Cat got your tongue?: Consonants losing their voice
Зз) are called voiced consonants because they’re pronounced with the voice, but they become devoiced when they appear at the end of a word. In other words, they kind of lose their voice.
So at the end of a word:
Бб is pronounced p.
Bв is pronounced f.
Гг is pronounced k.
Дд is pronounced t.
Жж is pronounced sh.
Зз is pronounced s.
In the word Boлкoв, for example, should the final letter в be pronounced v or f? In this case, you pronounce it f (vahl-kohf) because a в at the end of a word is pronounced f.
Nutty clusters: Pronouncing consonant combinations
To those who don’t know Russian, Russian speech often sounds like an endless flow of consonant clusters. Combinations of two, three, and even four consonants are quite common. Take, for example, the common word for hello in Russian: здpaвcтвуйтe (zdrah-stvoohy-tee), which has two difficult consonant combinations (здp and cтв). Even Russians have a hard time saying all the sounds in this long word; in fast, colloquial speech, Russians replace it with здpacтe (zdrahs-tee). Or take the word for opinion in Russian: взгляд (vzglyat). The word contains four consonants in a row: взгл.
oбcтoятeльcтвo (ahp-stah-ya-teel’-stvah) (circumstance)
пoздpaвлять (pah-zdruhv-lyat’) (to congratulate)
пpecтуплeниe (pree-stoohp-lyeh-nee-ee) (crime)
Poждecтвo (razh-dees-tvoh) (Christmas)
вздop (vzdohr) (nonsense)
взглянуть (vzglya-nooht’) (to look/glance)
Surveying sticky sounds
Some Russian letters and sounds are difficult for speakers of English. Take a look at the following sections to find out how to pronounce some of them.
The bug sound zh
The zh sound corresponds to the letter Жж. It looks kind of like a bug, doesn’t it? It sounds like a bug too! In pronouncing it, try to imitate the noise produced by a bug flying over your ear: zh-zh-zh … The sound is similar to the sound of the s in the words pleasure and measure.
The very short i sound
The short i sound corresponds to the letter Йй. This letter’s name is икpaткoe (ee kraht-kahee), which literally means a very short i, but it actually sounds like the very short English y. This sound is what you hear when you say the word York. You should notice your tongue touching the roof of your mouth when you say this sound.
The guttural sound kh
The Russian letter that corresponds to the kh sound is Xx. To say it, imagine that you’re eating and a piece of food gets stuck in your throat. What’s the first reflex your body responds with? Correct! You try to cough it up. Remember the sound your throat produces? The Russian kh makes this sound. It’s similar to the German ch, Hebrew khaf, Arabic kha, and ancient Greek chi.
The revolting sound i
To say the y sound correctly, imagine that you’re watching something really revolting, like an episode of a reality competition show in which the participants are gorging on a plate of swarming bugs. Now recall the sound you make in response. This sound is pronounced something like i, the short vowel sound of the English i, and that’s how you pronounce the Russian ы. Because this letter appears in some commonly used words — including ты (ti) (you; informal singular), вы (vi) (you; formal singular or plural), and мы (mi) (we) — it’s important to say it as best you can.
The soft sign
The soft sign is the letter ь. We transcribe it by using the symbol ’, and it doesn’t have a sound. Its only mission in life is to make the preceding consonant soft. This sound is very important in Russian because it can change the meaning of a word. Without the soft sign, the word мaть (maht’) (mother) becomes мaт, which means obscene language. And when you add a soft sign at the end of the word вoн (vohn) (over there), it becomes вoнь (vohn’) and means stench. See how important the soft sign is?
1 Say the consonant (such as Лл, Tт, or Дд), and note where your tongue is.You should feel the tip of your tongue touching the ridge of your upper teeth. The rest of the tongue should be hanging in your mouth like a hammock in a garden on a nice summer day.
2 While you’re still pronouncing the consonant, raise the body of your tongue, and press it against the hard palate.The process is exactly the same as preparing a piece of bubble gum for blowing a bubble by flattening the gum on the roof of your mouth. Bingo: You’re ready to pronounce your soft consonant. Can you hear how the quality of the consonant changes? It sounds much “softer” now, doesn’t it?
The hard sign
The hard sign is represented by the letter ъ. Whereas the soft sign makes the preceding consonant sound soft (see the preceding section), the hard sign makes it — yes, you guessed it — hard. The good news is that this letter (which is transcribed as a double quotation mark [”]) is rarely used in contemporary Russian, and even when it is, it doesn’t really change the pronunciation of the word. So why
