Palatilaziation - Ь and Ъ

[ugly-boy.livejournal.com]

Can someone help me with ь (soft sign) and ъ (hard sign) [or do I have them reversed?]. My first question is, how do you know when a letter is going to be hard or soft? It seems like in English we only use the soft sounds, because borrowed words almost always take a soft sound. In other words, the Russian tendency is to make hard sound and the English tendency is to make a soft sound (thus film → фильм* ; New → Нью). I'm sure this is completely off base, it's just a trend that I've noticed.

I once read—perhaps on in this community—that the sound is very different to Russian ears, but the subtle difference sounds the same to English ears. It was compared to the final sound in the words bed and bet vs the words угил and угиль. Russians cannot distinguish between "bed" and "bet" but I find that very hard to believe... Would a Russian pronounce бэд and бэт the same way?

Anyway, if someone could explain this process of palatilazation to me I would be very greatful.

*Film may have come from French, but the same principle applies.

Comments

[ugly-boy.livejournal.com]

Thanks :D

[kruglov.livejournal.com]

Вы не против, если я напишу по-русски? :)

После революции 1917 года была проведена реформа правописания. В частности, были отменены твёрдые знаки "ъ" на конце слов, то есть, к примеру, "стулъ" стал "стул" и т. д. (и так далее - etc).

Чтобы типографии быстрее перешли на новые правила, у них были просто изъяты литеры с твёрдым знаком и некоторыми другими отменёнными буквами. И волей-неволей им пришлось там, где твердый знак был нужен, использовать символ апострофа " ' ".

[ugly-boy.livejournal.com]

Я не говорю по-русски :(

[yellowspy.livejournal.com]

After revolution of 1917 reform of spelling has been lead. In particular, firm signs «ъ» on the end of words, that is, for example, have been cancelled «стулъ» there was «стул», etc.

That printing houses went on new rules faster, letters have been simply withdrawn from them with firm is familiar also some other cancelled letters. And willy-nilly it was necessary to them there where the firm sign was necessary, to use a symbol of an apostrophe «'».

[ugly-boy.livejournal.com]

Thank you.