Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2019 April 15

= April 15 =

Common mistakes for beginners when speaking Russian
What do you think is the most common mistake for English speakers when pronouncing Russian words?? I would guess a good answer is to think that the letter Es can be pronounced like a k. This statement is supported by a few Internet sites that promote this sound when teaching people how Russian letters are pronounced simply by saying "never k" when introducing this letter's pronunciation. (If you don't believe me, do a Google search on Russian "never k" and you'll get them.) Any mistakes that are more common?? Georgia guy (talk) 13:41, 15 April 2019 (UTC)
 * No idea what you mean by the letter E never pronounced as K; do you mean the Cyrillic X or C ? In my experience, Soft consonants are a challenge, particularly the distinction between a soft L and a hard L. So are consonant clusters not usually encountered in English. In any case, here are a couple of articles on the subject: or . --Xuxl (talk) 18:20, 15 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I mean the letter at S (Cyrillic). Georgia guy (talk) 19:57, 15 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Such as when non-russophones see Москва (the Russian name for Moscow), they say /Mockba/ rather than /Moskva/. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  00:04, 16 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Yeah, it's one thing to learn new letters, it's another to learn new sounds for old letters (or what look like the old letters you're used to). A lifetime of speaking English is going to trip you up at least some of the time when you come across Russian letters that look like B, C, H, P, or Y. --Khajidha (talk) 00:38, 16 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I have more than a few times heard quiz questions about the Russian name for what we called the USSR. The expected (and usual) answer is "see see see pee" (CCCP), which is completely wrong since Russians call those Cyrillic letters "es es es er", and they transliterate to SSSR in the English alphabet. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  09:41, 16 April 2019 (UTC)
 * In these quizzes, is cee-cee-cee-pee considered a correct answer? And what if a contestant actually says ess-ess-ess-ar? --Theurgist (talk) 14:02, 16 April 2019 (UTC)
 * 1) Yes and 2) no idea. --Khajidha (talk) 20:18, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

See File:Cyrillic-italics-nonitalics.png, File:Russian Cursive Cyrillic.png, and Russian cursive. Unlike many Latin lowercase letters whose shape is different from that of their uppercase counterparts, the Cyrillic lowercase letters generally resemble small caps in the regular font: for example there are В|Вв, М|Мм, Н|Нн, Т|Тт. Exceptions are А|Аа and Е|Ее, but they could hardly confuse English speakers given the identically shaped letters of the Latin alphabet. However, in some fonts and styles, especially in italics, cursive and handwriting, some letters have different shapes, which can easily lead to confusion. Check for example the different shapes of Т|Тт, Д|Дд, Л|Лл, М|Мм, Г|Гг, and И|Ии. --Theurgist (talk) 15:45, 16 April 2019 (UTC)


 * Your question was about pronouncing Russian words, but most of the discussion is about reading them, which only partly overlaps with pronunciation. Which do you mean? --ColinFine (talk) 16:32, 17 April 2019 (UTC)