RL101 - 7 The Sibilants

[MegaJohn144]

I have always wanted to learn Russian. I don't know way. Maybe because we Americans were so curious about Russia during the Cold War. I had a summer job once with a bunch of Russian men, and they taught me a few words. I am up to RL101-7 and using your Goldlist method. Before I found your course, I was looking for somebody to help me pronounce the words right. You are the next best thing to having a teacher right by my side.

[hospitalcakewalk]

Awwe ur wife is sooooo pretty!!!! :D

[catholicscott]

Your wife is absolutely beautiful!

[usenetposts]

@catholicscott I agree!

[atownlefttrain]

First of all, I'd like to thank you for giving your time in helping all of us pro bono, it's a true act of kindness. I've been studying Russian for several years, and it seems that for one reason or another I am failing to pronounce ц as anything more than a harder version of с. It is a phonetic blind spot if you will, for some reason I cannot hear the difference between my failed pronunciation and the proper one. Thus, I seem to be pronouncing words like цель as сель. What am i missing?

[usenetposts]

@atownlefttrain OK, looks like you need some pronunciation drills. Please keep repeating the following sentences: 1) Peter eats a piece a pizza and a pita in a two seater. 2) Fritz shits in the Ritz through the Blitz 3) Soon Amy saw the tsunami and 4) Its so itsy bitsy but it fits Mitzy's tits. If you pronounce these sentences "Peter eassa peassa peassa" , "Friss shiss in the Riss through the Bliss", "Soon Amy saw the soon army" and "isso issy bissy but it fiss Missy's tiss", then try again.

[killerkane214]

You know how I can tell that you are a good man, other than the fact of you teaching us Russian - is in the smile your wife gives you when your not looking! Priceless!!!

[usenetposts]

@killerkane214 I think it tells you more about her character than mine, but a very pleasant comment anyway, thanks!

[samehelbnna111]

very very very good man

[theawesomesausage]

Do the letter Щ have a "shtsh" sound or a sharp "sh" sound? I've heard that the letter have both sounds.

[usenetposts]

@theawesomesausage It was more shtch in the time when a lot of royalty was in St Petersburg and there was in that city a fashion of aping certain Polish affectations such as turning the "l" to a semivowel and saying "szcz" for that letter. Most of Russia then and even more so now uses what you might think of as a sharper and longer "sh" sound. Philologically speaking, you are going to get this sound in places where historically there was an s plus a gutteral or dental.

[Olekander]

hahahaa your joke made my day!

[Commiton]

I love the face on V. Huliganov in the first picture of this video. Such a scowl! Xa Xa Xa! Beautiful.

[usenetposts]

@Commiton Well, it was my boss taking it.

[mw227]

wonderful! everything!

[OLudOvideos]

but... aren't YOU a genius?!

(no worries, I got the same problem as Mr Hiluganov. I'm french but people say I got a german sense of humour...)

Anyways, you've made my day again!

[meandtherevolution]

You are NOT Russian?? My world's falling apart

[usenetposts]

Anyone who learns Russian becomes a little bit Russian.

[meandtherevolution]

@usenetposts

Certainly true, I've noticed that myself.

But I have Slavic roots anyway. It's one of my ambitions to be able to read great Russian literature in the original one day. Will you teach us Polish one day, too? Count me in if you do.

[usenetposts]

I might, if I finish the Russian course.

[bigchickenfu]

yes. please begin a Polish course!

[usenetposts]

@bigchickenfu User magauchsein carries some quite good Polish material, have a look at his stuff.

[Kent1566]

Thanks ....this is top rate stuff....

[houseofriurik]

this is the BEST way to learn Pyccki-freekin hilarious, why aren't you doing stand up? i bought Rosetta Stone and didn't get THIS much out of it. spaceebuh.

[usenetposts]

Don't be surprised if I quote this excellent comment!

[Xinoutorah]

Yea I'm not the biggest fan of Rosetta stone

[usenetposts]

Me neither. I think Ian Mitchell played better guitar when he was still in the Bay City Rollers.

[crimlee]

I suspect that you speak Polish via phone;> Mam rację? :)

[usenetposts]

Pewnie.

[arzemordom]

I am not sure of, the pronounciation of яйцо(egg), I heard its kind of like an "ee" sound instead of "ya" sound.....I thought they should have the "ya" sound pronounced but it really sounds like "eee".

So is it true when a я is in front of a й , we will need to pronounce "ee" without the A sound?

