Quote:
Originally Posted by waxwing
I still don't understand the difference. This has been discussed more than once on this forum, but all my textbooks told me that these soft vowels like я and ю palatalize the preceding consonant. Is that not true?
That IS true. The difference is that the [й] sound is not pronounced if Я, Е, Ё, Ю follow a palatalized consonant immediately (as пять [p'at'], тюк [t'uk], лёд [l'ot]), but it IS pronounced when a Ь separates a vowel from a preceding consonant (as бурьян [bur'yan], вьюга [v'yuga], льёт [l'yot]). Many foreigners don't feel the difference, but it is essential in Russian. Compare: Он льёт воду на лёд. "He pours water onto the ice", the final consonant in both "льёт" and "лёд" is identical, but the words are pronounced differently.