Thread: phonetics

hi, i'm trying to learn russian on my own through websites and books, etc. i know russian is a phonetic language, pronounced as it's written, but when i translate some things, then look up the pronunciation for each letter, it seems clumsy, and i wasn't sure if maybe this is the wrong way of going about things.

я люблю Вас.
this is what i get when i type "i love you" into an internet language translator. when i look up each letter's pronunciation, i get something along the lines of "ya l-yoo-bl-yoo vos", and that second word seems odd. plus i've listened to russian and english versions of the same song, and a part where i know the woman says "i love you", it sounds completely different from the pronunciation i determined. is there an informal way or something? forgive me if this all seems silly or obvious, i'm just a 17-year-old who loves russia.

Well an informal version would be "Я люблю тебя" Also, word order can be changed. "Я тебя/вас/люблю" is common too.

Russian isn' completely phonetic. It's more or less, but unstressed vowels sound different.

Oh, and don't use translators. They all suck. You'll learn Runglish, which is very, very, very wrong.

I would say Russian isn't pronounced as it is spelled. There are loads of rules that help you pronounce words, and they are fairly regular rules, but words pronounced in a flowing sentence will be pronounced as they are spelled rarely.

A few examples.

дом house /dom/ pronounced as it is spelled.
дома houses /dam

What is weird about "lyublyu"? It's only rough transliteration of "люблю" - 1st person singular present tense of the verb "любить" (to love).

Phonetic language means most letters mean mainly one sound but you need to know the rules and the pronunciation of a language.

With this sentences (the second is more is more polite than the first) I 'll give another transcription.

Я люблю тебя (or Я тебя люблю)
[yah tebyA l'ubl'U]

Я люблю Вас (or Я Вас люблю)
[yah vas l'ubl'U]

If you want to learn Russian, learn the alphabet and some pronunciation rules first, trasnliterating Russian words in English can't be accurate because 1) Russian pronunciation is different from English, 2) English spelling is not phonetical and you can never be sure, eg. which vowel is meant with a letter - eg I spell друг (friend) as "drug" you will read as "drug", not as "droog".

Good luck with your Russian studies!

Originally Posted by mimsymarie

hi, i'm trying to learn russian on my own through websites and books, etc. i know russian is a phonetic language, pronounced as it's written

Most importantly: it is not.

, but when i translate some things, then look up the pronunciation for each letter, it seems clumsy, and i wasn't sure if maybe this is the wrong way of going about things.

я люблю Вас.
this is what i get when i type "i love you" into an internet language translator. when i look up each letter's pronunciation, i get something along the lines of "ya l-yoo-bl-yoo vos", and that second word seems odd. plus i've listened to russian and english versions of the same song, and a part where i know the woman says "i love you", it sounds completely different from the pronunciation i determined. is there an informal way or something? forgive me if this all seems silly or obvious, i'm just a 17-year-old who loves russia.

Actually, this particular phrase is written almost phonetically. Just remember that the "yoo"-s in "люблю" are very (especially so to a Russian ear) different from "ya" in "я" (or, say, "ю" in "Юля"), as the "y" is not pronounced and just indicates palatilization of the preceding consonant (л) there. The 'oo' is not quite an 'oo' either. 'y' actually appears only at the beginning of a word, or following a vowel, or a 'ь'/'ъ'. It may sound a bit tricky but there are a few nice guides out there; you may try google and there were some links in this forum as well.

thanks for all the help, i'll probably look for a good CD. i have started working on the alphabet and pronunciation, but i suppse i was a little too eager to dive in to the vocab. thanks again!