[ddach431]

The Russian language has a system of vowel reduction that's actually very similar to the one we use in English. Since the 'я' is not accented, it's sound reduces to a 'йи.' If the 'я' were accented in the word 'яйцо' the 'о' would sound like a schwa.

[arzemordom]

Many thanks for your help.

[PirateXzibit]

I think it's "Yitsoo"

[oFrEEzEo]

I don't know if i'm helping but it is pronounced

yeetzee

[veqqy]

The Penguin Russian Course book says that if я is before the stress then it is like a "ee" as you say. :)

[hosegood3]

Thanks so much for the videos!

[usenetposts]

It's called balalayka but I'm not sure of the artist.

[fearsomegladiator]

Funny joke!

[tubamatt642]

that and what being simalar makes a lot of sense because "what" also makes a subordinate clause sometimes, and is even more evident in german than in english

[ComradeOtastic]

I as well have enjoyed your jokes and songs. You have a way about you that makes it come off smooth and your singing is always a way to brighten the air. Thanks, I am learning much but feel there is so much to go. I guess I haven't reached the point of sevenskirt has but good luck!

[sevenskirt]

There's something about Russian phonology that has been bugging me for a while:

Are the vowels ja, je, j, jo, ju, when following a sibilant always pronounced hard (i.e. жЭна)?

And, are the hard vowels a, e, i, o, u following a velar sound always pronounced soft?

Regards,

Dorian

[usenetposts]

Rememeber the point that the main impact of a soft vowel is to soften the preceding consonant, if there is one. Now the zh, sh, ch etc are already softened off versions of the g, k, h etc, as we will see more when getting into class 1b verbs and also the comparative degree of adjectives. This is also the case in westen languages as seen in the two ways g and c are pronounced in most langs derived form Latin. As these sibilants are already softened off, you don't hear the softness of the ya, etc.

[usenetposts]

With relation to k, h and g, the velars, they cannot normally be followed by by ya, yu, yo but oddly the i and e following them must be the soft one. Again, you can compare that to the way e and i caused g and c in the Latin derived languages to soften. It doesn't explain it, but it may help to remember it. In Polish also k is followed by i never y, and ie never e, but can be followed by o, u, a, and the nasal vowels and u zamkniety.

[warriorlink01]

you know my friend..if I may say so or call you my friend...I believe you are telling the jokes good... I get it and find it very amusing and again as with all of your lessons I have studied I have learned some more and I appreciate it so thank you

[AtticusStount]

English lesson: that should be, "telling the jokes well" not "good".

[warriorlink01]

I honeslty don't care but I'm sure if people are here to learn russian they might not be trying to get an English lesson but thanks for the correction I guess....acttually...why do you feel it matters wiether or not I say good or well?

[warriorlink01]

although I think I might have to go back and take some notes. I figured it would be wise to go ahead and learn the Alphabet but I made a mistake the first time I started coping what was said to be the cyrillic alphabet in French only after I had finished taking it down on paper did I realize that it was three characters short lol since then I believe I have found the Russian Cyrillic Alphabet I can name all characters with I hope and believe the proper pronounciations

[darkedenSaint]

makes* sorry about he writing xD

[darkedenSaint]

lovely russian lessons... the accent is very believable i thought u were russian untill i read the comments. my father loves your lessons too. (they keep me off mmorpgs for a full hour at a time xD) im even keeping a notebook THE HORROR your lessons are turning me into a nerd for alittle while each day... maes me feel like Dr. Yekyl.

[Lalli1987]

Only one regards next to It is so cool to learn russian:

Russian humor sucks!

no offense, butthis I want to put it down on the table for you was to much!X(

Love the shows...

[Nik1317]

lol.....i can see my office building in the background. Did you like Cape Town??

Baie Dankie for the videos...thats thank you in afrikaans

[brichrmer25]

Lol that was a really good joke!

[longlat39]

That fragment of song at the beginning is very catchy,and the singer has a very unique voice. Is there some place I can find this? Thanks for your help getting this mouth & tongue moving in unfamiliar ways!

[usenetposts]

I don't actually know where it is from or who is singing, but I can try to put the whole mp3on a film one time, so that you can record it by WM Recorder or something and get your own mp3 that way.

[YashaTzirken]

I would like for you to do that too =D

[TubeYou2848]

I think the beginning song is by Nadezda kadeshova. I'm not 100% sure because its old style singing.

