| |
| The Russian ABC was created in IX century by two Greek monks, brothers Cyrill and Methodius to promote the Bible in Slavonic. They invented new letters to represent sounds which were missing in Greek. At that time runes were used instead and, probably, Glagolic ABC - a very original alphabet. |
| ENGLISH ALPHABET | It is phonetical: a letter stands for a sound! | |
|
Letter
|
Russian Name
|
Equivalent Sounds in English
|
|---|---|---|
 |
ah
|
English North 'a' in sad The Russian 'a' is pronounced like the 'a' in 'father' or 'car', but is a slightly shorter sound. |
 |
be
|
B as in bet, beat Resembles English 'b' in 'boy'. At the end of a word it is like the 'p' in 'lip' |
 |
ve
|
V as in van But the upper teeth are pressed against the back of the lower lip, and not the front as in English. It is pronounced like the 'f' in 'father', when it is at the end of the word or before a voiceless consonant. |
 |
ghe
|
G as in get, go At the end of a word it sounds like 'k' in 'cook' |
 |
de
|
D in sad, dad Sounds like the English ' d', but the tongue is brought against the back of the upper teeth with the tip pointing downwards. At the end of a word it sounds like English 't'. |
 |
ye
|
Ye in yes |
 |
yo
|
Yaw in yawl, yob, yonder |
 |
zhe
|
S in pleasure, vision |
 |
ze
|
Z in zebra, zero, rose |
 |
ee
|
I in machine Is similar to 'ee' in 'see', but slightly shorter in length. |
 |
ee with short mark
|
Y as in yet, toy, boy |
 |
ka
|
K in rack |
 |
el
|
L in lamp This sound reminds 'l' in 'full', 'table', but is somewhat harder. To pronounce it properly the back of the tongue should be kept low, away from the roof of the mouth, and the tip of the tongue brought up against the back upper teeth. |
 |
em
|
M in milk, matter |
 |
en
|
N in nice Like an English 'n', but to pronounce it the front of the tongue must be placed against the back of the upper teeth with its tip pointing downwards. The tip of the tongue should not be raised to the alveolar ridge like in English. |
 |
o
|
O in sore, port The lips should be rounded and protruded
|
 |
pe
|
P as in pour, please |
 |
err
|
Well tilled in rubber There is no corresponding English sound. It resembles somewhat the rolled 'r' of Scotland, Irish. It is formed by the vibration of the tip of the tongue against the front of the palate. It has a distinctive trilled sound. |
 |
es
|
Hissing S as in sit, most |
 |
te
|
T in tap Like an English 't', except that the tongue is brought against the back of the upper teeth with the tip pointing downwards |
 |
oo
|
OO in boot, fool The lips should be rounded and protruded |
 |
eff
|
F in fun, farm |
 |
hha
|
Scottish 'loch' This sound has no counterpart in English. |
 |
tse
|
T+S as in sits, cats, tsetse It sounds like a combination of 't' and 's' in 'lots' |
 |
che
|
CH as in church, chain |
 |
sha
|
SH as in ship,shall It is pronounced like the English 'sh' in short', but it is harder and the position of the tongue is lower |
 |
shcha
|
fresh cheese posh china |
 |
tverdyi znak (hard sign) |
'hard sign' It serves to keep the consonant it follows hard.. |
 |
miagkyi znak (soft sign) |
The soft sign is used mainly to soften the preceding consonant.
|
 |
yerr
|
Resembles I in till, sin This vowel has no real English equivalent. The lips are spread but the back of the tongue rises towards the roof of the mouth. Try practising the sound with a pencil clenched between the teeth. Non-Russian speakers initially substitute it with 'ee', it is easy to learn the sound by imitating a native speaker. |
 |
e
|
E as in let, men, met, get But the tongue is not raised so high and the mouth should be more open. |
 |
you
|
U as in university, usual, Yule,unity |
 |
ya
|
YA as in yarn, yam, yard |
|
||