# Forum Learning Russian Language Pronunciation, Speech & Accent  How you write it and how you pronounce it!

## Oggi

Is my observation correct?: 
Russian is a language that is pronounced very much the way it is written.
Exceptions seem to be when some letters are not pronounced.
The pronunciation of this one: яз is more like: йз 
What do you think?

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## Dimitri

> The pronunciation of this one: яз is more like: йз

 I hink it's more: йиз

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## Chuvak

You're almost right. We are used to pronounce a great deal of words just as we write them, but there are a few exceptions. For an instanse:  
spelling: Солнце, prononciation: Сонце (omitting the letter л)
spelling: Что,        prononciation: Што    (changing Ч into Ш)

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## TATY

> Is my observation correct?: 
> Russian is a language that is pronounced very much the way it is written.
> Exceptions seem to be when some letters are not pronounced.
> The pronunciation of this one: яз is more like: йз 
> What do you think?

 You are talking about язык and the reason for the reduction is because the я is unstressed.

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## Remyisme

> You're almost right. We are used to pronounce a great deal of words just as we write them, but there are a few exceptions. For an instanse:  
> spelling: Солнце, prononciation: Сонце (omitting the letter л)
> spelling: Что,        prononciation: Што    (changing Ч into Ш)

 
spelling: сердце -  prononciation: серце
spelling: поздно - prononciation: позно

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## TATY

> Originally Posted by Chuvak  You're almost right. We are used to pronounce a great deal of words just as we write them, but there are a few exceptions. For an instanse:  
> spelling: Солнце, prononciation: Сонце (omitting the letter л)
> spelling: Что,        prononciation: Што    (changing Ч into Ш)   
> spelling: сердце -  prononciation: серце
> spelling: поздно - prononciation: позно

 Чувствовать - first В not pronounced
Здравствуйте - first B not pronounced
Бог - pronounced Бох
Мягкий - pronounced Мяхкий

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## Dimitri

> Originally Posted by Remyisme        Originally Posted by Chuvak  You're almost right. We are used to pronounce a great deal of words just as we write them, but there are a few exceptions. For an instanse:  
> spelling: Солнце, prononciation: Сонце (omitting the letter л)
> spelling: Что,        prononciation: Што    (changing Ч into Ш)   
> spelling: сердце -  prononciation: серце
> spelling: поздно - prononciation: позно   Чувствовать - first В not pronounced
> Здравствуйте - first B not pronounced
> Бог - pronounced Бох
> Мягкий - pronounced Мяхкий

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## TATY

Typo!

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## Vesh

Корова произносится карова. 
Stressed "a" gives a sound that actually is a bit different than unstressed "a" and than unstressed "o". Unstressed "a" and unstressed "o" are probably the same.

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## DDT

Корова курила сигарету в мундштуке!

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## HA

> Is my observation correct?: 
> Russian is a language that is pronounced very much the way it is written.

 Yes, and that's intentional - we actually bother to synchronize our spelling with pronunciation once in a while.

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## groovychick

well there's the thing with all the звонкие шумные (at the end of the word they become глухие) 
друг -druk'
пляж - pljash
кровь - krof' 
these phonemes for example are pronounced in an entirely different way at the end of the word, they lose their characteristical sound

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## Dimitri

> пляж - pljash

 тут слышится ж.. что-то между ш и ж, не чистое ш

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## laxxy

> Is my observation correct?:

 No.  

> Russian is a language that is pronounced very much the way it is written.

 Maybe only compared to English. But that is not that big an achievement  ::

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## laxxy

> пляж - pljash
> 			
> 		  тут слышится ж.. что-то между ш и ж, не чистое ш

 It means that you are listening to non-standard Russian.

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## Dimitri

> Originally Posted by Dimitri     
> 			
> 				пляж - pljash
> 			
> 		  тут слышится ж.. что-то между ш и ж, не чистое ш   It means that you are listening to non-standard Russian.

 Я слышу нормальный русский. И я слышу среднее между ш и ж

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## Seventh-Monkey

> well there's the thing with all the звонкие шумные (at the end of the word they become глухие) 
> друг -druk'
> пляж - pljash
> кровь - krof' 
> these phonemes for example are pronounced in an entirely different way at the end of the word, they lose their characteristical sound

 Not entirely differently, it's just without the vibration of the vocal cords. It's voicing/de-voicing.

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## TATY

> Originally Posted by groovychick  well there's the thing with all the звонкие шумные (at the end of the word they become глухие) 
> друг -druk'
> пляж - pljash
> кровь - krof' 
> these phonemes for example are pronounced in an entirely different way at the end of the word, they lose their characteristical sound   Not entirely differently, it's just without the vibration of the vocal cords. It's voicing/de-voicing.