[starpure]

What a grate usefull clips. Ya chatshu gavarit parusky...I have a dream that one day I will read russian books:)..Thank you very much

[hugonavesdejesus]

congragulations for this course, i think the web needs it,to be used to teach, im live in a small city of Brasil and here is so hard to meet course russian language, i have seeked it for anytimes...

[Awlo81]

Your chipmunk is superb - I had to quit those long and nasty studies in chipmunk language when I discovered it's written with Hebrew alphabet. XD

[usenetposts]

Only the *Ashkenazi* chipmunk language is like that. The *Sephardic* chipmunks use Latin letters, although they used to use Hebrew ones until about 100 years ago.

[Awlo81]

LOLLL!!! You're such a hero!

[Yardana28]

LOL! I love it, you speak Russian, English, and chipmunk XD

[firmowy]

@Yardana28 it was Polish ;p

[metalero62]

My name is Victor, I'm from Brazil, and I also want to thank you for you lovely work, I hope that someday I could express my gratitude for you, great videos, sincerely thanks Товарищ!

[usenetposts]

Thanks for watching, Victor!

[bigshadow4]

Awsome keep the lessons coming:)

[Fionafalcon]

I'm totally hooked and have just spent lots of my half-term break on these delightful Russian lessons. I love the humour, the interspersed mnemonics which really help me to remember the sounds and words, the jokes and of course the songs, especially the ones with your dear wife. Could I please just ask what the song is about where you point backwards at your wife and she laughs and asks if you mean her. Then you nod yes and she laughs again at the end! I just love it!

[usenetposts]

That's "vdol' po ulitse" it means "stand a little my beautiful one, and let me look at you" she is saying does he mean me, but then she always was modest.

[ydyammo]

Dont let anyone break your spirit and make you stop...

I have learned alot of russian from these lessons. :)

Thank you!

[usenetposts]

many thanks!

[19RuSSianFreak92]

@ydyammo ME TO HULGANOV !! , when you sell books ?

grts from belgium ( бельгия ) :D

[XxdieformetalxX]

You are brilliant. You have helped me very much. But I need ask one thing, when you put the letters and sentences up and things like that could you point at what you are saying or slow down a bit? I start to lose track.

Beautiful wife BTW.

[usenetposts]

Many thanks.

My suggestion is to give it another watch each day until you can keep up, as it has to happen sooner or later anyway.

[lordmoggy]

i have reached lesson 7 isnt that amazing haha ;p soon i will be russian even with bushy eye brows hahaha ;p

[Puzzigat]

this is lame

[usenetposts]

No. Estonian collaborators removing Russian war memorials and trying to hide behind their EU membership is lame. This course is quite OK, by common consensus, actually.

[Puzzigat]

i didnt get it. strange pronunciation. i am russian and i dont understand it. why are you teaching it??

[usenetposts]

I'm teaching it because I feel like it and the English Russian accent is superior to the Estonian one. Hope that helps.

[Puzzigat]

...this is silly, I dont have any estonian accent. I am just makng comments! and the word ZOPA is not literate. by the way.

[usenetposts]

Who says it is? I was keeping it humorous. You may not think you have an Estonian accent, but if you can't understand my accent when I never met a person over the years I lived there who couldn't, you must have a pretty strong one.

You should come back to the Rodina. Why live as a second class citizen amongst the wannabe- Scandinavian former Nazi collaborators? I don't want to insult the Estonians, as they have the right to be the way they wanna be, but for a true Russian...

[Puzzigat]

why are you bullying me if i say my opinion as a native-speaker? its very good that you learn a language and keep it humorous. about the rest- i think you are not ready to duscuss life over here and not informed to judge about my private life.

[usenetposts]

You came in here mocking me and saying you could not understand my Russian, and then you whinge (as all bullies do, incidentally) about me bullying YOU when I gave you a leetle bit of the good old ultrasarcasm back. I am always prepared to play nice, so a word of advice - if you can't take it, don't dish it out. Out.

[Puzzigat]

no, i dont care im not bothered, bye

[Borya185]

then do not bother to watch, or comment

[Borya185]

yes i wa respond to "Puzzigat"

[godhatesyourface]

Yes, the way your grammar is so HORRIBLE is lame.

[joshteeters]

These are great lessons, but I have to say: you using the Russian accent while speaking in English really gets on my nerves. It's not that the accent is bad - I actually thought you WERE Russian until reading otherwise, and seeing videos with you speaking with an English accent - but instead, it's that I KNOW it's faked, and at least for me, it doesn't really add much to the lessons.

