. 167 185your words together once you realize it's the same process in English.PronunciationAlthough you have ten vowels in Russian, there are quite a few other vowels out there waiting for you. The [] sound doesn't exist in Russian, so last is demoted to the lax , lest. In the same way, Russian speakers reduce actually to ekchually, or matter to metter. Drop your jaw and raise the back of your tongue to make a noise like a goat: ! Work on Chapter 3, which drills this distinctively American vowel. The [] sound exists in Russian, but is represented with the letter a. Bear in mind that there are six different pronunciations of the letter a, as you can see on page 142. Because of spelling, the sound can easily be misplaced. When you see the letter o, you pronounce it o, so job sounds like jobe instead of jb. Remember, most of the time, the letter o is pronounced ah. Take a sound that already exists in Russian, such as baab (whether it means anything or not) and say it with your native accent, baab with a Russian accent more or less equals Bob in English. This will give you a good reference point for whenever you want to say instead of o; biology, call, long, problem, etc. Focus on Chapter 3, differentiating , , 蓹.oConversely, you may pronounce the letter o as or 蓹 when it really should be an o, as in only, most, both (which are exceptions to the spelling rules). Make sure that the American o sounds like [ou], ounly, moust, bouth. This holds true for the diphthongs as well �oi should sound like ou-ee. toun ounli tone only nout coul note coal houm OK home oukei蓹The schwa is often overpronounced to , which is why you might sound a little like Count Dracula when he says, I vnt to sck your bld instead of I wnt to s蓹k your bl蓹d. Don't drop your jaw for the neutral schwa sound; it's like the final syllable of spasiba [sp'sib蓹], not [sp'sib]. Similarly, in English, the schwa in an unstressed syllable is completely neutral; famous is not [fay-moos], but rather [fay-m's]. Distinguishing tense and lax vowels is difficult, and you'll have to forget spelling for u and . They both can be spelled with oo or ou, but the lax vowel should sound much closer to i or uh. If you say book and could with a tense vowel, it'll sound like booque and cooled. It should be much closer to bick or buck. Similarly, you need to distinguish between ee and , as in beat and bit (page 123), as his big sister is mispronounced as heez beeg seester or with the [y], hyiz byig systr. Frequently, Russian speakers transpose these two sounds, so while the lax vowel in his big sister is overpronounced to heez beeg seester, the tense vowel in She sees Lisa, is relaxed to shi siz lissa. Also, tone down the middle i in the multisyllabicwords on page 125; otherwise, similar [sim'lr] will sound like [see-mee-lr]. Russian speakers often mispronounce the final -y as a short -i, so that very funny sounds like ver蓹 funn蓹. Extend the final sound out with three e's: vereee funneee.i186-The Russian R = The American 孝The Cyrillic r is a consonant. This means that it touches at some point in the mouth. Russian speakers usually roll their rs (touching the ridge behind the top teeth), which makes it sound like a d to the American ear. The American r is not really a consonant anymorehe tongue should be curled back, and the r produced deep in the throatot touching the top of the mouth. The Russian pronunciation of r is usually the written vowel and a flap r at the end of a word (feeler sounds like feelehd) or a flap in the beginning or middle (throw sounds like tdoh). Betty bought a bit of I need a lot of time. my motto I bought a bike. Wait a second. meeting We ought to go. I'm not on time. You've got to pay to get it. beautifully Another major point with the American r is that sometimes the preceding vowel is pronounced, and sometimes it isn't. When you say wire, there's a clear vowel plus the r �wy; however, with first, there is simply no preceding vowel. I钮s frst, not feerst, (Ex. 6-2 and 6-3).
