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Short overview of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic alphabet is closely based on the Greek
alphabet, with about a dozen additional letters invented to represent Slavic sounds not found in Greek (--> short history of the Russian language). There are very few pronunciation rules in Russian, words are pronounced the way they are spelled and vice versa. An overview of the the pronunciation of all letters of the Russian alphabet is provided below:
| Letter |
Pronunciation |
Letter |
Pronunciation |
Letter |
Pronunciation |
Letter |
Pronunciation |
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English/Russian/English
Electronic Dictionary
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| a |
'Ah!' but short |
ç |
'z' as in 'zit' |
ð |
'r' as in Scots 'run' |
ø |
'sh' as in 'shush' |
| á |
'b' as in 'bet' |
è |
'ee' but short |
ñ |
's' as in 'set' |
ù |
'shch' 'fresh cheese' |
| â |
'v' as in 'Vette' |
é |
'y' as in 'Yuck!' |
ò |
't' as in 'Tet' |
ú |
hard sign |
| ã |
'g' as in 'Gucci' |
ê |
'k' as in 'kit' |
ó |
'Oo!' but short |
û |
between 'i' and 'u' |
| ä |
'd' as in 'dad' |
ë |
'l' as in 'let' |
ô |
'f' as in 'fifty' |
ü |
soft sign |
| å |
'Yay!' but short |
ì |
'm' as in 'met' |
õ |
'kh' in Scots 'loch' |
ý |
'Eh?' (short) |
| ¸ |
'Yo!' as in 'Yo, dude!' |
í |
'n' as in 'net' |
ö |
'ts' as in 'lets' |
þ |
'yu' as in 'you' |
| æ |
'zh' as in 'azure' |
î |
'Oh!' but short |
÷ |
'ch' as in 'church' |
ÿ |
'ya' as in 'yacht' |
| ï |
'p' as in 'pet' |
Additional features of Russian pronunciation
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Vowels in non-stressed positions are reduced more or less depending on
a particlular vowel: vowels [u], [û] and [i] are not reduced very much
(compare ðóêà (hand,arm) - ðóêè (hands, arms), äûøàòü
(to breathe) - äûøèò ((he) breathes), çèìà (winter) - çèìíèé
(wintry)); vowel [a] is reduced pretty much: in the syllable right before
the stressed one it is pronounced like "u" in "cut" (1st level reduction),
e.g. çàìîê (lock), in all other syllables except the stressed one
and the one right before stressed it is pronounced yet weaker (2nd level
reduction), e.g. êàðàâàí (caravan) (here we have two unstressed
syllables); vowel [o] which is denoted by letter "î" is reduced very much
in non-stressed syllables: in the syllable right before stressed it gets
identical with the vowel [a] in its 1st level reduction, elsewhere with
the vowel [a] in its 2nd level reduction, e.g. ìîëîêî (milk), äîðîãîé
(expensive, dear), so you see: whenever you meet letter "î" in non-stressed
position you should pronounce it as if letter "à" were in its place (this
process is called àêàíüå (akanie) and is dated back to the 13th
century, it influenced mostly territories to the west and south of Moscow,
on the contrary to the north-east of Moscow we can still hear a lot of
people pronouncing [o] non-reduced in non-stressed syllables, it is called
îêàíüå
(okanie)); vowel [e] (denoted by "å") and vowel [a] before soft consonants
(denoted by "ÿ") are in non-stressed syllables reduced to a vowel very
similar to [i], e.g. äåðåâî (tree), äåðåâÿííûé (wooden),
äåâÿòü (nine), äåâÿíîñòî (ninety) (this process is called
èêàíüå (ikanie))
-
Consonants (in Russian they are denoted by
the following letters: "á", "â", "ã", "ä", "æ", "ç", "ê", "ï", "ñ", "ò",
"ô", "õ", "ö", "÷", "ø", "ù") are assimilated in the presence of voice
when coming in clusters, i.e. if there is a cluster of these consonants,
consisting of at least two consonants, then all of them are pronounced
voiced or unvoiced solely depending on the last consonant of the cluster
being voiced or unvoiced respectively. This process is called regressive
assimilatin since the last consonant of the cluster influences all the
previous ones; in English we can meet progressive assimilation, for example
when forming the plural of a noun you choose endings [s], [z] or [iz] depending
on the quality of the preceding consonant (compare "books", "tables", "matches"),
or in forming the Past Simple form of regular verbs you choose [t]
or [d] ending for the same reason (compare "looked" and "saved") so that
the first consonant of the cluster influences the following one. Examples
of regressive assimilation: â êîìíàòå [fkomnati] (in the room) ("â"
is pronounced as unvoiced [f] in this consonant cluster since the last
consonant of the cluster is unvoiced [k]), îòäàòü [addat'] (to give
back, perfective aspect) ("ò" is pronounced as voiced [d] since the last
consonant of the cluster is voiced [d]), ëîäêà [lotka] (boat), ñ
ãîðû [zgarû] (from the mountain). Exception: voiced consonant [v]
(denoted by "â") does not influence the previous consonants of the cluster
though it gets influenced by the following noise consonants, compare ñâîéñòâî
[svojstva] (feature, property) ([v] does not influence the previous consonants
neither in the first ("ñâ") nor in the second ("ñòâ") cluster) and âøè
[f/sh/û] (lice) ("â" does get influenced by the following
"ø"). Another feature is that all noise consonants are devoiced at the
end of the word (of course if there is no word immediately following it
and beginning with the voiced noise consonant, you could see it in one
of the previous examples: ñ ãîðû), e.g. ãîä [got] (year) ("ä" gets
devoiced), âðàã [vrak] (enemy) ("ã" gets devoiced), ìîðîç [maros]
(frost) ("ç" gets devoiced)
If you need some training, please try these tongue twisters
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| In the woods I tie the vines, On the cart I bring the vines. Goat, do not lick the vines- I'll punish you! |
Two puppies cheek to cheek are nibbling a broom in the corner |
Thief Titus is thief Titus' father |
Adopted from the Russian tongue twisters page
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