4. Subtle Russian Sounds
4c1. No /ʲi, ʲɪ/: Avoid palatalization pt.2
Key tips
English has no soft-hard consonant distinction as Russian does
English consonants before /i/ & /ɪ/ do not become soft as they would in Russian. The English word "beat" is not like бит but more like бъит.
Russian has a lot of palatalized sounds, especially before the vowels /i/ and /ɪ/, so that words like бит sounds like byit. We don’t do this in English, so let’s work on not doing this.
Exercises
Word lists
/p, b, m, f, v/:
/ɪ/: bit, pity, habit, habitual, orbit, permit, admit, omission, fitting, victory
/i/: Vietnamese, maybe, meet, bean, Peter, appear, me, mean, cabby, happy, ravine, fear, coffee
/t, d, s, z, ʧ, ʃ, θ, ð, n, r, l/:
/ɪ/: sit, think, link, limp, dim, dig, tip, elicit, relic, little
/i/: Any, anything, actually, city, need, near, Chinese, Japanese, believe, leave, actually, seen, read, team, teenager, sheet, cheat, neat, elite, antique, redeem, many
Dorsal /k, g/: /ɪ/: kip, skit, git, kill, giddy, giggle, gift, gilded, kitchen, kit /i/: Keen, gear, keep, Portuguese, key, keel
Phrases
I’ll read it, near me, be happy, Vietnamese coffee, fear me, keep clean, meet me here, keep fit, leave it be, dimly lit, seeing is believing
Sentences
Can you believe what he did?
You won’t believe it but I finished already
Did Steve see the meme about the cats fearing pickles?
Meet me in the street and redeem your honor.
Anything and everything Tim says can be evidence and can be pitted against him
Ski a bit too quickly and you might speed into a ravine or off a cliff
Pete’s keen to eat lean meat because he wants to keep fit and trim down
New York is filled with mean cabbies especially when you don’t tip
I actually see what you mean even if it’s a bit complicated
Your parking permit is expired so don’t let me see you park here again
Annotate, read, monologue!
Below you’ll find a text with a large number of i and ɪ sounds. See if you can find them all! You can print out the PDF if that makes it easier.
Identify all the instances of these features, then check your answers with the other PDF. Next, read it out loud, taking care to pronounce the sounds correctly.
Finally take some of the words and use them while monologuing, imagining you are speaking to a friend!
4c2: Hidden /j/ and yod-dropping
Exercises
Words with a hidden j: popular, pew, population, computer, pewter, beautiful, imbue, bureau, bureaucracy, bugle future, fury, feud, few, refuse, view, music, muse, immune, municipal, Cue, cute, cuticle, cure, communicate, mute, cute, music, popular, accurate, acumen, immune, mutate, reputation, particularly, meticulous, ocular, secular, monument, value, evaluate, attribute, contribute fewest, fuel, cubic, bureau, future, fume, humorous, feudalist, puberty, puny, vacuum, pewter, cupid, pupil, curious, pure
Words WITHOUT /j/, words with yod coalescence: Traditionally, the following pairs of words were pronounced differently, but in modern English varieties they are pronounced the same, without the /j/. However, the Russian education system still teaches the highly traditional (older) English pronunciation, which is an indicator of non-nativeness due to its outdatedness The following are homophonous in most dialects of English Threw / through (/ˈθruː/) brood/brewed (/ˈbruːd/) rood/rude/rued (/ˈruːd/) droop/drupe (/ˈdruːp/) lieu/loo/Lou (/ˈluː/) lune/loon (/ˈluːn/) slue/slew/slough (/sluː/) flew/flue/flu (/ˈfluː/) gloom/glume (/ˈɡluːm/) choose/chews (/ˈtʃuːz/) chute/shoot (/ˈʃuːt/)
The following are homophones in General American English but not in Standard British English dew/due/do (/ˈduː/) undue/undo (/ʌn.ˈdu/) tune/toon (/ˈtuːn/) knew/gnu/new/[nu] (/ˈnuː/) lute/loot (/ˈluːt/)
Annotate, read, monologue!
Below you’ll find a text with a large number of words with hidden /j/ sounds. See if you can find them all! You can print out the PDF if that makes it easier.
Identify all the instances of these features, then check your answers with the other PDF. Next, read it out loud, taking care to pronounce the sounds correctly.
Finally take some of the words and use them while monologuing, imagining you are speaking to a friend!