Thread: IPA Pronunciation for Russian

Which browser should I use to hear those sounds on the web page? Neither Firefox nor Opera can do and Chromium just crashes.

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.

Okay I am sorry for all the confusion, I was finding this really hard to understand. It's like for a year I've imagined я and а as something different so reading all this didnt sink in until I found the perfect example;

Семья (File:Ru-семья.ogg - Wiktionary)
and Себя (File:Ru-себя.ogg - Wiktionary)

so the IPA for Семья is /sʲɪˈmʲjæ/ (С'ИМ'Я)
whereas Себя is /sʲɪˈbʲæ/ (С'ИБ'А)

if you look at the IPA or listen for себя (which probably isn't a surprise to you lot) there is no YA sound present, which is what I was led to believe from many Learn Russian websites. So basically my world has been flipped upsidedown. and I literally cannot pronounce Себя... the realisation that soft consonants arent simply made by putting a Y sound infront of the following vowel is also a massive shock to the system. I also find it literally impossible to make a sound of a Russian letter on its own and can only really pronounce the NAME of Russian letters such as Бэ Вэ Гэ Дэ rather than just the individual sound. So I mean I guess to start from ground zero, are their any links to websites which literally go through all the hard/soft sounds with audio so I can start again fresh. And just to clarify then, unless a VOWEL is at the start or follows a soft sign, it is pronounced exactly (or more similarly) to the non softening vowel and it is only the previous consonant which gives it this effect?

so the IPA for Семья is /sʲɪˈmʲjæ/ (С'ИМ'Я)

No, [с'эм'й'а]

whereas Себя is /sʲɪˈbʲæ/ (С'ИБ'А)

No, [с'эб'а]

Forget your IPA after all. There is no [и] in these words.

And just to clarify then, unless a VOWEL is at the start or follows a soft sign, it is pronounced exactly (or more similarly) to the non softening vowel and it is only the previous consonant which gives it this effect?

Yes. At least in theory. And they denoted similarly in Russian phonetic transcription. Russian phonetic transcription does not use я, e, ё symbols at all (I know that IPA guys can find difference even where there is not). Although both [ы] and [и] are used in school transcriptions, many sources say that Russian has only 5 vowels (а, о, э, и, у) http://russkiyjazik.ru/337/ , http://www.langust.ru/rus_gram/rus_gr04.shtml with which I agree.

the realisation that soft consonants arent simply made by putting a Y sound infront of the following vowel is also a massive shock to the system.

Even more: adding [й] after a consonant does not make it soft. For example:

подъезд [подйэзд] (first д is hard)
разъём [разйом] (з is hard)
вражья[вражйа] (ж is hard)

Forget your IPA after all. There is no [и] in these words.

But unstressed e is pronounced like [i]. So ShakeyX is right.

Originally Posted by Marcus

But unstressed e is pronounced like [i]. So ShakeyX is right.

Well according Russian phonetic analysis they should be pronounced as [э]. Note that in the case of unstressed о it says is should be pronounced [а], but it does not say anything about unstressed е. This is according the standard rules. And the records linked above confirms this.

Originally Posted by Anixx

Well according Russian phonetic analysis they should be pronounced as [э]. Note that in the case of unstressed о it says is should be pronounced [а], but it does not say anything about unstressed е. This is according the standard rules. And the records linked above confirms this.

What?!

Originally Posted by Marcus

What?!

I second this notion

To cut it short, from a Russian grammar book, unstressed o, like unsterssed a, is either an "uh" sound in pre-pre-tonic or post-tonic. or "a" sort of a sound in pre-tonic or initial position. This is why IPA is helpful because in the word Хорошо. You can only really represent "uh" with an [ə]. (i.e [xərʌ'ʃo])

Unstressed е is said to be pronounced like a short и sound which I believe in IPA can be represented as [I] whereas stressed и would be [i].

I just read the rules and you are right. It becomes [и] in non-stressed positions in most cases.

Look here 刹鈞瑁 闔謐釿 ?辣鱶?驫釿 鞐艨鉋 痳髀諤鴉

And here Onlinedisk - 矗? ?琿蓚蔔 ?蜍鈞.

Phonetic analysis is taught in 4th grade (to pupils of the age of 10 if I am correct).

Well, theoretically speaking there are lots of different sounds in Russian depending on their position or environmemt. In unstressed syllables O and A sounds the same (except some foreign words like радио or unstressed prepositions like возле). И and Э also merge and any distinction is lost.
In practice unstressed O/A sound is "something like A" and unstressed Э/И vowel is "something like И", at least in standard pronunciation. Native Russian speakers perceive unstressed E as И and О as А, though strictly speaking the sounds are a little different and less clear (only they are the same phoneme and don't distinguish the words, though MAY be completely different sounds in some other language). Also, unstressed Я, as far as I can tell, becomes йи (word initial, like "ягу`ар") or "и" (after a consonant, like "поня`ла"). Unstressed А becomes Ы after Ж/Ш ("жал`еть" /жыл'эт'/). There may be deviations for some accents. Besides, older theatrical pronunciation (like, 50 years ago) encouraged actors to "brighten" the sound by not completely reducing unstressed Е to И, leaving the vowel still somewhats E-like. That's not how people speak in reality, and certainly not today.

[Also, unstressed Я, as far as I can tell, becomes йи (word initial, like "ягу`ар") [/quote]
What?
夥辣鱶?驫蓍 鞐艨鉋 焜黴 ?鞐褞辮蔡鱶褌 艪鼕鈞 鉈諤蜊 驪鈞瑁 痳髀諤鴉

Originally Posted by Anixx

[Also, unstressed Я, as far as I can tell, becomes йи (word initial, like "ягу`ар")

What?
夥辣鱶?驫蓍 鞐艨鉋 焜黴 ?鞐褞辮蔡鱶褌 艪鼕鈞 鉈諤蜊 驪鈞瑁 痳髀諤鴉[/QUOTE]
Well, seems this dictionary is plain wrong, so don't use it. phon_razbor.gif
Try this:
瀰嗔 > 吶鉋? > 夥辣鱶袱 > 昼瑜逶 艪鼕
This type of reduction is clearly audiable is words such as язык, явление. I recorded some pronunciations on Forv. You can just check how it actually sounds in case you cannot consult a native speaker.