Специальные символы: æ, ä, æ, ü, ', Q - если вы их видите, то и все остальное вы увидите.

Я использовал здесь просто Символы Латиница-1 из Word, а для перевернутой русской Э использовал SILSophia IPA 93

 

American Accent Training

Russian

Intonation

Russian intonation seems to start at a midpoint, and then cascades down. The consequence is that it sounds very downbeat. You definitely need to add a lilt to your speech-more peaks, as there're already plenty of valleys. To the Russian ear, English can have a harsh, almost metallic sound due to the perception of nasal vibrations in some vowels. This gives a clarity to American speech that allows it to be heard over a distance. When Russian speakers try to imitate that "loudness" and clarity, without the American speech music, instead of the intended pronunciation, it can sound aggressive. On the other hand, when Russians do not try to speak "loud and clear," it can end up sounding vaguely depressed.

Liaisons

Word connections should be easy since you have the same fluid word/sound boundaries as in American English. The phrase [dosvedany'] sounds like dos vedanya, whereas you know it as do svedanya. It won't be difficult to run your words together once you realize it's the same process in English.

Pronunciation

Although you have ten vowels in Russian, there are quite a few other vowels out there waiting for you.

æ

The [æ] sound doesn't exist in Russian, so last is demoted to the lax e, 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: æ! Work on Chapter 3, which drills this distinctively American vowel.

ä

The [ä] 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 ä sound can easily be misplaced. When you see the letter o, you pronounce it o, so job sounds like jobe instead of jääb. 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 ä instead of o; biology, call, long, problem, etc. Focus on Chapter 3, differentiating Q, ä, '.

o

Conversely, you may pronounce the letter o as ä or ' 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

tone

nout

note

houm

home

ounli

only

coul

coal

OK

oukei

 

'

The schwa is often overpronounced to a, which is why you might sound a little like Count Dracula when he says, I vänt to säck your bläd instead of I wA%nt to s'k your bl'd. Don't drop your jaw for the neutral schwa sound; it's like the final syllable ofspasiba [sp'sib'], not [sp'sibä]. Similarly, in English, the schwa in an unstressed syllable is completely neutral .famous is not [fay-moos], but rather [fay-m's].

ü

Distinguishing tense and lax vowels is difficult, and you'll have to forget spelling for u and ü. They both can be spelled with oo or ou, but the lax vowel ü 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.

i

Similarly, you need to distinguish between ee and i, 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 multisyllabic

 

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Nationality Guides

 

 

words on page 125; otherwise, similar [sim'lr] will sound like [see-mee-lär].

-y

Russian speakers often mispronounce the final -y as a short -i, so that very funny sounds like ver' funn'. Extend the final sound out with three e's: vereee funneee.

 

The Russian R = The American T

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 anymore-the tongue should be curled back, and the r produced deep in the throat-not 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).

бэри бapa  бира

ай  бapa байк

уэира сэкен

 уи apa гоy

юв гaрa пэира гэрит

Betty bought a bit of

I bought a bike.

Wait a second.

We ought to go.

You've got to pay to get it.

аин ира лара таим

маи мapoy

мирин

аин нарат таим

бюрафли

I need a lot of time.

my motto

meeting

I'm not on time.

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'r; however, with first, there is simply no preceding vowel. It's frst, not feerst, (Ex. 6-2 and 6-3).

t

At the beginning of a word, the American t needs to be more plosive-you should feel that you are "spitting air." At the end of the word, it is held back and not aspirated.

eh

One of the most noticeable characteristics of a Russian accent is the little у that is slipped in with the eh sound. This makes a sentence such as Kevin has held a cat sound like Kyevin hyes hyeld a kyet. This is because you are using the back of the tongue to "push" the vowel sound out of the throat. In English, you need to just allow the air to pop through directly after the consonant, between the back of the tongue and the soft palate: k*æ, not k*yæ.

h

Another strong characteristic of Russian speech is a heavily fricative h. Rather than closing the back of the throat, let the air flow unimpeded between the soft palate and the back of your tongue. Be sure to keep your tongue flat so you don't push out the little у mentioned above. Often, you can simply drop the h to avoid the whole problem. For 1have to, instead of I hhyef to, change it to I y'v to.

v

The v is often left unvoiced, so the common word of sounds like oaf. Allow your vocal cords to vibrate.

sh

There are two sh sounds in Russian, ш and щ. The second one is closer to the American sh, as in щиуз for shoes, not шуз.

th

You may find yourself replacing the voiced and unvoiced th sounds with t/d or siz, saying dä ting or zä sing instead of the thing. This means that your tongue tip is about a half inch too far back on the alveolar ridge (the gum ridge behind the teeth). Press your tongue against the back of the teeth and try to say dat. Because of the tongue position, it will sound like that.

-ing

Often the -ing ending is not pronounced as a single ng sound, but rather as n and g, or just n. There are three nasals, m (lips), n (tongue tip and alveolar ridge), and ng (soft palate and the back of the tongue). It is not a hard consonant like g, but rather a soft nasal.

 

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