Serafima Gettys - Russian For Dummies

Interesting!

Дopoгoй pecтopaн

Dah-roh-goyryes-tah-rahn.

Expensive restaurant.

Пoнятнo

Puh-nyat-nuh.

I see xxxx

Compared with English pronunciation, which often has more exceptions than rules, Russian rules of pronunciation are fairly clear and consistent. In this section, you discover some of the basic rules and patterns of Russian pronunciation. In addition, we show you how to say some of the most difficult letters.

For the most part, one Russian letter corresponds to one sound. The letter Kis always pronounced k, for example, and the letter Mis always pronounced m. This pattern is different from English, in which a letter can be pronounced in different ways depending on the word it’s in. Consider the two different pronunciations for the letter c in the words cat and ra ce.

Such drastic differences never happen in Russian, but to be quite honest, you may note occasions when a letter in Russian sounds slightly different depending on its position in a word. Take, for example, the Russian word жук(zhoohk) (beetle) , in which the first letter, ж,is pronounced zh, like the s in plea sure . In the word гapaж(guh- rahsh ) (garage) , however, the жis pronounced sh rather than zh. Why? Because when it appears at the end of a word, ж(zh) is pronounced as ш(sh). (For more information, flip to the later sections “ Vowels misbehavin’: Understanding when vowels change sounds” and “Cat got your tongue?: Consonants losing their voice.”)

Vowels are the musical building blocks of every Russian word. If you flub a consonant or two, you’ll probably still be understood. (To avoid such flubs, though, check out “ Enunciating consonants correctly” later in this chapter.) But if you don’t pronounce your vowels correctly, there’s a good chance that you won’t be understood at all. So it’s a good idea to get down the basic principles of saying Russian vowels, which we cover in the following sections.

If you want to sound more Russian, don’t shorten your vowels, as English speakers often do. When you say Aa, Oo,or Уу,open your mouth really wide, like a Russian opera singer. Also be sure not to round your mouth after Ooor Уу,and deliberately stretch out the sounds to make them a little bit longer. Imagine that you’re in your room on the second floor, and your mom is downstairs in the kitchen. You call her by saying “Mo-o-o-m!” That’s the way Russians say their vowels (except for the shouting part!).

Stress is an important concept in Russian. Putting a stress in the wrong place isn’t just a formal mistake; it can also hinder communication, because the meaning of a word can change based on where the stress is. Take the word зaмoк( zah -mahk), which means castle. If you shift the stress from the first syllable to the last, зaмoк(zuh- mohk ) now means lock.

Unfortunately, no hard-and-fast rules about stress exist. Stress in Russian is unpredictable and erratic, though you’ll begin to recognize some patterns as you learn more. The harsh truth, however, is that each word has its own stress pattern. What happens if you stress the vowel in the wrong place? Certainly, nothing terrible: The Earth will continue to rotate around its axis. What may happen, however, is that the person you’re talking to may have a hard time understanding you and will take longer to grasp what you really mean.

Before learning a new Russian word, find out which vowel to stress. Look in any Russian–English dictionary, which usually marks stress by putting the sign ´over the stressed syllable. In a dictionary, зaмoк( zah -mahk) (castle) is written зáмoк, and зaмoк(zuh- mohk ) (lock) is written зaмóк.

Some Russian letters change their behavior depending on whether they’re in a stressed or an unstressed syllable. The vowels Aa, Oo, Ee,and Яя,for example, sound like ah, oh, yeh, and ya when they’re in a stressed syllable, but when they’re in an unstressed position, they sound like uh, ah, ee, and yeh, respectively.

Here are some examples of how one letter is pronounced differently in different positions:

You write Кoлopaдo (Colorado) but say kah-lah- rah -dah. Notice that all the o s in this word are pronounced ah rather than oh. None of them is pronounced oh , because all of them appear in unstressed syllables.

You write xopoшo (good, well) but say khah-rah- shoh . Here, we have three o s. Notice that the first and the second o s are pronounced ah, whereas the last one, in the stressed syllable, is pronounced oh.

You write нaпpaвo (to the right) but say nuh- prah -vah. Notice that the first a is pronounced uh because it’s not in the stressed syllable, the second a is pronounced ah because it’s in the stressed syllable, and the final o is pronounced ah because it’s not stressed.

You write Пeтepбуpг (Petersburg) but say pee-teer- boohrk. Notice that the e is pronounced as ee in each case because it’s not stressed.

The letters ж, ц, ч, ш,and щare called sibilants because they emit a hissing sound. When certain vowels appear after these letters, those vowels are pronounced slightly differently from normal:

After a sibilant, e is pronounced eh (as in end ), and ё is pronounced oh (as in opus ). Examples are the words цeнтp (tsehntr) (center) and шёл (shohl) (went by foot) .

The sound ee always becomes i after one of these sibilants, regardless of whether the ee sound comes from the letter и or from an unstressed e. Take, for example, the words мaшинa (muh- shi -nuh) (car) and бoльшe ( bohl’ -shi) (bigger) .