Russian Character
Transliterated
PRONOUNCED
A a
a
Like the Italian a. Resembles the a of “art” (never pronounced as in “man” or “male”).
Б б
b
As in “Byron.” Exceptions: medial b before a voiceless consonant and final b tending to p. Thus próbka, “cork,” rhymes with knópka, “tack,” and lob, “forehead,” rhymes with pop, “priest” (but volshébno, “magically,” and velikolépno, “splendidly,” do not rhyme).
B B
v
As in “Victoria.” Exceptions: medial before a voiceless consonant and final v tending to f. Thus bulávka, “pin,” rhymes with “Kafka,” and nrav, “temper,” rhymes with telegráf (but svoenrávnïy, “capricious,” and telegrdfniy, “telegraphic,” do not rhyme).
Г г
g
As the hard g of “go” (never as in “gentle” and never mute before n). Exceptions: medial g before a voiceless consonant and, in a few words, final g tending to aspirated h as in myágkiy, “soft,” and bog, “god.” Otherwise, final g tends to k. Thus rog, “horn,” rhymes with urók, “lesson.” In terminations of adjectives and pronouns in the genitive singular, g is pronounced v. Thus nemógo, “of the mute,” rhymes with slóvo, “word.”
Д д
d
As in “Dante.” Exceptions: medial d before a voiceless consonant and final d tending to t. Thus vódka rhymes with glótka, “throat,” and sled, “trace,” with let, “of years” (but ládno, “all right,” does not rhyme with besplátno, “gratis”).
E e
e
As ye in “yellow.”
Ë ë
yo
As yo in “yonder” (never as in “yoke”).
Ж ж
zh
As s in “measure” or z in “azure” (never as in “zeal”) and as the French j in “Jacques” or the second g in “garage.” Exceptions: medial zh before a voiceless consonant and final zh tending to sh. Thus lózhka, “spoon,” rhymes with kóshka, “cat,” and krazh, “of thefts,” rhymes with karandásh, “pencil” (but lózhnïy, “false,” does not rhyme with roskóshn ïy, “luxurious”).
З з
z
As in “zebra” (never as in “mezzo-soprano” or “azure”). Exceptions: medial z before a voiceless consonant and final z tending to s. Thus skázka, “fairy tale,” rhymes with láska, “caress,” and glaz, “eye,” with nas, “us” (but rúznïy, “different,” does not rhyme with prekrásnïy, “beautiful”).
И и
As the first e in “scene” (never as i in “mine”), but as ï (see p. xxi) after the three letters zh, ts, and sh.*
Й й;
-y
A semivowel existing only in diphthongs:
thus táyna, “mystery,” in which ay is like an English long i or, more exactly, the French aille;
ey, “to her,” which sounds like the end of a long-drawn English “away!” in the mist and the distance; very close to the French eille;
kiy, “billiard cue,” in which iy is like the French ille in quille;
boy, “battle,” in which oy sounds like the oy in the English “boy” (in which, however, the o has greater duration and the y is not so strident);
duy, “blow” (imperative), in which uy sounds like the French ouille as in andouille; and
-ïy, the ending of adjectives (masc. sing.), which sounds like the French œil.
К к
k
As in English, but never mute before n.
As in English.
O o
o
Like the Italian o; close to the first o in “cosmos” when accented and close to the second o when not (never as in “go”). In Moscow speech the unaccented o (as, for example, in Moskva) is pronounced in a manner about as “ah” -like as the accented o in New York English (“jahb,” “stahp”). In ordinary good Russian the unaccented o (as, for example, in koróva, “cow”) is pronounced like the final a, which sounds like the ultima of “Eva.”
П п
p
As in English, but never mute before n or s.
P p
r
A clean, clear vibration that is closer to the Italian than to the English (never amplifying the preceding vowel as it does sometimes in English). When burred (by old-fashioned Peterburgians), it is undistinguishable from a French r and then very annoying to the Moscow ear.
s
Like the first c in “cicada” (never like the second).
T T
t
As in “Tom” (but never as in “ritual” or “nation”).
Y y
u
As oo in “boom.” Similar to the French ou (never as the u of “buff” or of “flute”).
Ф ф
f
As in English.
X X
h or kh
Close to ch in the German ach or the Scottish “loch.” There is no k sound about it, as the usual kh transliteration unfortunately suggests to the English eye. I have used kh only in one or two cases when s precedes it (for example, skhodil, “descended”), to avoid confusion with sh.
Ц ц
ts
As ts in “tsetse” or the German z in Zermatt. It should be observed, however, that in many words such as otsyuda, “from here,” in which ot is a prefix, kdzhetsya, “it seems,” in which skiy is the suffix, and détskiy, “childish,” in which stiy is the suffix, the transcription ts corresponds to these two separate letters in Russian.
Ч ч
ch
As in English.
Ш ш
sh
As in English.
Щ щ
shch
A fusion of sibilants that can be imitated in English by such combinations as “fish chowder,” “cash check,” “hush child,” “plush chair,” and so forth.
Ы ы
ï
A medial or final nonpalatal vowel pronounced as a very blunt, short i by trying to say ee while keeping the tensed tongue back so as not to touch the inner side of the lower teeth, as it would do in a palatal vowel. The result is a kind of cross between a dull short i and a grunt. (The character chosen to represent this difficult letter should not be mistaken for the sharp French ϊ bearing the same diacritical sign, as in naϊf.)
Э э
e
As in “Edinburgh.” Apart from foreign words and geographical names, it is found only in étot, “this,” and its derivations and in a few interjections such as e, ey, eh, and so forth.
Ю ю
yu
As u in “use” but of less duration.
Я я
ya
As in the German ya.
Ь ь
’
A palatal sign modifying (softening) the preceding consonant, so that t’ sounds somewhat like ts, d’ like tz, and so on. A usual termination of infinitives (govorít’, “to speak”; pet’, “to sing”; pisát’ “to write”). When placed after a medial letter it indicates not only palatization but also a very slight pause. Thus the n’e of pen’e is like the nié of the French dernièrement. Consequently Il’γa, “Elijah,” sounds very like the French il γ a pronounced rapidly.