Thread: Confused about soft vowels

Not always, obviously, because "dick" and "dig" are different words and are distinguishable only by the final consonant. That's precisely the point. Which pairs of words in Russian are distinguishable only by the softness of a consonant?

There are plenty of words and word forms like that. стал - сталь, был - быль, лёд - лот. лыко - лика, стол -столь. школы - школе, лак -ляг, говорит -говорить, мат - мать, перетряхивать - перетрахивать, врёт - в рот. There are even examples where this "y" sound after a consonant is the only thing which distinguishes the words лёд - льёт. Лъя is by no means ля. I can say that french or German la will be really close. Why does no one pronounce french la as lya? Russians can hardly hear the difference between French L and Russian soft L. This as close as fs is close to th in English. Once again, there is a PHONEMIC distinction between a soft vowel and a vowel and a "y" in Russian. They are as different as v and w are for native English speakers, despite the fact that there are very few words which differ only by v and w.

Originally Posted by Marcus

There are plenty of words and word forms like that. стал - сталь, был - быль, лёд - лот. лыко - лика, стол -столь. школы - школе, лак -ляг, говорит -говорить, мат - мать, перетряхивать - перетрахивать, врёт - в рот. There are even examples where this "y" sound after a consonant is the only thing which distinguishes the words лёд - льёт. Лъя is by no means ля. I can say that french or German la will be really close. Why does no one pronounce french la as lya? Russians can hardly hear the difference between French L and Russian soft L. This as close as fs is close to th in English. Once again, there is a PHONEMIC distinction between a soft vowel and a vowel and a "y" in Russian. They are as different as v and w are for native English speakers, despite the fact that there are very few words which differ only by v and w.

Yes, all this is true, but we're not discussing whether there is a distinction, we're discussing whether that distinction is important enough to warrant being explained at great length in a crash-course beginner text.

Should a v-w distinction be mentioned in a textbook of English or not?
Why do you care so much about the conjugation. Искаю is perfectly understandable as well as Я жить. Are there many situations in Russian when the correct conjugation is important?

Originally Posted by Marcus

Should a v-w distinction be mentioned in a textbook of English or not?

That depends. Is it a textbook for academic study, say year 1 in a series that's supposed to last you throughout school, or is it a book for people who are visiting England in a month's time and don't know any English at all?

If it's the former, then yes, of course it should. If it's the latter then possibly not.

Why do you care so much about the conjugation

I don't care about it. I've just found that getting grammar wrong is far more likely to result in blank stares or misunderstandings than having a funny accent, so I give more thought to the former than the latter.