Russian For Dummies. Serafima Gettys

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misbehavin’: Understanding when vowels change sounds” and “Cat got your tongue?: Consonants losing their voice.”)

      Giving voice to vowels

      Vowels are the musical building blocks of every Russian word. If you flub a consonant or two, you’ll probably still be understood. (To avoid such flubs, though, check out “Enunciating consonants correctly” later in this chapter.) But if you don’t pronounce your vowels correctly, there’s a good chance that you won’t be understood at all. So it’s a good idea to get down the basic principles of saying Russian vowels, which we cover in the following sections.

      That’s stretching it: Lengthening out vowels

       If you want to sound more Russian, don’t shorten your vowels, as English speakers often do. When you say Aa, Oo, or Уу, open your mouth really wide, like a Russian opera singer. Also be sure not to round your mouth after Oo or Уу, and deliberately stretch out the sounds to make them a little bit longer. Imagine that you’re in your room on the second floor, and your mom is downstairs in the kitchen. You call her by saying “Mo-o-o-m!” That’s the way Russians say their vowels (except for the shouting part!).

      Some stress is good: Accenting the right vowels and getting used to shifting accents

       Stress is an important concept in Russian. Putting a stress in the wrong place isn’t just a formal mistake; it can also hinder communication, because the meaning of a word can change based on where the stress is. Take the word зaмoк (zah-mahk), which means castle. If you shift the stress from the first syllable to the last, зaмoк (zuh-mohk) now means lock.

Unfortunately, no hard-and-fast rules about stress exist. Stress in Russian is unpredictable and erratic, though you’ll begin to recognize some patterns as you learn more. The harsh truth, however, is that each word has its own stress pattern. What happens if you stress the vowel in the wrong place? Certainly, nothing terrible: The Earth will continue to rotate around its axis. What may happen, however, is that the person you’re talking to may have a hard time understanding you and will take longer to grasp what you really mean.

       Before learning a new Russian word, find out which vowel to stress. Look in any Russian–English dictionary, which usually marks stress by putting the sign ´ over the stressed syllable. In a dictionary, зaмoк (zah-mahk) (castle) is written зáмoк, and зaмoк (zuh-mohk) (lock) is written зaмóк.

      Vowels misbehavin’: Understanding when vowels change sounds

       Some Russian letters change their behavior depending on whether they’re in a stressed or an unstressed syllable. The vowels Aa, Oo, Ee, and Яя, for example, sound like ah, oh, yeh, and ya when they’re in a stressed syllable, but when they’re in an unstressed position, they sound like uh, ah, ee, and yeh, respectively.

      Here are some examples of how one letter is pronounced differently in different positions:

       You write Кoлopaдo(Colorado) but say kah-lah-rah-dah. Notice that all the os in this word are pronounced ah rather than oh. None of them is pronounced oh, because all of them appear in unstressed syllables.

       You write xopoшo(good, well) but say khah-rah-shoh. Here, we have three os. Notice that the first and the second os are pronounced ah, whereas the last one, in the stressed syllable, is pronounced oh.

       You write нaпpaвo(to the right) but say nuh-prah-vah. Notice that the first a is pronounced uh because it’s not in the stressed syllable, the second a is pronounced ah because it’s in the stressed syllable, and the final o is pronounced ah because it’s not stressed.

       You write Пeтepбуpг(Petersburg) but say pee-teer-boohrk. Notice that the e is pronounced as ee in each case because it’s not stressed.

      Hear that hiss: Saying sibilants with vowels

      The letters ж, ц, ч, ш, and щ are called sibilants because they emit a hissing sound. When certain vowels appear after these letters, those vowels are pronounced slightly differently from normal:

       After a sibilant, e is pronounced eh (as in end), and ё is pronounced oh (as in opus). Examples are the words цeнтp (tsehntr) (center) and шёл (shohl) (went by foot).

       The sound ee always becomes i after one of these sibilants, regardless of whether the ee sound comes from the letter и or from an unstressed e. Take, for example, the words мaшинa (muh-shi-nuh) (car) and бoльшe (bohl’-shi) (bigger).

      Enunciating consonants correctly

      Like Russian vowels (see “Giving voice to vowels” earlier in this chapter), Russian consonants follow certain patterns and rules of pronunciation. If you want to sound like a real Russian, you need to keep the basics in the following sections in mind.

      Say it, don’t spray it!: Relaxing with consonants

      When pronouncing the letters Пп, Tт, or Кк, English speakers are used to straining their tongue and lips. This strain results in what linguists call aspiration — a burst of air that comes out of your mouth as you say these sounds. To see what we’re talking about, put your hand in front of your mouth, and say the word top. You should feel air against your hand as you pronounce the word.

       In Russian, however, consonants are pronounced without aspiration. In other words, say it, don’t spray it! In fact, you should totally relax your tongue and lips before saying the Russian Пп, Tт, or Кк.

Imagine a woman who has just had a stroke. She isn’t able to put much effort into her consonants. Believe it or not, that’s almost the way you should say your Russian consonants. Relax your lips as much as possible, and you’ll say them correctly. To practice saying consonants without unnecessary aspiration, again, put your hand in front of your mouth, and say the following Russian cognates (words that Russian borrowed from English): пapк

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