But hey, that's just me, and they're your lessons. Either way I'll continue using them. Thanks for all the work!

[usenetposts]

I got the idea of doing them when I was being Huliganov, a character who came into life the day I got my webcam, in May 2006, and Huliganov predates these lessons by a couple of months and a good dozen videos. Huliganov was only going to do ten, but by popular demand it kept going, and this is the first time anyone has complained about the accent.

Since the lessons "belong" to the Huliganov persona, I could not steal them back from him - it wouldn't be right.

[mvladivostok]

Well I find that the Russian accent really adds something to the lessons. Please keep up the good work, I've been studying Russian for 1 year now, following a Oxford University book and CD, and find that your videos are an excellent complement to it. Your approach is quite original, and even the jokes are actually funny from time to time. (-:

[usenetposts]

Thanks!

[Taskism]

This helped me out quite a bit, Ive known how to use the Cyrillic alphabet for a while, but the ш and щ has always been a mystery to me. I learned from books and it never explained it well. Thanks!

[usenetposts]

Great! Thanks for subscribing, also.

[ssips720]

sup homie? what's the difference between the way you pronounce the sh and the other one witht he little tail.. the sh/ch.... please explain im dying to know

[usenetposts]

The one with the tail is like a sh-ch. It is what happens when you soften out an -sk or an -st combination, whereas the simple one is what happens when you soften out a h or s which was on its own. This will be clearer when I get onto 1b verbs in about the 18th or 19th lesson.

[levlava]

Molodyets! You're much better than my insane Polski professor.

[usenetposts]

Many thanks.

[chiefofsages]

Heh heh... That was a good lesson. I found the part with the found particularly enjoyable with the high-pitched voices, which I am assuming were in russian? :D Keep up the great work, and I'll be watching your next lesson soon.

[cab8bd]

Dude! That damn genie did the same thing to me! hahaha

[annejuel]

Oh well. Your lessons are funny anyway and they are very useful as well. I have had a few Russian lessons at the university in Denmark and your lessons have been a big help in developing my language skills. I may study it in a few years.

[usenetposts]

By that time I hope this course will have gone a long way to meeting the needs of the university student.

[annejuel]

You are really funny. But seriously are you Russian?

[usenetposts]

I'm not Russian, I'm English, but I have spent a long time studying it, and I use it every day.

[Awlo81]

LOL!

[ELCHACHALAKO]

great job, I like to learn russian, PLEASE keep up with it,, don't stop with the lessons thanks a lot

[usenetposts]

Thanks for the positive feedback. I will keep going as long as people keep watching, although sometimes it takes a few weeks to do the next one, as they take a bit of planning.

[Sehnsucht01]

Thank you, it was very useful again. I'm able to read Russian texts now, thanks to you. I really enjoy your lessons. Keep up the good work! Dank u.

[usenetposts]

Many thanks, Sehnsucht01! I am very close to the end of lesson 8 right now. It only needs a bit of subtitling and the song. Stay tuned over the next 24 hours or so!

[IvanFyodorovichK]

esli by u menya byl ''camera'', ya by delal otvet video, chtoby blagodarit' vas za youtube za to, chto vy delaete dlya nas, no deneg net k sozhaleniyu :) thank for sharing russian culture(joke language and others) with people!!! I've been learning russian for now 6 months, that language has to be shared!! Blagodarya vam i vashemu chteniyu pushkina, ya nachal ego chitat'(evgenij onegin) eto mne bylo ochen' interesno, mne ochen' ponravilos' :) , nu nadeyus' chto moj russkij ponyaten byl :)

[usenetposts]

Da da. Sovsyem ponyatno pishesh po-russki. Otlichnye uspekhi imeya v vidu tolko pol goda uchoby!

[akoanani]

thanks a lot of every words and letter that you impart to you tube a learn how to read russian...I learn all the this you taught. I owe it from you,,,spasiva

[usenetposts]

Pozhaluysta! It's a pleasure, Akoanani.

[usenetposts]

I will try to incorporate the Cheburashka song and your other request in future lessons.

[knagenhjelm]

krasota tvoya s uma menya svela... :) I was surprised you didn't list the all-important Russian word Cheburashka in your last video! Maybe time to add some Russian cultural spice to the melting pot? How fast can you sing Lermentov's Vykhozhu odin ya na dorogu? ;)