RL101 - 8: The Missing Vowels - part one

The eighth lesson on the Russian alphabet. I'm afraid I had to split the lesson into two parts. The reason is that I needed to first teach a little bit about vowels and how it is that there are 5 soft and 5 hard vowels in Russian. This who like understanding how language works and develops will enjoy that. If you find it too complex, skip over the slideshow part or leave it till later. More in the second part.

Incidentally, if anyone wants to try their hand at transliterating English into cyrillics for practice using the keyboard, you're welcome to try it in the comments and I will respond in kind. It is the best way to get used to the Cyrillic alphabet and let the knowledge from the videos sink in!

Зис из зе сорт ов фынг ай мыйн. Эврибоди шуд бы эйбл ту андэрстэнд зис нау. Джаст суыч юр кийборд ту Рашн лэтрз энд джойн ын зе фан!

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• RL101-8
• Huliganov
• lesson
• Russian
• cyrillics
• hard
• vowels
• soft
• phonology

[NzappaZap]

@usenetposts When you say "вы" and "ты" the "ы" sounds to me the same as a short "уй". Am I missing something? What is the difference?

[usenetposts]

@NzappaZap "ui" is a diphthong and "y" is a pure sound.

[hospitalcakewalk]

Does Russian have any consonant clusters or diphthongs? it doesn't seem like it, but just in case i'm curious to know if there are any and what they are :D thanks for these videos by the way. this is my third language i'm studying and though i can converse in the other 2 i want to Russian to be as familiar as English to me, i love love love the language :D

Thanks again! :P

[usenetposts]

@hospitalcakewalk Russian has many consonant clusters, too many to list. Vzglyad is view for instance. Not many languages have more consonant clusters than that. Vowels don't tend to cluster, but instead of that you have the hard and soft double series. Occasionally, more often than not in loanwords, there may be a series of more than one vowel.

[SuperFarmerThanMan]

You seem to know quite a lot about several different languages! You said in your first video in the series you were a philologist... How many languages do you speak fluently?

[usenetposts]

@SuperFarmerThanMan Only 5 to what I'd called fluently. But I know the structure of another 20 odd.

[musikeradaw]

you are a very good teacher!!!

Vy ochen kharasho uchetil!

[meandtherevolution]

I found this really interesting as I studied Linguistics and phonetics naturally fascinate me. The way you explain the vowel sets is really clear so that even people with no previous knowledge can follow. Keep up the good work!

[NzappaZap]

@usenetposts Thankyou very much. I've just begun to learn Russian from Pimsleur and some russian grammar books off the internet of which their copyrights have expired. They did seem to suggest it was not a diphthong so I was a little confused as to how I was to properly pronounce it.

You're video's are very helpful and much appreciated

[1rsalc]

Your teaching method is unusual, but it's interesting and effective.

I am learning a lot from you

.

Thanks for posting! Большое спасибо!

[existangst]

HULIGANOV! YA LUBYA TIBEAR!

Wish I had found your course many months ago!

[Hogums]

I must thank you for taking the time to teach this beautiful language. I am learning something from every lesson and will repeat these lessons as they are enjoyable. Your friend from America.