The correct pronunciation of soft-sign following р (-рь) is extremely difficult for the unfortunate few. After a year of practice the manager of Listen2Russian still cannot make a good -рь! (much to the amusement of my Russian friends who seem to take great delight showing me their rolling r abilities :)
If you can roll your 'r's then you can skip the text below and proceed straight to the audio (and if you can explain how the tongue position differs between -р and -рь then please email us!)
For those of you who can't roll your r's, there is a cheating method that comes close to the same sound without a pure vibration of the tongue. Some people are born with the ability to vibrate their tongue and some aren't, so don't feel bad if you can't do it. You are certainly not alone!
To mimic a rolled 'r', try saying the word 'THRUST'. When we say this word we automatically roll the 'r' a little by scraping the tip of the tongue back along the edge of the front upper teeth. Try saying 'thrust' a few times and notice how your tongue moves.
Once you have noticed the tongue movement, try just saying the first three letters of thrust, 'THR', and still roll the 'r' slightly by using the same tongue movement. Once you have mastered THR, then try to say the word 'RUST' with the same 'r' sound you used for THR.
Now when you encounter a -р, try using the same backwards tongue movement to pronounce the 'r' sound. It's not quite the same as a classic rolled 'r' because it's much shorter, but at least you are a bit closer to the correct sound. In fact, this method seems to create a sound that is closer to -рь than a standard -р.
Door - [nonsense word]
дверь - двер
Pronounced:
d-vYEr' - d-vyer
Listen:
(Lena)
Listen:
(Lena)
Now that .. - [nonsense word]
теперь - тепер
Pronounced:
ti-pIr' - ti-pir
Listen:
(Lena)
Listen:
(Lena)
January - [nonsense word]
Январь - Январ
Pronounced:
yin-vAr' - yin-var
Listen:
(Lena)
Listen:
(Lena)
Dictionary - [nonsense word]
словарь - словар
Pronounced:
sla-vAr' - sla-var
Listen:
(Lena)
Listen:
(Lena)
King - [nonsense word]
царь - цар
Pronounced:
tsar' - tsar
Listen:
(Lena)
Listen:
(Lena)
Stressed?
We probably don't need to remind you again ... when the Russian letter 'o' appears in a word, but is not stressed, then it is pronounced as a Russian 'a'.
If the 'o' is stressed (the syllable which is emphasised), then it is pronounced normally as a Russian 'o'.
