Quote Originally Posted by Karavanshchik View Post
I have a question regarding the pronunciation of feminine nouns that end with -а. For example, аватара (underlining the stress) or avatar in Russian,

аватара (sing. nom. case) vs. аватаре (sing. dat. case)

Are both of the pronunciation homonyms? Or maybe аватаре is pronounced more like аватари in Standard Russian?
(Didn't read whole thread, aslo I'm not linguist at all. But I am Russian, so I tried to understand difference by myself. Hope, this will be helpfull)
For the most part, `аватАра` и `аватАре` are pronounced similar. You don't need to give attention to it.
But the light difference exists.
For example, if `аватар` means small user's picture on forum, then:
`У тебя нет аватАра` - pronounces with strength in it. Guess, it's something like `fIght`
`Что это у тебя на аватАре?` - pronounces softer than former one. It has nothing to do with exclusions or rules. It's because `е` in the end is "soft" sound, which makes `р` softer, and vice versa. So, `аватАре` gets his softness from `е`.