I understand how a ь affects the following vowel.
But now I realize it is also affecting the preceding consonant as well.
I recently obtained an old VHS video where a native speaker talks about ь softening a preceding л
She pronounces both -л and -ль and then again with the camera close to her mouth.
There is no more description about what is going on with the tongue.

From other threads here, I can see that an audible difference also happens between -д and -дь
and between -ш and -шь.

Outside of sitting down with a tutor, does anyone have thorough material on this?


Quote Originally Posted by chaika
Postby chaika » Mon Jul 24, 2006 7:08 pm

so do Americans.

You need a native speaking tutor for a few lessons to get the pronunciation down. Or at least to get a start on getting the pronunciation down.