Russian soft consonants

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

I just got back a phonetics assignment where we had to transcribe Russian words from a recording. My instructor doesn't speak Russian and graded according to a key, so she couldn't answer my questions about the parts that were marked wrong.

I've uploaded some small sound files and if any native speakers would be willing to listen to them and answer my questions, I would really appreciate it.

1. Clip 1: Is this woman saying будь, буд, or something else?

2. Clip 2: I've removed the last part of this word so that you don't know what it's supposed to be. Did she say ди or джи?

3. Clip 3: Again, I've removed the last part of this word. Is she saying чу or тю?

4. I can't provide a sound file for this one. When you hear the syllables си and сы, do you perceive the difference between them to be in the consonant, in the vowel, or in both?

Edit: Thank you for your help, everyone! I'm much less confused now than I was.

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

1. there is definitely no softness
2. "ди". I'd say that the "дж" combination of sounds is not very typical for Russian language anyway.
3. sounds like "кю" to me

[oryx_and_crake]

4. I think both, but then I am not a linguist and it is well known that native speakers are notoriously bad in explaining the workings of their own language

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

2. "ди". I'd say that the "дж" combination of sounds is not very typical for Russian language anyway.

The problem I'm having with this homework is that the soft consonants often are affricated, and I'm expected to transcribe those as affricates--but if Russian speakers can tell the difference between ди and джи, тю and чу, then clearly they shouldn't be transcribed the same way.

[oryx_and_crake]

Sorry, I don't even know what affricate is, so cannot help you on that.
What I don't understand and am curious about is, how can your instructor teach you Russian pronunciation if she does not speak Russian.

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

It's not a Russian-language class. It's a phonetics class. We listen to a lot of different sound samples from various languages to try to transcribe the sounds, and the last homework just happened to have Russian on it. It's important to get that exposure, but since no one can speak all of the languages we listen to, the instructor has to rely on an accurate textbook.

Basically, I got marked off because I transcribed дь and ть too broadly, but I didn't think that the suggestions for correcting it were right either, because that would make them into ч, ц or дж.

[oryx_and_crake]

I see.