 Exactly. They are not completely different. And there shouldn't be an ' after the K.

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## HA

> Russian is a language that is pronounced very much the way it is written.
> 			
> 		  Maybe only compared to English. But that is not that big an achievement

 In fact, it is quite an achievement, as it saves children precious time - they dont have to memorize too much spelling and may concentrate on more interesting activities. 
Imagine trying to drive from point A to point B using a map that is 800 years old - that's trying to read using ancient spelling for you.   ::

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## TATY

> Originally Posted by laxxy     
> 			
> 				Russian is a language that is pronounced very much the way it is written.
> 			
> 		  Maybe only compared to English. But that is not that big an achievement    In fact, it is quite an achievement, as it saves children precious time - they dont have to memorize too much spelling and may concentrate on more interesting activities. 
> Imagine trying to drive from point A to point B using a map that is 800 years old - that's trying to read using ancient spelling for you.

 No, he was saying that it's not difficult for a language to be more phonetic than English.

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## HA

Why don't you try telling that to the Chinese and the French  ::   ::  
Anyway, Russian spelling is noticeably learner-friendly, and that's quite an accomplishment.

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## BlackMage

> Anyway, Russian spelling is noticeably learner-friendly, and that's quite an accomplishment.

 That is quite true, until you start throwing in ь ъ ы and й. 
Since we learners basically ignore all ь and ъ, pronounce ы as и and ignore й when it comes at the end of the the word (and sometimes elsewhere), it is quite common to see things like ти пишеш историу.  
As usual i'm just blathering on meaninglessly.

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## laxxy

> Why don't you try telling that to the Chinese and the French   
> Anyway, Russian spelling is noticeably learner-friendly, and that's quite an accomplishment.

 Well, Chinese and Japanese are in its' own league here, I don't think it's a fair comparison. But I believe French is more phonetic than Russian -- you simply have to know the rules, and there are not too many of them.

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## Rtyom

So is Spanish.

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## Seventh-Monkey

> So is Spanish.

 Heh, Spanish must be about the easiest language ever for English-speakers.

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## TATY

> Originally Posted by HA  Why don't you try telling that to the Chinese and the French   
> Anyway, Russian spelling is noticeably learner-friendly, and that's quite an accomplishment.   Well, Chinese and Japanese are in its' own league here, I don't think it's a fair comparison. But I believe French is more phonetic than Russian -- you simply have to know the rules, and there are not too many of them.

 Yes, French looks like it isn't phontetic, well it isn't, but there are rules for pronunciation. English however has very shakey "rules" with loads of exceptions for each one. 
I remember at school they taught us "I before E, except after C"

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## laxxy

> Originally Posted by laxxy        Originally Posted by HA  Why don't you try telling that to the Chinese and the French   
> Anyway, Russian spelling is noticeably learner-friendly, and that's quite an accomplishment.   Well, Chinese and Japanese are in its' own league here, I don't think it's a fair comparison. But I believe French is more phonetic than Russian -- you simply have to know the rules, and there are not too many of them.   Yes, French looks like it isn't phontetic, well it isn't, but there are rules for pronunciation. English however has very shakey "rules" with loads of exceptions for each one. 
> I remember at school they taught us "I before E, except after C"

 That (i.e. spelling words I already know) has never really been a problem for me, actually. The problem was more in how to find out that "lease" rhymes with "niece" rather than "tease", and such... 
By comparison, French (iirc) is a lot more predictable and that "s" between vowels is always read as "z" -- quite phonetic to me.

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## challenger

> Originally Posted by laxxy        Originally Posted by HA  Why don't you try telling that to the Chinese and the French   
> Anyway, Russian spelling is noticeably learner-friendly, and that's quite an accomplishment.   Well, Chinese and Japanese are in its' own league here, I don't think it's a fair comparison. But I believe French is more phonetic than Russian -- you simply have to know the rules, and there are not too many of them.   Yes, French looks like it isn't phontetic, well it isn't, but there are rules for pronunciation. English however has very shakey "rules" with loads of exceptions for each one. 
> I remember at school they taught us "I before E, except after C"

 There would be fewer exceptions if you memorized the supplementary rules... that only applies if you're dealing with a long e sound. Long a sound, e goes first.

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## chaika

I believe the full rule is: 
Use i before e except after c  
or when sounded like a as in neighbor or weigh;  
and except seize and seizure and also leisure, weird, height, and either, forfeit, and neither.

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## BlackMage

What about sceince?

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## kwatts59

> I believe the full rule is: 
> Use i before e except after c  
> or when sounded like a as in neighbor or weigh;  
> and except seize and seizure and also leisure, weird, height, and either, forfeit, and neither.

 What about "their"?

