Thread: Где

Originally Posted by Platinum

Okay, sorry to bring this up again. But the only thing I know from Russian comes from Pimsleur. The CD's are quite clear that "Где" is pronounced "gd-zia". I don't know where the "z" sound comes from. I've listened over and over again, in different parts of the CD's. But they always say it with the "z" sound in it.

Can somebody explain this?

There is no 'z' sound in 'gde'. To me, it looks like you are having trouble understanding palatilization and distinguishing soft (palatilized) consonants from hard ones.
There are a few nice guides on the internet, and there was a thread on this forum about russian pronunciation too, with some links and other information.

Originally Posted by laxxy

Originally Posted by Platinum

Okay, sorry to bring this up again. But the only thing I know from Russian comes from Pimsleur. The CD's are quite clear that "Где" is pronounced "gd-zia". I don't know where the "z" sound comes from. I've listened over and over again, in different parts of the CD's. But they always say it with the "z" sound in it.

Can somebody explain this?

There is no 'z' sound in 'gde'. To me, it looks like you are having trouble understanding palatilization and distinguishing soft (palatilized) consonants from hard ones.
There are a few nice guides on the internet, and there was a thread on this forum about russian pronunciation too, with some links and other information.

Here's the problem. I don't think that I AM having trouble. IMO, the CD seems to overpronunciate certain sounds/letters/whatever. I know that Где has no "z" sound. However, it very certainly makes it sound that way on the CD. It's not slight, either. I think it's a very obvious "z" sound. In any event, we all know it's not supposed to be there. And if I'm hearing it, maybe they stress it wrong or maybe I'm just not hearing it right. Anyway, nevermind.

THanks again,
Platinum-

Originally Posted by Platinum

Originally Posted by laxxy

Originally Posted by Platinum

Okay, sorry to bring this up again. But the only thing I know from Russian comes from Pimsleur. The CD's are quite clear that "Где" is pronounced "gd-zia". I don't know where the "z" sound comes from. I've listened over and over again, in different parts of the CD's. But they always say it with the "z" sound in it.

Can somebody explain this?

There is no 'z' sound in 'gde'. To me, it looks like you are having trouble understanding palatilization and distinguishing soft (palatilized) consonants from hard ones.
There are a few nice guides on the internet, and there was a thread on this forum about russian pronunciation too, with some links and other information.

Here's the problem. I don't think that I AM having trouble. IMO, the CD seems to overpronunciate certain sounds/letters/whatever. I know that Где has no "z" sound. However, it very certainly makes it sound that way on the CD. It's not slight, either. I think it's a very obvious "z" sound. In any event, we all know it's not supposed to be there. And if I'm hearing it, maybe they stress it wrong or maybe I'm just not hearing it right. Anyway, nevermind.

THanks again,
Platinum-

the russian 'd', especially the soft 'd', is quite different from the English 'd'. It may be easier for you to imagine russian 'd' as a combination of 'd' and 'z', as it is often easier for English speakers to imagine soft consonants as if there were an extra short vowel following them. Webster even invented a special symbol (a superscript "y") for this, but no Russian can hear anything like that.

One interesting indication of it may be this: in Japanese, I very clearly hear their 'z' line sounds as 'dz'-s, and all Russian books on Japanese instruct to pronounce it as 'dz'. On the other hand, all English books I've seen just say that the Japanese 'z' is just "z like in zoo", which seems totally wrong to me. Our native language affects our sound recognition a great deal.

Platinum, if you would put a short Pimsleur sample with "где" for us to download, we could at least tell you if it's pronounced correctly or not.

Originally Posted by laxxy

the russian 'd', especially the soft 'd', is quite different from the English 'd'. It may be easier for you to imagine russian 'd' as a combination of 'd' and 'z', as it is often easier for English speakers to imagine soft consonants as if there were an extra short vowel following them. Webster even invented a special symbol (a superscript "y") for this, but no Russian can hear anything like that.

One interesting indication of it may be this: in Japanese, I very clearly hear their 'z' line sounds as 'dz'-s, and all Russian books on Japanese instruct to pronounce it as 'dz'. On the other hand, all English books I've seen just say that the Japanese 'z' is just "z like in zoo", which seems totally wrong to me. Our native language affects our sound recognition a great deal.

Thanks, this makes a lot of sense. I think it's just what you say. In normal conversation you'd never hear this "z" sound, but when it's really enunciated on the CD it sounds very prominent.

I think I got it now.

Platinum