Э is [e], and it's not silent.
Watching Soviet movies, I've noticed the last name Мкртчян pop up in the credits. I'm guessing the name is Armenian, not Russian, but I still can't even fathom how to say a name with six consonants to one vowel.
The rules of transliteration should be universal to avoid confusion. AFAIK mainly armenian words and names can be transliterated directly without such problems, so direct transliteration is the current rule for Armenian-Russian word transformation.
BTW This guy is an excellent comic. Consider his last name as a part of his emploi.
"Россия для русских" - это неправильно. Остальные-то чем лучше?
ministrels???
And for a guy who goes by zxc, don't think you are going a bit too far questioning consonant sequences? =:^)
In some Slavic languages the vocalic /r/ is quite natural. Take this Czech sentence, for instance.
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