Struggling with the Cyrillic Characters. The Seppuku Vowel and The Cheshire Cat. Part 3.

Struggling with the Cyrillic Characters. The Seppuku Vowel and The Cheshire Cat. Vowels.

Part 3.

Dear readers and followers,

Our struggle with the Russian vowels is coming to an end. We have the last two enemies to defeat. And I must say that on of these two is an absolute nightmare for non-native speakers.

You, probably, have noticed that our paradigm of vowels is lacking the essential sound /i/. So why haven't I mentioned it until now in the Part 1 or Part 2? Why an individual post?

Well, there is nothing special about the sound /i/ in Russian. It is pretty similar to its equivalent in most of the European languages. And the letter which indicates it looks like a mirror reflection of the capital letter N.

И и

It is a soft-indicating vowel, which means that the preceding consonant is soft. But what if the preceding consonant needs to be hard? In that case we will need another sound which does not exist in English and has no analogue in most of European languages and it is the hard /i/ or

Ы ы

It looks like b and l or b and I. But this is one letter, not two letters. And it is a hard-indicating vowel. It never occurs at the beginning of a word or after another vowel.

Now you must be really curious what the difference between и and ы is, and how to master the pronunciation of this painstaking sound.

There are quite some ways of learning to pronounce the sound ы offered by Russian as a Second Language teachers and speech therapists. From visualization of stabbing yourself in the guts with a dagger when committing seppuku to pressing your tongue with a toothbrush and lifting heavy tables.

I have picked up 6 most well-crafted and illustrative youtube videos so that you could select the way that suits you best. Or you could try all of them to get a better effect :-)

1. The first video is really short and it provides an excellent illustration of a tongue position when one pronounces this 'punch-in-the-stomach' sound. This is Yulia Kovalenko's channel and you can find many more great pronunciation videos there.

2. This is the seppuku video, I have already mentioned. It is awesome! But, please, no violence! No hard punches in the stomach, no harakiri! I still need you alive to learn the Russian consonants! How can I let you die without knowing them? :-)

3. In this episode of Weekly Russian Language Lessons for Beginners, a beautiful and charming teacher Natalia is teaching how to pronounce 'ы' comparing it to 'и' and 'у'. You will also practice the two crucial Russian pronouns мы (we), ты (you, informal / singular) and Вы/вы (formal / plural).

Russian hard consonants are much harder than the English ones so it will be impossible to pronounce 'и' after them. The sound 'ы' originates deep in the throat so you must feel tightening of your muscles there. Don't be afraid to exaggerate at the beginning.

4. This Russian from Scratch episode provides a good illustration of the lip and tongue position, you can also practice some syllables and short words.

5. The Real Russian Club provides two excellent techniques. First, you will be saying a long ooh and then spreading your lips in a wide smile, trying not to change your tongue position, and then you will need a toothbrush to help you feel the difference between the classic /i/ and the hard /i/.

6. Finally, learnrussian.org video recommends practising a Cheshire cat smile or a “harsh smile” and then pulling your mouth corners down; putting your finger between your teeth while pronouncing the classic /i/ and... lifting a heavy table.

So the sound 'ы' was the last and the greatest challenge when it comes to mastering the Russian vowels. Once you have dealt with this issue, you are a king or a queen of Russian vowels!

Now the first part of our journey is completed! Congratulations! In the next posts I will tell you what the difference between the Russian and the English consonants is, and how to pronounce the hard and soft Russian consonants. And we are about to actually start reading just in no time!

Thanks for supporting me!

Was this post of any help? I will appreciate if you drop me a line in the comments :-)

Struggling with the Cyrillic Characters. Russian Vowels.Part 2. Yeah, yo, you and yahoo!

Struggling with the Cyrillic Characters. Russian Vowels.Part 2. Yeah, yo, you and yahoo!

Dear readers,

We are continuing our struggle with Russian vowels. And we are going win it quite soon, I promise :-) In this post we are going to learn soft indicating vowels. These vowels are a bit trickier than the ones in Part 1, as there are two ways of reading them.

But let's have a look at them first.

Я я

Я я looks like a mirror reflection of the English R and it is called 'ya', like the first syllable in the word 'yahoo'.

