Thread: how to do a russian accent

I'd suggest you watch a James Bond movie, or any Western movie with Russian bad guys really, for some nice, over the top examples.

When I think about a Russian accent, I always think of Брат 2.

"I want Russian prostitute - Marilyn."
"Ben, Ben? Это Данила. I need help."
"Thank you very much... Вот уроды!"

Red Alert 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtwDee-OnNo

Originally Posted by BappaBa

Red Alert 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtwDee-OnNo

Yep, this is a Russian accent. Strongly exaggerated but still genuine.

remember to pronounce "h" as the "ch" in "loch" or "Bach".

think and that are not zink and zet in Russian, that's too French.
Russians would pronounce think and that like "phink and phet"

The last movie I watched, with russian "bad" guys, was SALT with Angelina Jolie.... she even was supposed to be russian and some dialogs are in russian. I think in the movie are starring some real russian guys. Yet, one can understand that Angelina is not russian

Итальянская актриса Mariangela Melato в научно-фантастическом фильме "Flash Gordon" (1980):

YouTube - The fabulous General Kala - Flash Gordon

"Hhhhhwat do you min, Flesh Gor-r-r-don approachink?"

Yep, this is a Russian accent. Strongly exaggerated but still genuine.

LoL He screwed up faking some words, like "choice" has been said purely non-russian.
I could record the same said in the neat russian manner just for fun.

Originally Posted by alexsms

Always make your consonants at the end of the words UNVOICED. The ending consonants are all the time unvoiced in Russian. For example, a Russian would say 'as I know' like 'ass I know' which immediately distinguishes Russians (weird example, but it's from my experience and i remember it well).

This isn't a problem for Russians only -- many ESL speakers have trouble with voicing (or devoicing) consonant sounds at the end of words, especially the -s in plural nouns and third-person singular present verbs, and the -d in some past tense verbs. For example, in a native speaker's pronunciation, the -d in walked should sound more like a -t (because of the influence of the unvoiced -k-), while the -s in verbs sounds like a -z (because the -b- is voiced).

As a kid, I was always greatly amused by the ABBA lyric (from "Knowing Me, Knowing You"):

In thessssse old familiar roomsssss, children will play...
Now there'sssss only emptiness, nothing to sa-a-ay.

The pronunciation should be "theez" and "roomz" and "there'z", but the singer very noticeably over-pronounces the "s" as it's written.

(What makes this funnier to me is that, generally speaking, Agnetha and Frida did NOT have heavy Swedish accents in their singing, especially considering that they hardly knew English at all and learned the songs phonetically. So when they sing roomsssss, it really jumps out at you because most of the time, they don't "sound foreign.")

How to Do a Russian Accent:

Watch Red October a few times and then do EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of everything Sean Connery does.

Originally Posted by BappaBa

Red Alert 2

YouTube - C&C Red Alert 2 - Premier Romanov's broadcast

Hmmm -- among many other problems, he gets the "n" sounds in "United" and "New York" totally backwards. Stereotypically, the "n" in "United" should be over-dentalized ("Ю-най-тэд"), and the "N" in "New" should sound like a Spanish ñ ("Нью")-- but he says "Юньяйтэд" (with a soft, palatalized "ñ")and "Ну Йорк" (with a very hard, dentalized "n").

Which brings up another point about faking a Russian accent -- many English consonants are "alveolarized", meaning that when you pronounce them, the tip of the tongue (16 or 17) hits position 4 or 5 in this diagram:



However, Russian consonants are generally not aveolarized; instead they are either "dentalized" (so that the tip of the tongue, 16/17, is at position 3) or "palatalized" (the front of the tongue at 15 or 16 hits the roof of the mouth at position 6 or 7).

The best way to understand the difference is just to try it for yourself: If you're a native English speaker, say the consonant "t" a few times -- you'll notice that the tip of your tongue tends to strike the region labeled 4 and 5 in the above diagram. But native Russian speakers have two versions of the "t" sound -- one with the tongue against the upper teeth (position 3), which is called the "hard t", and one with the tongue against the palate (position 7), which is called the "soft t".

So, an English speaker wishing to fake a Russian accent should try to avoid positions 4/5, and instead go for position 3 (especially before vowels like "a" and "o" and "short e", as in tack, top, ten) or position 7 (especially before "long e", "short i", "long u", as in teen, tip, tune).

This is true for various consonants besides "t" -- for example, in English the sounds "d", "n", and "l" are all alveolarized, while the corresponding letters in Russian can be either dentalized or palatalized. And as you will notice in the diagram, the alveolar position is sort of a "happy middle" between the two "extremes" of dental and palatal. Thus, when faking a Russian accent, an English speaker needs to train his tongue to "go to extremes" with certain consonant sounds.

P.S. Note that all of the above is also useful if you're a serious student of Russian trying to reduce your English/American accent. And you can "reverse" the advice if you're an ESL speaker trying to reduce your Russian accent!

That's a really useful diagram by the way.

I think you must copy pronunciation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTgLxvKxRJ0.

gsold
Им чтобы скопировать - нужно годами произношение учить. Это не русский акцент, а русская речь. Им это архисложно.
Звуки все у Мутко абсолютно русские, он не пытается даже произносить вещи по-английски.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

As a kid, I was always greatly amused by the ABBA lyric (from "Knowing Me, Knowing You"):

The pronunciation should be "theez" and "roomz" and "there'z", but the singer very noticeably over-pronounces the "s" as it's written.

Funny thing, this is exactly what I noticed one day too, and I’ve always been sure they spoke or rather sang perfect English. I think we should ask Hanna if Agnetha and Frida really hardly knew English at all. I strongly doubt that they did. I think everyone in Sweden speaks English, don’t they?.

AlexB -- I remember seeing a TV interview with the members of ABBA back in the late '70s or early '80s; it was on the American Sunday-evening news program 60 Minutes, and described ABBA as "Sweden's #2 export" (after the Volvo!).

Anyway, Bjorn and Benny spoke English quite well, but the two girls were definitely much less fluent and seemed uncomfortable with English -- and they gave very very short answers.

Eugene-p
Понятно, что это не акцент. Ну забыл я поставить смайлик.