Pronunciation of the letter "Ы"

[david-us.livejournal.com]

How do Russians pronounce the letter "Ы" when they are referring to it as a letter in their alphabet?

А = "ah"
Б = "beh"
В = "veh"  ...и.т.д

Phonetically, how would a Russian say the letter "Ы"?

Thanks!

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

Vowels usually do not have any special names: а - "а", у - "у" etc. Likewise, ы is just "ы".

[towarysc.livejournal.com]

(unless they are iotacized)

[oryx_and_crake]

"я▒" and "я▌" are still called "я▒" and "я▌", not anything else

[oryx_and_crake]

oops, that was "ё" and "ю" - do they have any names I am not aware of?

[towarysc.livejournal.com]

Well, I meant that "ё" and "ю", are called [jo] and [ju], though they are not always read this way in the text. I was too carping, I know; have no idea what on earth made me write this;)

[slovami.livejournal.com]

My first-year Russian teacher (an American) told us it was called "yeri", but it appears that this is actually an archaic name for a different letter (or the same letter in an older form of Russian... I'm not sure). Russians I've met call it "Ы", just like the above commenters said. And like in the name of a famous Soviet comedy film, "Operation Ы". :)

[mos-stef.livejournal.com]

I LOVE THAT MOVIE!! :D

[icamel.livejournal.com]

Еры is an official name of a letter ы to say it through noisy channels. It's silmilar to Alpha, Bravo, Charlie,.. In russian those names a mostly proper names: Анна, Борис, Василий,.. with some exceptions: Щука, Знак (there is only one sign in russian Morse code), Еры,..

[khathi.livejournal.com]

It was it actual name until 1918 orthography reform. Russian Phonetic Alphabet just uses it because there aren't actually Russian words starting from these three letters.

[slovami.livejournal.com]

Interesting, I didn't know about that... Thanks!

[david-us.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm not making myself clear. I know what sound the letter makes in words. But what do they actually *call* the letter?

I've always pronounced it something like this: "yeREE", in kind of a guttural manner.

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

[shimshoni.livejournal.com]

it is actually called [ Ы ] itself, exactly like it sounds in words

[oryx_and_crake]

It is called "ы". It does not have any other name as far as I know. "yeREE" may be a version of еры which is out of use for the last 90 years or so.

[irbisa.livejournal.com]

Many vowels in russian are named and pronounced just in the same way.

[oryx_and_crake]

I'd say all of them are

[irbisa.livejournal.com]

Я попыталась не обобщать - слишком поздно, чтобы быть на 100% уверенной:)

[oryx_and_crake]

OK. (Please note that the working language of this community is English. Thanks)

[irbisa.livejournal.com]

Sorry - I just found it today, didn't notice the "only english" rule:)

[oryx_and_crake]

Welcome aboard!

[irbisa.livejournal.com]

"the working language of this community is English"

Just tried not to generalize - it is too late to be 100% positive about anything.

[paparazzzzi.livejournal.com]

Nobody calls it yery today, just Ы.

В старо- и церковнославянской азбуках буква Ы носит название «ѥры» (ст.-сл.) или «еры́» (ц.-сл.), смысл которого неизвестен, но явно родственное названиям букв «еръ» (Ъ) и «ерь» (Ь).

[david-us.livejournal.com]

Maybe this is a better way to pose the question. When a child recites the Russian alphabet, what does he say when he gets to the letter ы?

If you were to ask me what comes out of an English-speaking child's mouth when they get to the letter "t" in the English alphabet, I'd say "tee". They don't say "teh" or "tay". See what I mean?

It doesn't make sense that the child would say "t"?

Letters have names. If you look in an English dictionary under "tee", you would discover that one of its meanings is "the letter T."

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

[hellina.livejournal.com]

As It was said before,In the modern langague it is called Ы - the same as the sound -)

[paparazzzzi.livejournal.com]

As it was said before many times ;) Russian vowels don't have names at all.

A Russian /educated :-)/ child would recite the alphabet like that:

А, Бэ, Вэ, Гэ, Дэ, Е, Ё (Йо), Жэ, Зэ, И, И краткое (Й) Ка, эЛ, эМ, Эн, О, Пэ, эР, Эс, Тэ, У, Эф, Ха, Цэ, Че, Ша, Ща, Твердый Знак, Ы, Мягкий знак, Э (Э оборотное), Ю (Йу), Я (Йя).

No real names, pronunciation only (except for Ь and Ъ).

See there: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D1%83%D1%81%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%84%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%82

There WERE names for Russian letters before the Revolution, but nowadays there aren't.

[oryx_and_crake]

When a child recites the Russian alphabet, what does he say when he gets to the letter ы?
---
He will say "ы". Same as when he gets to the letter "a", he will say "a".

[pashator.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_alphabet