Thread: Russian ы compared to French œ and German oe

For any mutilingual phonetics expert: The Russian ы sound, to my ears, seems similar to the French œ in sœur and the German oe in Goethe. Are the tongue position and production of any of these three sounds close or even identical? If not, what are the technical differences?

Z

None of these sounds are identical.
The French [œ] in ‘sœur’ is rather similar to the German [ø] in ‘Goethe’. The latter is more close than the former, that is the tongue is located a bit higher in the mouth. [œ] is an open-mid vowel while [ø] is a close-mid one. Both of them are rounded and front. (BTW the French [œ] in ‘sœur’ is almost identical to the German [œ] in ‘Hölle’ and the German [ø] in ‘Goethe’ is almost identical to the French [ø] in ‘peu’).

The articulation of the Russian [ы] (or [ɨ]) sound differs from them in height, backness, and roundness. [ы] is almost close, central, and unrounded, i.e. the tongue is a bit higher and moved more back and the lips are relaxed.

If anything in German, it is closer to ü but unrounded, the lips do not form an o.

Here you can read some advanced details written by a professional linguist (in Russian).