pronounce for foreigners or for Russian speakers? Those are two completely different categories.
As to the first category, most Americans have a hard pronouncing my wife's name Светлана, which no Russian would find difficult.

[liritar.livejournal.com]

Как по-англииски "Выкарáбкивающиеся"?


(translated: "what's the english for "Выкарáбкивающиеся"?)

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Both, actually. This isn't for anything specific--just to satisfy my own curiosity. I figure that words hard for native speakers are likely to be hard for me.

I'm looking for words that are exceptionally hard to pronounce. Many Russian words have sounds or sound clusters that aren't present in English, making them difficult for beginniners, but those are only of an everyday, ordinary level of difficulty.

[gera.livejournal.com]

Here's a pretty large list (http://slovari.gramota.ru/portal_sl.html?gorb_about.htm) of those words, Russian speakers have troubles with.
This is not necessarily due to a difficulty in prononciation as much as a matter of habit, carelessness etc.
It's more like "dunno" for "don't know" and "twony" for "twenty".

The words that are difficult to foreigners are usually those that have two or more successive consonants and especially those that have letters ч, ш, щ - almost everyone who is not a native Russian speaker has trouble with those even if they mastered the rest pretty well.

[gera.livejournal.com]

Also, the ending -ся as a well as any combination [consonant]-я gives prononciation troubles to foreigners.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

"those who climb out from some deep place or from a difficult situation" :)))

[zloizloi.livejournal.com]

Many Russian native speakers have trouble pronouncing foreign words, or words with foreign origin, like "антиперспирант" and "инсектицид", and, mostly, for the same reason - combinations of consonants that are rarely used in native Russian words.

Abbreviated monsters of words is another category that is hard to pronounce (and understand) for everybody. Figure that, for example: "Гипродорстроймаш" :)

[audel-.livejournal.com]

Are your professors Russian?

well, sometimes its beneficial to show people that things aren't going to be simple, but are going to be interesting anyway....

God, I remeber my first Quantum Mechanics class!

Believe me, pronouncing hard words isn't that bad :))))

[liritar.livejournal.com]

thanks. =)

[24karrot.livejournal.com]

Haha, yes...that was one of the first words I had to learn and I stared at it, tried it twice, and then decided that this was going to be a completely different experience from learning Spanish, haha.

[24karrot.livejournal.com]

Светлана? How can that be that hard? I mean, sure, it won't be in an authentic Russian accent, but I have DEFINITELY seen and heard that name long before I started taking Russian.

[gera.livejournal.com]

Well, 9 out of 10 Americans stutter when trying to pronounce it. :) (the first part)

[leonya.livejournal.com]

I had a hard time pronouncing "мгновения", perhaps because I'd thought it's pronounced "мНгновение":)

[xnrrn.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of a good russian word.
вылысыпыдысты

Well, it is kind of a joke-word, about having 6 Ы letters in one word.
It is moderately hard to pronounce, kind of. Although once you wrap your mind around it...

[marzchik263.livejournal.com]

good lord, yes

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

I can barely read that word. There are so many ы's in it that my brain tries to turn some of them into ь.

[yms.livejournal.com]

Lingvo says "scrambling out" which is indeed more exact...

[yms.livejournal.com]

take it easy, it's not a word at all, it's "велосипедисты" with replaced vowels just for joke.

[mithgol.livejournal.com]

„Карабкаться“ is “to clamber”.

So, „выкарабкивающиеся“ must be “clambering out”, in the sense that there are many of those who are clambering out (because it's plural), and that they really succeed or are going to succeed (not simply „карáбкающиеся“, but „выкарáбкивающиеся“!).

Reminds me of a funny (and a bit scary) pun: “Intel inside... AND IT'S CLAMBERING OUTSIDE!!!..”

[sofa-m.livejournal.com]

agreed :) same thing with me, I wonder why native speakers would make that mistake...

[surok75.livejournal.com]

I find мр relatively easy.

but anything with рж - forget it. no way no how. but that could be because I have a weak 'r' in any language.

[surok75.livejournal.com]

superb! thanks for this, yms!

[xnrrn.livejournal.com]

Well it is a word, but mutilated for fun and profit. :)

And that raises a question. Are there any examples of english words like that?

[noser.livejournal.com]

I'm a native speaker and I can't clearly pronounce жр (e.g. жрать) unless I concentrate on it :)

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

I can't think of any. In fact, I'm having trouble of thinking of "standard" examples of hard-to-pronounce English words. ("Sixths", maybe?)

[xnrrn.livejournal.com]

"Sixths" - don't think.

Only hard to pronounce english words are courtesy of mr. Carrol (Jabberwocky, etc. ;)

Word "Vorpal" is not hard to pronounce, but I still like it lots. :D

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Hey, same thing with me. Жрать (to guzzle, to devour) and шрам (a scar) make me mad. I just can't pronounce them right (having pretty good overall pronounciation -- at least enough to spend 6 years on the radio!)

[flying-snow.livejournal.com]

Hard to pronounce for native or foreign speakers? "Thwart" I think is suppose to be hard for slavic language speakers to prounounce .

Personally I couldn't correctly say "girl" until I was 12, but that's hardly standard.

[yozhevich.livejournal.com]

чрезвычайно. It comes out either *черезвычайно or *трезвычайно.

...HATE IT. :)