Thread: Wikipedia article about Russian-native pronunciation

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... 84#Russian

The article about most common pronunciation errors of English by Russian natives existed on Wikipedia, but was removed ( with most of all other sections ) due to lack of references ( the link that contains Russian section is an archived version ). Is there an article, book or any scientific work ( not necessary available online ) that can count as a reference to statements by the link? ( mostly self-evident like "There is no /w/ in Russian; speakers typically substitute [v] and will have trouble perceiving the difference between the two" )

Originally Posted by vox05

Is there an article, book or any scientific work ( not necessary available online ) that can count as a reference to statements by the link? ( mostly self-evident like "There is no /w/ in Russian; speakers typically substitute [v] and will have trouble perceiving the difference between the two" )

This is not quite correct: yes, English 'w' has no exact analogue in Russian, but this is either 'у' ('u') or 'в' ('v') to be substituted instead. Whichever one is chosen mostly depends from tradition. For example, Dr. Watson in some translations of Conan Doyle is "Ватсон", in other is "Уотсон".

Article must also mention absence of voiced/unvoiced 'th' in Russian (replaced either by 'з/с' or by 'т/д') and difference between English 'h' and Russian 'х' ('kh').

Originally Posted by Scorpio

This is not quite correct: yes, English 'w' has no exact analogue in Russian, but this is either 'у' ('u') or 'в' ('v') to be substituted instead. Whichever one is chosen mostly depends from tradition. For example, Dr. Watson in some translations of Conan Doyle is "Ватсон", in other is "Уотсон".

But if there really exist Russian speakers that pronounce 'u' instead of 'w' when speaking English?

Article must also mention absence of voiced/unvoiced 'th' in Russian (replaced either by 'з/с' or by 'т/д') and difference between English 'h' and Russian 'х' ('kh').

First one ( about th ) is already mentioned.
It is not a problem to add the second one ( in fact, uncomment ); the problem is to provide verifiable reference lest these changes be removed by some newly-emerged vigilante fighting with wikipolicy violations.

Originally Posted by vox05

But if there really exist Russian speakers that pronounce 'u' instead of 'w' when speaking English?

There may be some but there shouldn't be many of them. I think "W" is a pretty easy sound to pronounce for a Russian speaker.

Originally Posted by vox05

Originally Posted by Scorpio

This is not quite correct: yes, English 'w' has no exact analogue in Russian, but this is either 'у' ('u') or 'в' ('v') to be substituted instead. Whichever one is chosen mostly depends from tradition. For example, Dr. Watson in some translations of Conan Doyle is "Ватсон", in other is "Уотсон".

But if there really exist Russian speakers that pronounce 'u' instead of 'w' when speaking English?

For me, it seems quite possible. Because English 'w' is something between Russian 'у' and 'в', it seems natural for at least some native Russian speakers to substitute 'у' instead.