Thread: Question about unstressed O and E

We know that unstressed O sounds like A and unstressed E sounds like И.

My question is does this situation occurs on the syllables before the stressed one or into the whole word?

and second, are they any exceptions in that rule?

Originally Posted by tolis

We know that unstressed O sounds like A and unstressed E sounds like И.

My question is does this situation occurs on the syllables before the stressed one or into the whole word?

In the whole word (unless the word is very long and there is something like second stress).

Originally Posted by tolis

and second, are they any exceptions in that rule?

Well... This is a problem of articulation, not of some formal rules. I'd say that in fact all unstressed vowels in Russian are pronounced as schwa, unless speaker exaggerates articulation. In normal speech Russians used to hear А and И, but foreigners (as this forum shows) can hear something rather unexpected instead.

I believe certain words have unstressed O that is always pronounced as O.

e.g.
ра́дио - radio
ха́ос - chaos
послеза́втра - the day after tomorrow

but this is most certainly the exception rather than the rule.

Demonic_duck
Missed, they all turn into shwas more or less.

послезавтра - Wiktionary
радио - Wiktionary
?

Both have sound clips which have a definite «о» sound in. As for «хаос», its Wiktionary entry doesn't have a sound clip, but I asked a Russian friend about how it's pronounced and he told me that the «о» isn't reduced (or maybe I misunderstood him).

WebFile - скачать бесплатно Oh-s.mp3
Послезавтра по радио будут передавать про грядущий хаос.

Послезавтра - O dimmed to the 30%.
Радио, хаос - O dimmed to the 70%.
But they are not clear O's. And if I try to enunciate these words - then yes, I'll put clear O's in there. Except послезавтра because О is soooo far away from the stressed syllable.

Originally Posted by Demonic_Duck

Both have sound clips which have a definite «о» sound in. As for «хаос», its Wiktionary entry doesn't have a sound clip, but I asked a Russian friend about how it's pronounced and he told me that the «о» isn't reduced (or maybe I misunderstood him).

It is a problem of articulation. One can say those words either more or less articulated and still have perfectly Russian pronunciation. Most people in normal speech will not articulate heavily.

Thanks for the clarification

Originally Posted by tolis

My question is does this situation occurs on the syllables before the stressed one or into the whole word?

'а' or 'о' in the syllable before the stressed one sound not the same as in unstressed syllable in any other position.

Usually A and O are pronounced /a/ immediately before the stressed syllable and schwa elsewhere. E is usually pronounced /i/ when not stressed everywhere, with various exceptions at morpheme boundaries -- the "desinence" at the end of a word where you can find /e/. For example, поле, море, the last syllable in читаете.

Well, the basic rule is that the farther the vowel away from the stressed syllable the more dimmed it is. I mean the closer to the shwa. A perfect example is the "молоко" word. You don't say it "малако", it's said like [мəлако]. The 1st О is almost, like 99% is a shwa because it's relatively far away from the stressed vowel and the second O is like 70% of A and 30% of shwa because it's closer to the stress and vowels near the stressed syllable become clearer.

thank you all for your help. I got some conclusions, still need a native russian speaker shout to my ears Os and As words

What about the Os in these words ? Одиночество (loneliness) Количество ( I dont know the meaning pls tell me) ?

First check where the stress is: одинОчество (loneliness), колИчество (quantity)
The stressed О and E are always articulated clearly. In other syllables they turn either into А/И respectively or into schwa - as a beginner you can stick to А/И (just don't exaggerate them too much), and it will sound ok.

Based on what I said "одинОчество" and "колИчество" can be pronounced as "адинОчиства" and "калИчиства" (it's a slightly simplified version).

thanks gRomoZeka ! I got it