Pronunciation Differences

[BTalley 0]

Svetlana speaks wonderful English, but her voice is a little on the soft side.

Pisses her off at the restaurant when she tells the waitress "Hot tea" and the waitress looks at me, waiting for the translation.

"Hot tea," I say.

"That's what I said!" Svetlana fumes.

As for me, I cannot pronounce a "hard" Russian "L", and it drives me nuts that Russian has prepositions without vowels. I always struggle when I say something is "in" something, because connecting the "B" to the next word always causes my tongue to tie. Especially if the next word begins with a "k" or hard consonant. And if something is "in" a bathroom (Ванная), then you just make it one long "v" sound to connect them. Impossible to do without sounding like a foreigner.

Svetlana says the word was "BO" in old Russian, which would make it easier than having to make that "v" sound without a vowel.

Edited July 7, 2009 by BTalley

[Steve S 2]

Svetlana says the word was "BO" in old Russian, which would make it easier than having to make that "v" sound without a vowel.

Aha, like Во Вторник -- I wish there was that extra vowel more of the time too. Вверх -- one of those words that I find hard to pronounce.

[SMR 368]

Svetlana says the word was "BO" in old Russian, which would make it easier than having to make that "v" sound without a vowel.

Aha, like Во Вторник -- I wish there was that extra vowel more of the time too. Вверх -- one of those words that I find hard to pronounce.

Some hints on Russian prepositions: The "В" is pronounced as an "Ф" if the word begins with a voiceless consonant, including "К, С, Т, П, Ш, and Щ". This makes a huge difference; try it. "ФК" is much easier to say that "ВК". In fact, if you do say "ВК" without stopping it will come out like "ВГ".

The "о" is added after the "В" if the word after the preposition starts with two consonants (because even Russians draw the line somewhere as to how many consonants can be in a row). Unless the "о" is added between them because of this rule, two consecutive "В"'s are not really pronounced separately. Just relax your mouth, hold the "В" a little bit longer, and stress the "В" sound at the end a little bit.

[mox 298]

because even Russians draw the line somewhere as to how many consonants can be in a row

This is an urban legend.

[Thomas-n-Elena 0]

I remember when Lena and I went to a store closing sale and we were looking at living room furniture. We bought a sofa and chair. When we got home she called my mother to tell her what a wonderful couch we bought at Klansmens, it took me a minute to stop laughing before I told her "no honey its Klingmans", and she asked what was so funny about klansmans, I showed her pictures on the internet and explained who the klan was and how I dont think we want to buy furniture from them.

[johnj 0]

I'm sure she loves meat and potatoes just as much as the next FSU girl, but like the rest of the FSU girls, there's no way she's touching fried anything.

Did anyone else read this at first as Florida State girls (who by and large enjoy catfish & hushpuppies, and other fried delicacies, I imagine)? Maybe it was just silly me. I had to think about it for a minute!

Living in Florida, every time I see FSU my mind immediately translated to Fla State Univ until my gray matter takes over to former Soviet Union

[Thomas-n-Elena 0]

Nope always read FSU as Former Soviet Union which is pretty silly by itself anyway since Russians and people who lived in the former soviet union dont refer to themselves that way.

[PJB 0]

Nope always read FSU as Former Soviet Union which is pretty silly by itself anyway since Russians and people who lived in the former soviet union dont refer to themselves that way.

We always say Sovietskee Sigh-yous.

Our favorite language joke turned into bad habit is to stick an English plural on the end of a Russian plural.........tooflees, noagies. Any Russian word that I find amusing to the ear I turn it into a joke and there we go, trashing the language. One of my favorites was garbageman which I found too long and difficult to pronounce in Russian. So I started calling him the "mooser man" and now it's stuck. Our neighbors in Russia thought we were a really weird couple

[slim 1,525]

Preservative

Except for in Russian pre-serva-teeef has nothing to do with keeping foods fresh.

Did anyone else read this at first as Florida State girls (who by and large enjoy catfish & hushpuppies, and other fried delicacies, I imagine)?

Florida State girls may enjoy catfish and hushpuppies, but like their Russian cousins, they don't eat too much. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...DN%26start%3D21

Our neighbors in Russia thought we were a really weird couple

But you two understand each other just fine!

[SMR 368]

Preservative

Except for in Russian pre-serva-teeef has nothing to do with keeping foods fresh.

That's my point. In Russian, none of these words mean what they mean in English.