learn_russian | (no subject)

(no subject)

2 Questions:

1) Are there any sounds in Russian that, when combined together, make the same sound in English? My best two examples would be p+h=f, and if that means П+Х=Ф. Another would be K+N=N (like in "know") so К+Н=Н?

2) I keep having problems with -ь words, and how I am supposed to pronounce them. I know that to a Russian, т and ть are two totally different sounds. Same with л and ль I believe. Can anyone help me with what difference I am supposed to pronounce when I try to say one and not the other? I recall something about pronouncing "y" and the same time as the consenant, but I just can't!

Thanks if you can help me!

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In response to your first question, no there aren't. Russian orthography is very straight forward- if you hear a word spoken you know how it is written. Whereas in English, the orthography is complicated and illogical, take the words tough and bough for example! There aren't 'hidden letters' in Russian words!

Well, in Russian it is not all that rosy either. E.g., one pronounces "счастье" as "щастье", "солнце" as "сонце" or "корова" as "карова", where the first vowel is a kind of mix between "о" and "а". But for the most words pronunciation is pretty close to spelling - much closer than in English, indeed.

A former Russian instructor used to joke that in English you can say "Washington" but spell "Philadelphia." And I've noticed that vowels are the hardest things to figure out for spelling because so many vowels get reduced to a schwa sound anyway.

Another common joke about English orthography is that fish could be spelled ghoti. The gh from hiccough, the o from women, and the ti from ambition.

I think that'd have to be the gh from enough. Or do they pronounce hiccough as "hikoff" in British English? I never knew. (In America it's usually spelled "hiccup" and pronounced as such.)

Oops. I think I got that mixed up with something that was saying all the different ways -ough can be pronounced. I live in America, and I think it's spelled hiccough and pronounced "hiccup" in British English.

Heh. British English is a funny phrase.

It is a scientific term, though.

Russian spelling is very close to Russian pronunciation. It does differ slightly, but if you pronounce everything exactly the way it is written, people will understand you without any problems. So, there are no digraphs.

Soft and hard pronunciation of the same sound are not "totally" different, of course, they are closely related. I do not know how to pronounce "y" at the same time as the consonant, but pretend you are about to pronounce "y" after the consonant and stop right before actually pronouncing it and see if it works. :-) The problem with this approach is that, in English, the consonant is not changed much at all; play with it. Listen to... I don't know, to some spoken Russian. It's easy to get as soon as you hear it once.

You've already got an answer to your question about combined letters - they aren't similar as in english. But in russian oral language you can meet some combination of sounds, and their pronouncation is not equal to their spelling. One of them, that you can meet very often: in infinitives which end with -ться (умываться, собираться, удивляться) combination "ться" pronounces as "ца" (like in "ЦАпля")

I don't know! *lol* After awhile your ear starts to pick out the differences between letters quite naturally (to some degree or another.. I'm losing my touch on it agian) so you can tell ш from щ all that other goodness :)

Mmm, seriously in need of new listening tapes!

xox

Seen Airplane 2, the movie? Remember how Shattner walks through the doors on the moon base?

I haven't lol. Care to explain?

I regret to say that I've never seen it. A scary thought, I'm sure - someone not way way into films *wink*

But if it has Scary Shattner in it, I might have to check it out :D

xox

-stn- is always pronounced [sn], somewhat like the English "listen" [lisn].

That's about all.

-stn- (-стн-) is pronounced like [sn] ([сн]) only because it's hard to say [stn], but it's possible.

It's a laid-down rule, not something people do for convenience. See paragraph 8 here (http://artefact.lib.ru/languages/russian/77-115.html).

"т" is like "t" in "tobacco"
"ть" is like "t" in "turn", but softer

"т" is hard sound, "ть" is soft

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