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## TATY

> Originally Posted by chaika  I believe the full rule is: 
> Use i before e except after c  
> or when sounded like a as in neighbor or weigh;  
> and except seize and seizure and also leisure, weird, height, and either, forfeit, and neither.   What about "their"?

 And Heir

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## challenger

Those are both long "a" sounds.

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## TATY

> Those are both long "a" sounds.

 Erm. 
You said w*ei*ght, had a long "a" sound. 
In Their and Heir it is a long E song (E as in g*e*t) 
Weight and Their are different.

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## challenger

> Originally Posted by challenger  Those are both long "a" sounds.   Erm. 
> You said w*ei*ght, had a long "a" sound. 
> In Their and Heir it is a long E song (E as in g*e*t) 
> Weight and Their are different.

 Are you British? If so, I can't expect that American morphological rules would apply to your pronunciation, but "get" has a short E sound, and Weight and Their are both long A sounds.

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## philippiq

> Is my observation correct?: 
> Russian is a language that is pronounced very much the way it is written.
> Exceptions seem to be when some letters are not pronounced.
> The pronunciation of this one: яз is more like: йз 
> What do you think?

 you are not right 
you have to listen some people with south russian accent, some others from vologda and some from moscow region 
feel the difference 
in moscow region the accent is with more А sound instead of O
like the australian accent in english 
to the opposite of that in vologda they use O always 
so the words  
корова и молоко
in vologda will be pronounced like they are written
and in moscow region as
кАрова и мАлАко

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## Leof

карова даёт малако,
корова - молоко! 
that is true!  ::

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## philippiq

> Originally Posted by laxxy        Originally Posted by Dimitri     
> 			
> 				пляж - pljash
> 			
> 		  тут слышится ж.. что-то между ш и ж, не чистое ш   It means that you are listening to non-standard Russian.   Я слышу нормальный русский. И я слышу среднее между ш и ж

 я вас умоляю, в тель-авиве руский будет с еврейским акцентом ж))

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## Dimitri

> Originally Posted by Dimitri        Originally Posted by laxxy        Originally Posted by Dimitri     
> 			
> 				пляж - pljash
> 			
> 		  тут слышится ж.. что-то между ш и ж, не чистое ш   It means that you are listening to non-standard Russian.   Я слышу нормальный русский. И я слышу среднее между ш и ж   я вас умоляю, в Тель-Авиве русский будет с еврейским акцентом ж))

 Ну я вообще-то еще телевизор смотрю и с друзьями из Москвы по телефону разговариваю. Тоже еврейский акцент? )

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## TATY

> Originally Posted by TATY        Originally Posted by challenger  Those are both long "a" sounds.   Erm. 
> You said w*ei*ght, had a long "a" sound. 
> In Their and Heir it is a long E song (E as in g*e*t) 
> Weight and Their are different.   Are you British? If so, I can't expect that American morphological rules would apply to your pronunciation, but "get" has a short E sound, and Weight and Their are both long A sounds.

 Well then your rules only work if you are American. 
And I still don't think even in American accents Weight and Their contain the same vowel sound.  
If that is so then Heir would pronounced the same as the name of the letter A, with an R sound after. When isn't it actually pronounced the same as the word "air". Saying things like "Long A sound" and "Long E sound" when talking about English is not a good idea because: 1. They are so many accents, and 2. English spelling is messed up. 
Are you actually saying Weight and Their contain then same vowel sounds in standard American? 
If we look at this list of American vowels:   
Weight, Straight, etc. is the third Row. E.g. Weight and Hate are the same apart from the initial consonant. 
Their, Heir, are the Hair and Cared, Bared row, (third from bottom).

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## basurero

I think there is a big difference between *weight* and *their* in an American accent.

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## philippiq

> карова даёт малако,
> корова - молоко! 
> that is true!

 
in addition to that i can say that with that A sound they also reduce O sound
and in vologda region they don't reduce O sound in these words

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## philippiq

> Originally Posted by philippiq        Originally Posted by Dimitri        Originally Posted by laxxy        Originally Posted by Dimitri     
> 			
> 				пляж - pljash
> 			
> 		  тут слышится ж.. что-то между ш и ж, не чистое ш   It means that you are listening to non-standard Russian.   Я слышу нормальный русский. И я слышу среднее между ш и ж   я вас умоляю, в Тель-Авиве русский будет с еврейским акцентом ж))   Ну я вообще-то еще телевизор смотрю и с друзьями из Москвы по телефону разговариваю. Тоже еврейский акцент? )

 
ээх не поняли вы мою шутку, ну ладно может в другой раз, или я туп...
ну например 
таки ваши друзья в москве евреи ?  
PS: я как носитель языка могу сказать что в москве язык очень вариабелен и местами очень даже не чист ;(
к сожалению большое количество людей говорит не то что с местячковым акцентом, а вообще не правильно.;(

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