Download - Russian for Beginners
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Russian for Beginners
Russian alphabet and learning to read
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Origin of the Russian Language Greek monks St. Cyril and St. Methodius
created the first version of the Cyrillic alphabet in 962 C.E.
They used letters from the Greek alphabet, and added new characters for specific Slavic sounds
The language was originally called “Old Church Slavonic”
Became know as “Russian” after the fourteenth century
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The Russian Language
The closest relatives of the Russian language are Belorussian and Ukrainian
Belorussian is the closest but is almost extinct
Other relatives are: Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, etc.
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The Russian Language
On the vast territory of Russia you will see almost no dialectal divisions
All people speak common literary Russian
Only elderly people in villages might still use a local dialect
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The Russian Language
Russian is a synthetic language, unlike English which is an analytic language
This means that Russian uses a lot of prefixes, suffixes, and flections and it can express in one word what an analytic language has to use three words for
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The Basics
Every noun has a gender There are three genders: masculine,
feminine, and neutral There is no article: Russian does not
distinguish between indefinite article (a/an) and definite article (the)
Word order is free
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Pronunciation
Pronunciation is phonetic There is a one-to-one
correspondence between how the words are written and read
Consonants are divided into “soft” and “hard” ones
There are no diphthongs Stress is free moving: it can fall on
any syllable of the word and on different syllables within the paradigm
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The Alphabet
There are 33 letter in the Russian alphabet
11 vowels 20 consonants 2 pronunciation signs
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Voiced and Voiceless Consonants Applies only to consonants A voiced consonant is one that
vibrates the vocal chords A voiceless consonant is one that
doesn’t vibrate the vocal chords
English Example (voiced/voiceless): “d” (done)/ “t” (ton)“b” (big)/
“p” (pig)“v” (vine)/
“f” (fine)
English Example: (voiced)/(voiceless)“d” (done)/ “t” (ton)“b” (big)/ “p” (pig)“v” (vine)/ “f” (fine)
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Russian Examples
Voiced Voiceless
Б б (beh) П п (peh)
Д д (deh) Т т (teh)
Г г (geh) К к (keh)
В в (veh) Ф ф (feh)
З з (zeh) С с (seh)
Ж ж (zheh) Ш ш (sheh)
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Voiced and Voiceless
A hard or soft vowel can determine whether the consonant before it is voiced or voiceless
A consonant occurring at the end of a word is always voiceless
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Example
Written: шоколад (chocolate)Pronounced: шоколатWritten: друг (friend)Pronounced: друкWritten: гриб (mushroom)Pronounced: грип
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Voiced and Voiceless
When two or more consonants are combined within a word, the last consonant determines whether the consonants that precede it are also voiced
If the last consonant is voiced, all the consonants that precede it are also voiced
If the last consonant is voiceless, the consonants that precede it are also voiceless
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Example
футбол (football)тб – are a pair of consonantsbecause the б is a voiced consonant, the т is also voiced
correct pronunciation: фудбол
водка (vodka)дк – are a pair of consonantsbecause the к is voiceless, the д also becomes voiceless
correct pronunciation: вотка
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Hard and Soft
Just as you have hard and soft versions of sounds in English, you can have hard and soft versions of Russian sounds
Example: George – Soft “g”Gift – Hard “g”
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Hard and Soft Vowels
Like English, Russian has 5 vowel sounds, which are represented by 10 letters
5 hard vowels and 5 soft vowels Й is a semi-vowel A hard vowel makes the consonant
that precedes it hard and a soft vowel makes the consonant that precedes it soft
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Vowel Chart
Hard Vowels Example Soft Vowels Example
А а (ah) лампa (lamp) Я я (yah) лямка (strap)
Э э (eh) поэт (poet) Е е (yeh) небо (sky)
О о (oh) мода (fashion) Ё ё (yoh) мёд (honey)
У у (ooh) лук (onion) Ю ю (yoo) люблю (I love)
Ы ы (ih) мы (we) И и (ee) мир (peace)
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Non-vocalized letters ь and ъ There are two non-vocalized letter in
the Russian alphabet Soft sign: ь Hard sign: ъ These signs indicate how the letter
preceding the sign should sound like
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Soft Sign “ь”
The soft sign signals the softness of the consonant before it
It is important because it can distinguish word meanings
Example: брат (brother)брать (to take)
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Practice Words
Лить – to pour
День – day Деньги –
money
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Hard Sign “ъ”
The hard sign indicates a slight pause between syllables
It is usually used between the prefix and root of words and before the vowels: ё, е, я, ю
Overall, the hard sign is seldom usedExample: объём (volume),
oтъезд (departure)
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Stress
The emphasis you place on one individual syllable of a word as you pronounce it
In the Russian language, stress applies only to vowels
English Example: Trа́vel
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Stress
The concept of stress is important in Russian pronunciation
If a word is pronounced with the wrong accent in Russian, it could change the words tense, grammatical value, and sometimes its entire meaning
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Examples
замо́к/за́мок Lock/Castle
сто́ящий/стоя́щий Worthwhile/Standing
чудно́/чу́дно Odd/Marvelous
узна́ю/узнаю́ I will find out/I am recognizing it
отреза́ть/отре́зать To cut/To have cut
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More Examples
Stress can also be used to express the stressed word in a sentence.
Ты́ съел печенье? Was it you who ate the cookie?Ты съе́л печенье? Did you eat the cookie?Ты съел пече́нье? Was the cookie your meal?