Thread: What is and what is not important in Russian pronunciation

Very useful informations...

Are you joking?

Thank you for this explanation. I've been struggling with this for a long time, based on my own predispositions to 'accent' growing up in the USA... Long, *long* before I attempted to learn any foreign language, I learned from TV/media the set of "accents" for different European places.. The general Londoner accent with insinuated "ahh" r's, the French soft rolled "rrr," the Latin-language sharp-angled r "eh-reh;" and in that set of stereotyped accents (for stereotypes is what they were), the Russian "l" was an "L", a very thick and heavy sounding "L" that signified a Russian accent.. It seems Russian "L" 's come in all shapes and sizes.. for "люк" it seems the palatial opposite of the Russian (stereotyped) hard "L" - name the soft "l" that might be used in pronouncing "really" with a heavy French accent, sounds like it would be more fitting for this word... When I first tried to learn pronunciation, the hard "L" next to a "yuh" sound, as the beginning of ю or ё, was hard to pull off without sounding like "lee-oo" or "looo"(ie either pronounced too slowly or skipped entirely the "yuh" sound)... but when I try a soft "l" as in French-accent "really," then my clumsy American lips can say люк without sounding too bad.. imho.. =)

Thanks again for this explanation, I can say as a native English speaker it helps me to understand better how not to butcher the Russian language.. =)

Originally Posted by Marcus

Are you joking?

. No, I was not joking , you can trust in me.