Ю ю

Ю ю looks like half of the capital letter H which has crushed into or on the letter O. Probably, it is the kid of H and O :-) Or I chained to O with a horizontal bar. This is 'yu' like “you”.

Е е

Е е looks just like the English E e. This is 'ye' like 'yeah'!

Ё ё

And this is yo, like “yo, man!”. The Е е with two dots above. I should mention that in most texts you will see Е е instead of Ё ё. Russians are just probably too lazy to put the two dots above. But in the texts for beginners it has got the dots most of the time. Also, please, mind, the syllables containing the letter Ё ё are always stressed.

Now let's read aloud some words where these four letters are pronounced the way they are called in the alphabet.

Я я Ю ю Е е Ё ё

я (I), я́блоко (apple), я́йца (eggs), я́года (berry)

éсть (to eat), éвро (Euro, currency), éсли (if), éхать (go by some transport, not walk)

ю́бка (skirt), юг (South), ию́нь (June), ию́ль (July)

ёж (hedgehog), ёлка (fir-tree or New Year tree), ёрш (ruff, the fish or a brush, you can see this kind of brush on the picture or the one you have in the restroom), ёрзать (to fidget).

As I have already mentioned, there are two ways of pronouncing these letters. They are either pronounced the way they are called in the alphabet (all their names contain the /j/ sound). Like in the examples above. Or they are pronounced like а (я), э (е), о (ё), у (ю), but they indicate that the preceding consonant is soft. That' why they are called soft-indicating vowels.

What the soft and hard consonants in Russian are and when exactly we should read the letters each way is to be told in the next posts.

That's all for now! Thank you :-) Спасибо!

Was this post helpful for you? Do you find Russian letters frustratingly difficult? Or has learning the reading rules been easy for you so far?

Please, leave your comments below!

Merry Christmas to every one!!!

Struggling with the Cyrillic Characters. Russian Vowels. Part 1. The Easiest

Struggling with the Cyrillic Characters. Russian Vowels.

Part 1. The Easiest

Dear readers,

I know how painstaking learning the Russian alphabet / letters can be. That's why I have divided this material in several parts for you to gain this crucial knowledge ASAP and with minimum stress and effort.

I would also like to point out right from the very beginning, there are sites and other resources with provide so called “pronunciation” with Latin characters below. I strongly advice you against applying this technique because:

1. Russians use ONLY Cyrillic characters so you will be unable to read without knowing them. 

2. Russian language has sounds which don't exist in European languages which are indicated with special letters.

3. There is a logical connection between Russian alphabet and Russian pronunciation. Little effort at the very beginning will save you from so much stress afterwards.

In the “Struggling with the Cyrillic Characters. Russian Vowels” section you will learn 10 Russian vowel letters in three posts. 4 letters in this one, 4 - in the next one and 2 - in the last one. 15-20 minutes for each post and you are done with this issue!

So, let's begin Part 1. The easiest!

- There are two letters which look the same as in the Latin alphabet and are pronounced in the same way. These are А а and O o.

А а like in cut or nut. O o like in hot and spot. Both perhaps a bit longer.

- Then there is the letter У у. It looks more or less the same as Y y, but it is pronounced as “u” like in the words spoon or put.

Note! Russian doesn't have long and short vowels like English. So these sounds are shorter than English long vowels and longer than English short vowels.

And the last letter is Э э. It is like a reverted Euro currency sign but with only one horizontal bar. Or a reverted c with a horizontal bar. This is the Russian e. It is pronounced a bit harder than the English e.

So basically, that's it! Let's sum it up and practice a little!

А а О о У у Э э

Please, note all these vowels are hard-indicating. That's is going to be important because Russian language has got hard and soft consonants. So the consonants preceding these vowels are going to be hard.

Now, listen to these vowels in words and repeat! The stressed syllables are underlined.

А а О о У у Э э

Мама (mom), папа (dad), брат (brother), сестра (sister)

Он (he), дом (house), ложка (spoon), полка (shelf)

Суп (spoon), лук (onion), друг (friend, a male friend), подруга (friend, a female friend)

Это (it or this), этот (this, Masculine), этаж (storey or floor of a house), экзамен (exam)

And that's it! Thank you :-) Спасибо!

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