Уро́к 3
3.2 Phonetics – Vowel Reduction
Фоне́тика
Several of you have picked up on the variation in pronunciation for some letters, especially ‘o’. You notice sometimes it sounds like ‘o’ and sometimes it sounds like ‘a’. How do you know when to do what?
[VIDEO]
When stressed, Russian vowels are pronounced in their purest form. When not stressed, some vowels, retain that quality, and some are “reduced,” meaning that they become shorter in actual duration and change their sound quality. Look at the following table for information on the 5 Russian vowels that reduce /е, э, а, о, я/.
| Russian Letter | Sound in a stressed syllable | Unstressed | Unstressed 2 |
| Е | [je], like е́хать ‘to go’, or Ле́рмонтов ‘Lermontov’ | [i] or [yi] at the beginning of a word, like телефо́н ‘phone’ or Еле́на ‘Elena’ | |
| Э | [ɛ], like э́ксперт ‘expert’ | [i], like экспериме́нт ‘experiment’ | |
| А | [a], like Сама́ра ‘Samara’ | [a], immediately preceding a stressed syllable, like Сама́ра or at the beginning of a word, like астроно́мия ‘astronomy’ | [ə] everywhere else, like гита́ра |
| О | [o], like хорошо́ ‘good/well’ | [a], immediately preceding a stressed syllable, like коро́ва, or at the beginning of a word, like остано́вка ‘(bus) stop’ | [ə] everywhere else, like молоко́ |
| Я | [ya], like Я, Я́лта ‘Yalta’ | [yi] at the beginning of a word, язы́к ‘language/tongue’ | [yə] at the END of a word, like Росси́я ‘Russia’ |
