i've had about zilch experience with russian, so...

[selbian.livejournal.com]

if I wanted to say "Lenin's Bolshevik newspaper", would I say "Bolshevik gazeta Lenin" or anything remotely close to that?...

oh, and i'm trying to teach myself russian (not very successfully) and how can you tell where the stresses are in a word? like "a" is "a" in Cyrillic when it's stressed, but "o" when it is not (I think). or would you just have to memorize them?

i would appreciate the help, thank you. :)

Comments

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Actually ...

Stressed "a" is pronounced "ah."
Stressed "o" is pronounced "oh."

(I assume you're familiar with Japanese. They're pretty similar to the Japanese "a" and "o.")

Unstressed "a" and "o" are both pronounced like the "a" at the end of "sofa."

There are some accents that don't reduce the "o" when it's unstressed, but I get the feeling that if you do that, native Russian speakers will look at you like you just said "ma, the squirrel's in the cooker!"

As for determining where the stress falls in a word, well, your best bet is to find a dictionary that marks stress. There's no way to tell where the stress is just from looking at it in a text.

[selbian.livejournal.com]

I have a slight familiarity with Japanese. More so with Chinese though. (but that is off topic, so...right.)

Stressed "a" is pronounced "ah."
Stressed "o" is pronounced "oh."

Unstressed "a" and "o" are both pronounced like the "a" at the end of "sofa."


:) Thank you. I will definitely keep those in mind.

There's no way to tell where the stress is just from looking at it in a text.

I thought so...but I wasn't sure and thought "if there is a way to tell stress just from looking at it, I must not be very smart".

gazeta...

[shards84.livejournal.com]

about the news paper - it depends on what are you actually trying to say:

one of possible ways is: Gazeta Lenina "Bolshevik" - means the newspaper entitled "Bolshevik" under the supervision of Lenin (his newspaper)

Re: gazeta...

[selbian.livejournal.com]

aha. thank you!

[ataltane.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, if you meant, "Lenin's bolshevik newspaper", meaning "L's newspaper, which was bolshevik" (rather than as the title), it would be "Газета большевикая Ленина" (Gazeta bol'shevikaja Lenina), if I got the Russian for "Bolshevik" right (!).

Anyway, maybe you shouldn't believe that unless a native speaker approves it, but it is remotely close.

The stresses have to be learned with the word. It's not very hard at all to do this: once you pronounce the word while learning, you'll remember the stress easily. It's especially easy for native speakers of English: in your native tongue you have slightly unpredictable stress, and have to learn to distinguish between, for example, "rEbel" (a noun) and "rebEl" (a verb).

"o" is pronounced more rounded than in English when stressed, like "ow" in "flow", but possibly more rounded than in some English dialects. As rounded as you can make it. To the point that it sounds affected for English.

"a" is like the "a" in "father", when stressed.

When unstressed, "o" and "a" are pronounced similarly: namely, like the "a" in (an indistinct pronunciation of) "about" when they occur just before the stressed syllable. At least, my textbooks agree on that, but I've never found it particularly noticeable: most of the time it seems to me like they follow the rule in the next paragraph

When unstressed and not occurring right before the stressed syllable (or even then; see previous paragraph), "o" and "a" are pronounced like the "a" in father.

Hope this helps. I'm a learner too, so knowledgeable native speakers' comments supersede mine.

s.

[oblomov-jerusal.livejournal.com]

Make it "большевистская газета Ленина".

[ataltane.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[irkin.livejournal.com]

it would be "Газета большевикая Ленина" (Gazeta bol'shevikaja Lenina),

If you mean here that Lenin was bolshevik then the "я"(ja) is unnecessary, it would be "Газета большевика Ленина".

[ataltane.livejournal.com]

Well, as I said above, I meant "Lenin's paper, which is bolshevik", not "Lenin's (who was bolshevik) paper" ;)

Alas it's not really clear from the post what's required.

[selbian.livejournal.com]

I suppose I was unclear, wasn't I?
sorry about that.

I meant "Lenin's paper, which is bolshevik".

[yers.livejournal.com]

it's the other way round.
"a" as in "about" in non-stressed, non-preemphatic syllables.
"a" as in "father" in a preemphatic syllable (i.e. the one before the stressed one)

[ataltane.livejournal.com]

Yes, thank you. Not sure how I mixed that one up, but it being 5am couldn't have helped.

[selbian.livejournal.com]

I suppose books like to be ambiguous on that subject...

thank you very much. :)

[selbian.livejournal.com]

I am currently wading my way through conjugations and such, so I have not gotten very far. once you pronounce the word while learning, you'll remember the stress easily. I hope that is true for me!

and well, you have learned much more than I. :) thank you!

[irkin.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid you have to memorize the stress of every word because I think there are no strict rules on that.. And besides the stress can move with declination..

like "a" is "a" in Cyrillic when it's stressed, but "o" when it is not (I think).

No, the а sounds "ah" when it's stressed and when it is not. And the о sounds "oh" when it's stressed and between "ah" and "oh" when is not stressed..

[selbian.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

[shards84.livejournal.com]

note: in Russian theres no such word as "большевикая"

[ataltane.livejournal.com]

Indeedy. It was just a guess to illustrate the grammar.

My dictionary, which formerly seemed ok, doesn't have either "bolshevik" or "majority". boo.