Russian "B": different from English "V"
Hi, I am a total beginner learner of Russian and I am trying to better my pronunciation. I've been to websites like paulmeier.com, which includes sound bytes of the International Phonetic Alphabet, in order to learn some of the foreign sounds, especially the ы sound, in IPA represented by the "i" with a bar through the middle. When I hear it in the word "Tы", it sounds exactly as described to me. However, in the word "Вы" it sounds very different, almost like speakers of Russian are saying "Vwee" with a very odd sounding v. I've also noticed that in the Russian word "B" the v sound is different from in English. Can anyone explain this difference for me? Is the Russian B labialized or something like that?
On another note, I've tried both Pimsleur's audio program and Transparent Language's Learn Russian Now! in my first attempts to learn the language. The audio program was great for the first for lessons, but after that it became much too difficult and I decided that it wasn't enough for me to learn just by hearing. I bought Learn Russian Now! because it had video and visual aids, but it is incredibly confusing and not in the least helpful for a virgin to the language. Does anyone have some good suggestions for a (probably computer) Russian learning program?
Thanks
Hey I think I've found my answer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now I think I know why I seem to hear a /w/ after some Russian consonants. I've heard that in addition to distinguishing between palatalized and non-palatalized consonants, some Russians make all of their non-palatalized ones velarized, i.e. lifting the back of the tongue like you're going to say a /k/ or /g/. So... I found this article on wikipedia about lateral consonants:
Laterals in various languages
English has a lateral approximant phoneme /l/, which in many accents has two allophones. One, found before vowels as in lady or fly, is called clear l, pronounced as the alveolar lateral approximant [l] with a "neutral" position of the body of the tongue. The other variant, so-called dark l found before consonants or word-finally, as in bold or tell, is pronounced as the velarized alveolar lateral approximant [(/l/ with bar: this symbol doesn't copy on my computer)] with the tongue assuming a spoon-like shape with its back part raised, which gives the sound a [w]- or [similar sound)]-like resonance.
So that explains my hearing a /w/! The speakers I've heard have all velarized their v's and b's.