Pronunciation & Alphabet The Russian Alphabet, known as Cyrillic or Кириллица (Ki-reel-lee-tsa) has 33 letters; 21 consonants, 10 vowels and two signs. The letters are: А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ ъ ы ь Э Ю and Я. In order to make this explanation easier, the letters are broken down into specific groups. And don't worry; once you get used to the new alphabet, you'll see it makes more sense than English spelling ever has!
Consonants
Б б В в Г г Д д Ж ж З з Й й К к Л л М м Н н П п Р р С с Т т Ф ф Х х Ц ц Ч ч Ш ш Щ щ
Бэ -- Beh Вэ -- Veh Гэ -- Geh Дэ -- Deh Жэ -- Zheh Зэ-- Zeh И краткое-- i kratkoye Ка-- Kah Эл-- El Эм-- Em Эн -- En Пэ-- Peh Эрр -- Err Эс -- Es Тэ -- Teh Эф -- Ef Ха -- Khah Цэ -- Tseh Че -- Cheh Шэ -- Shah Ща -- Shchah
Best Vent Gift Deep pleaSure Zebra York King Lion Mend Next Pet trilled R Sink Tape Find like German iCH booTS CHair SHip SHift*
*Make a sh sound, but push your jaw slightly forward and tighten the corners of your lips
In addition to the above consonants, there are certain variations in the sound made for most consonants, and are referred to most often as "soft" consonants. Rather than add new letters to represent these sounds, the Russians show them in one of two ways: either a softening vowel, or, in the absence of a vowel, a soft sign, used below. An explanation of how to pronounce these individually are below. The signs have additional uses, explained later.
Soft Consonants
Вь Дь Зь Ль Нь Сь Ть
-Push your lower lip upwards so the inside touches the lower front portion of your front teeth -Use the frontal portion of your tongue rather than just the tip to make a sound like "dz" -Push your lower jaw forward a little, and/or press the first centimeter or so of your tongue just behind your front teeth -Use the very tip of your tongue to make an l sound like that in French or German -Press the front 1 centimeter of your tongue against the top of your mouth, just behind the front teeth; sounds like onion -Use the same method as above; this is a devoiced version of the soft З -Use the above method again and make a t sound; this should sound a bit like ц
There are other possible soft consonants, but they are not quite as distinct as these
"Soft" Vowels
Е е Ё ё И и Ю ю Я я
Yeh Yoh E Yu Yah
YEs YOdel fEEt YOUth YAcht
"Hard" Vowels
Э э О о ы У у А а
Eh Oh Еры* Ooh Ah
Enter nOte bOOt swAn
*This is difficult to pronounce until you hear it; until then, pronounce it like the i in "if."
Pronunciation With Й
ай эй ой уй
wIde bAY bOY hOOEY
The "Signs"
The soft sign, ь, as noted before, denotes a soft consonant when there is no vowel present to perform that function. However, when placed in front of a soft vowel, it not only shows a soft consonant, indicates a more strongly pronounced y (as in yoke) sound in the я, or ю or whatever follows; you should feel you throat muscles moving vertically when you pronounce it properly. The hard sign, ъ, fulfills the same latter unction of the soft sign, but also indicates that the preceding consonant is hard, despite the soft vowel following it. This is, however, a rarely used letter (in fact, a cellular phone I bought in Russia lacks only this letter, and it has both the Latin and Cyrillic scripts available) and is seen mostly in verb prefixes, as in Съездить, Отъездить and the like.
Stress
Whenever you learn a new word, be sure to remember the stress patterns; unlike Polish and some other Slavic languages, syllable stress in Russian is free, unpredictable, and sometimes mobile. Let me tell you know that the word бабушка (grandmother) is pronounced BAH-boo-shka, and NOT bah-BOO-shka as most people would have it. (I remember when I was walking in St. Petersburg with a foreign family who referred to an elderly woman in this fashion; she didn't know what the heck they were talking about!) For an even more graphic example, the verb писАть (stressed on a) which means "to write," can easily have it's meaning suddenly changed to пИсать, which means "to piss," so be careful!
Vowel Reduction
While most new learners immediately assume that the Russian alphabet is perfectly phonetic, more experienced students take a more nuanced view; while not perfectly phonetic on its own, it comes so much closer once you know the three main vowel reduction rules.
--The O rule: an unstressed o, before the point of stress, is pronounced like an a, and after the point of stress, makes an "uh" sound --The И Rule: an unstressed и before the point of stress is pronounced like the i in if, whereas after the point of stress, и is pronounced normally
--The E rule: at the beginning of a word, e is always pronounced as "ye," regardless of stress. An unstressed e, unless preceded by a vowel is pronounced much like Э, though any preceding consonant is still softened. Don't worry if you don't pick up these rules right away; by and large, Russians will still understand you, and with time and practice, the pronunciation comes naturally. Moreover, many things depend on the dialects (in fact, place where you speak) This article was used with permission from: Indo-European Languages
Last modified: Tuesday, 19 December 2006, 11:51 AM