All Questions
39 questions
0
votes
2
answers
171
views
Does the average Russian speaker perceive the hard/soft contrast before /i/?
Although the Russian language distinguishes between soft/hard (palatalized/unpalatalized) consonants, the distinction is neutralized before the vowel /i/.
In my language of Finnish, a well-known ...
- 101
3
votes
1
answer
207
views
Is there an equivalent of the Harvard sentences for Russian?
The Harvard sentences (Wikipedia, full list of sentences) are a set of English sentences that:
Are phonetically balanced in the sense that the phonemes that are used in the sentences appear at the ...
- 133
1
vote
2
answers
165
views
Examples of mid-open and mid-closed vowels in Russian
I am looking for Russian word pairs illustrating the distinction between mid-open and mid-closed vowels. Although the distinction is not significant in Russian, both types are probably realized, which ...
- 379
4
votes
3
answers
471
views
Can you still pronounce “щ” as “ш + ч”?
I know that pronouncing “щ” as “ш + ч” is outdated, but can I still pronounce it like that? Will people understand me?
- 41
3
votes
2
answers
351
views
The strange behavior of “обо” (=about), apparently valid only for two expressions? What is the historical reason?
In Russian, the preposition “o” when meaning "about" becomes “обо” when we say “обо мне” (=about me) and “обо всей книге” (=about all the book) but why do we then say:
“о многих книгах » (=...
- 345
1
vote
2
answers
235
views
Epenthetic л: why there is no л in the conjugation of the verb звать between the в and the ё in зовёшь, зовёт, зовём and зовёте?
I understand that an epenthetic л should always appear between any of the five labial consonants б, п, м, ф and в and the sound /j/ (except in front of the sound /ja/), so that, for example, in the ...
- 345
1
vote
1
answer
87
views
First conjugation verbs and first person singular in -ю or in -y ? What is the phonological or orthographical underlying rule?
It seems that for first conjugation verbs (or -e- conjugation verbs i.e. those with endings in -ю/-у, -ешь, -ет, -ем, -ете, -ют/ут), the -y ending is always used at the first person singular after any ...
- 345
2
votes
2
answers
406
views
Do Russians pronounce "Арбатская" and "Орбацкая" the same?
A Russian language exchange partner of mine boasted that unlike words in the English language, Russian words are spelt and pronounced basically the same. In response, I asked him about Арбатская and ...
- 11.3k
6
votes
5
answers
2k
views
How does one hear the stress in Russian words?
How can I hear which syllable is considered stressed in a Russian word? And: how, exactly, should stress in Russian pronunciation be realised?
My problem
I realise that to stress a syllable is to ...
- 439
1
vote
2
answers
288
views
What exactly is дольник?
I've been reading a bit about Russian prosody and it's been puzzling me. According to Wikipedia, there are different historical definitions of what дольник means, but most scholars today subscribe to ...
- 413
5
votes
1
answer
768
views
How prevalent is the sound /ʑ:/ in Russian?
The sound /ʑ:/ is known as the voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant fricative and, roughly speaking, is the average of /z/ as in zebra and /ʒ/ as in vision. Russian speakers can understand /ʑ:/ as the ...
- 11.3k
8
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Can Russians naturally pronounce "попал в бесперспективняк"?
Let's suppose you are having a casual conversation with a friend and talking quickly and want to say, "Попал в бесперспективняк." Will you be able to pronounce this flawlessly and without changing the ...
- 11.3k
4
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Are there any common words with the syllable "кы"?
Some time ago a Russian academic visitor told me that there are no "normal" Russian words with the syllable кы. He said that the only words with the syllable кы are proper names given by non-Russian ...
- 11.3k
3
votes
3
answers
274
views
What is the phonetical difference between phrases like "зачем пришел" and "за чем пришел"?
Yesterday I asked a question about the meaning of "научись," and it turned out that in the movie in which I heard this, it was not "научись," but "на, учись." This was a real trap! The Russian ...
- 11.3k
-1
votes
2
answers
826
views
Why is the Russian informal phone greeting "алё" equivalent to the Turkish one?
I recently discovered that the Russian informal phone greeting, алё, precisely coincides with the Turkish one. When you hear "алё," you absolutely cannot tell whether it is a Russian or a Turk who is ...
- 11.3k