Russian Speech Pattern Assistance requested (John Semlak or other)?

[green slime]

A few other pronunciation issues...

• The letter combination 'kh' as in khrushchev is actually a Russion letter that looks like 'X" and is pronounced somewhat like the English letter 'h'.

????

I don't know how you pronounce "h", but I suppose, if you did it while gargling caustic soda and leaping about on one leg....

The absence of the "h" sound is the reason for names like Hitler to be translated as "Gitler". If others thought X sounded more "h"-like it would have been translated as "Khitler", surely?

 

[johnsemlak]

????

I don't know how you pronounce "h", but I suppose, if you did it while gargling caustic soda and leaping about on one leg....

The absence of the "h" sound is the reason for names like Hitler to be translated as "Gitler". If others thought X sounded more "h"-like it would have been translated as "Khitler", surely?

Agreed, in general, there really is no English equivelent of the Russian letter X. However, IMHO the english letter 'h' is closer than 'kh'. Just like the English 'r' and the russian 'r' are also very different.

My main point is that there is no 'k' sound in Khrushchev.

 

[green slime]

Agreed, in general, there really is no English equivelent of the Russian letter X. However, IMHO the english letter 'h' is closer than 'kh'. Just like the English 'r' and the russian 'r' are also very different.

My main point is that there is no 'k' sound in Khrushchev.

Right! Well, I agree then! Carry on! Don't mind me!

 

[Power_Munchkin]

Russians don't have a "th" sound, so they use "z" instead.

"Zis bredd is stail"

"Wot iz zis?"

"Hoo arrr yu?"

Russian constonants are hard and pronounced.

????

I don't know how you pronounce "h", but I suppose, if you did it while gargling caustic soda and leaping about on one leg....

The absence of the "h" sound is the reason for names like Hitler to be translated as "Gitler". If others thought X sounded more "h"-like it would have been translated as "Khitler", surely?

Russian "h" sounds a lot like english "h", except that it's a lot more pronouced. Exhale sharply as you're saying it, like before jumping into really cold water or while doing pushups.

The "g" instead of "h" is an issue of international translation conventions (I think). Someone decided that russian "h" sounds a lot like "kh" with a silent "k". (?!) And for some reason all instances of english "h" needs to be replaced with an equivalent of letter "g". So yeah, russians read about Gitler and Garward.

For example my name has the russian letter "x" in it. Sure enough, it got translated as "kh". There is no "k" there. A single "h" would have sufficed.

Btw, the word "russia" looks like a phonetic translation of the word russia (in russian) using latin letters. In russian it's pronounced "Ra" (as the egyptian god) "ss" "ia" (as in "via" minus the v).

 

[mmu1]

I pity anyone learning English as a second language -- it's such an irrationally constructed, irregular language that it's tough to get right (though I understand there are a few languages out there that are worse) -- which embarrases me to no end when I meet Germans whose English is far better than my German (or for that matter, my English!).

Shame we don't all just switch to Esperanto.

I grew up speaking Polish, studied Russian (was forced to, really), English and French, and English is by far the easiest of the lot.

Don't know about Russian (since it's in higher demand, more people study it), but I have never met anyone who learned to speak Polish as well as many people I know learned English - Slavic languages are freakin' hard. And watching English speakers try to pronounce cz, sz, rz, dz, dzi or even szcz sounds is hilarious.

 

[Altalazar]

So how did the game go? Were they impressed by the Russian dialect?

I just couldn't resist this - my wife is Russian - from St. Petersberg. She is always worried about her accent, though really, it is rather slight compared to many other Russians I've known. Her mother doesn't even really speak English.

If you have any other Russian questions, feel free to ask me. I have an inside source...