Thread: Hard and soft consonants (e.g. Л) - Help needed

Originally Posted by Eugene-p

Soft L position:
The very tip is touching the 5 and the 16 is touching the 6.

It seems so when I say лямка but when I say пароль, my tip of the tongue is touching the lower teeth and the middle of the tongue is touching the roof of the mouth (I'm Russian).

Throbert McGee
It would be great if you start over a new thread with this picture and explain all the English and Russian sounds with this scheme. Of course if somebody else can it would be great if he help you. Such a thread would be of incredible importance for all who learn Russian and English. Such a thread would certainly became sticky in the "Pronunciation, Speech & Accent" section.

It seems so when I say лямка but when I say пароль, my tip of the tongue is touching the lower teeth and the middle of the tongue is touching the roof of the mouth (I'm Russian).

Hehe, I don't feel this way. I can say the L' this way but it's inconvenient for me. It's a matter of habit I guess.

One of the effective ways to obtain the correct pronunciation of the hard /l/ is by nipping the tip of your tongue and holding it in this position while trying to prononuce /l/. There is no chance it will come out soft. But don't overdo it )

Another way to pronounce dark /л/ is placing the tip of your tongue against your upper teeth and trying to pronounce it with a shade of /ы/ sound - if you're familiar with it, of course.
By the way, in Russian logopedic books soft /л'/ is described as an alveolar consonant, so the difference is in the place of articulation.

Another way to pronounce dark /л/ is placing the tip of your tongue against your upper teeth

But don't press its bottomside to the inner surface of the teeth, or it will come out English-like. Only the very tip should be touching.

Another random pronunciation tip: Try to relax your tongue and lips when saying Russian consonants. English speakers strain their mouths when saying consonants.

For instance, try saying these English words:
kit
pot
tap

Say them while holding your hand in front of your mouth to feel the air that comes out. When pronouncing the letters t,k,p, you'll feel a puff of air come out. It's called aspiration, and Russians don't do it with these consonants. Try practicing saying these words to where you don't feel the puff of air (you're going to feel air, of course, because you're breathing out when you speak--but you shouldn't feel a sharp puff of air).

(These consonants are usually only aspirated at the beginning of a word. For instance, feel the difference between the t in 'tap' in and the t's in 'butter')

Originally Posted by zxc

For instance, try saying these English words:
kit
pot
tap

Say them while holding your hand in front of your mouth to feel the air that comes out. When pronouncing the letters t,k,p, you'll feel a puff of air come out. It's called aspiration...
(These consonants are usually only aspirated at the beginning of a word ^or at the beginning of a stressed syllable.

ATTENTION! ATTENTION! The second "t" in "attention" is strongly aspirated -- as is the "t" in "atomic," and the first "t" in "potato".

However, the first "t" in "attention" is essentially silent, because in English we normally don't pronounce "doubled consonants" as two separate sounds; and the third "t" in the suffix "-tion" is, of course, pronounced like "sh". The second "t" in "potato" is not strongly aspirated, and is often a bit "voiced", so that the last syllable "-to" sounds more like "dough".

Also, contrast "atom" with "atomic" -- in the first word, the "t" is rather unaspirated, and often voiced, so that the word is almost a homophone of "Adam." But in the second word -- thanks to the influence of the stressed vowel "o" -- the "t" is totally unvoiced, but usually rather aspirated, with a strong puff of air.

In general, this would also be true for the "p" and "k" sounds -- thus, the first "p" in the noun "apocalypse" is more strongly aspirated than in the adjectival form "apocalyptic", since the stress moves from the "o" to the "y". However, the "k sound" (or rather, the hard-c) in both words is rather unaspirated, since the syllable "-ca-" is unstressed. But in "vacation", the k-sound is more aspirated, because it comes before the stressed "a".