Thread: IPA Pronunciation for Russian

ж is close to English r. You can start pronouncing ш as unvoiced English r, it will be good approximation.

Originally Posted by Marcus

ж is close to English r. You can start pronouncing ш as unvoiced English r, it will be good approximation.

I have noticed this similarity of the back part of the tongue position of ж, ш and r. But the front part of the tongue is in different position. Can go seamlessly from ж into a kind of r and back, but it isn't a normal English r. I was going to describe the similarity of the hard backed part of ж, ш and r, but I wasn't confident that anyone would agree. Front part of tongue has to do the hush thing for ж, ш, different than relaxed position for r. The hush with the front part of tongue for ж, ш is different than the English sh and zh.

Originally Posted by Seraph

I have noticed this similarity of the back part of the tongue position of ж, ш and r. But the front part of the tongue is in different position. Can go seamlessly from ж into a kind of r and back, but it isn't a normal English r. I was going to describe the similarity of the hard backed part of ж, ш and r, but I wasn't confident that anyone would agree. Front part of tongue has to do the hush thing for ж, ш, different than relaxed position for r. The hush with the front part of tongue for ж, ш is different than the English sh and zh.

The tip of the toungue is closer to the teeth, than for English r, but that's my assumption only.
How did you achieve good pronunciation in Russian and understanding of Russian phonology?

Finally after a few google pages I found something, Dunno about its authenticity but this demonstrates the difference. Anyone let me know if this sounds correct using the [ɛ] and [e] sounds abuot half way down

The International Phonetic Alphabet - Audio Illustrations

Originally Posted by ShakeyX

Finally after a few google pages I found something, Dunno about its authenticity but this demonstrates the difference. Anyone let me know if this sounds correct using the [ɛ] and [e] sounds abuot half way down

The International Phonetic Alphabet - Audio Illustrations

As I already said, if you use different sounds in лес and весь, it is incorrect independent of what sounds you use. In the IPA samples you linked it seems that in [e] they do not pronounce a pure vowel, rather they include a part of a preceding soft consonsnt and in [ɛ] they do not. This way it seems to me that you cannot pronounce their [e] after a hard consonant and [ɛ] after a soft one. As I already said, softness is attributed to consonants in Russian, not to vowels.