It is not an easy task — to look at your native language through the eyes of a foreigner. Because you are so used to it, noticing things that are unusual doesn't come with the same ease as it does when you, yourself, learn a new language. But I've been introducing русский язык (roos-kiy ya-zyk), the Russian language, to foreigners for a long time now, so you are in good hands.
And what I learned through that experience is that, to simplify this big, diverse, and colorful Russian, all its peculiarities can be briefly summed up in 3 bullet points. Yep, that easy! So pay attention :)
Number 1. Stress
Russian words are exceptionally sensitive to stress. You want to do good in Russian, be aware of where you stress your words, and make sure you have learned them the right way. Here, although, I gotta tell you one important thing: not all Russians agree on the stress positions in all the words. Of course, there are not that great many words for which this statement is true, but it still might confuse you. So my advice if you come across a word like that: just choose the way you like more or the majority of people around you uses, and go with it. That's how Russians do it!
Stress in Russian is normally indicated as an acute accent mark, so like this: á. BUT: this is just as a means to help a reader. Stress marks DO NOT normally appear in Russian texts — users don't need them, and they unnecessary pollute the visual perception of what's written. Imágine Énglish téxts fúll óf thóse. No need for that, right? So you won't normally see them, maybe only in your textbook in the very beginning of studies. But it is still of a high importance that you focus on the right way to stress Russian words.
Change it, and the word is either harder or even up to impossible to understand, or it changes its meaning and becomes something else. And if it is a sentence full of words like that, then you are... well, in troubles. On the picture below, you can see some examples of such a change in meaning.
But there are also words that don't change meaning with a different stress position but they do have so called "correct" and "incorrect" ways of stressing them —that not even Russians, mind you, can agree on or follow 100%.
For example, in the word for catalogue —каталог (kuh-tuh-log)— the "correct" stress position, accoring to the dictionaries, is on the last syllable: катало́г. But you can meet quite a fair amount of Russians who will pronounce it ката́лог and will swear to you that this is the only right way to say it. Or the plural for cakes —торты (tuhr-ty)— meant to be pronounced as то́рты, but I normally say торты́ and no textbook or person will ever convince me to do it otherwise. It's already a habit I'll stick to till the end of times :)
At school, when we need to remember where the stress is, we help ourselves using auditory memory by prolonging the stressed vowel, like this: каталооооог. I've been roaming the world suprising lots of folk with such a trick :) But it helps, and, as you can see, Russians have to learn to stress, too.
Any 100% rule about stress that works all the time? Yes! Remember that letter I mentioned in the previous Episode that became a letter the latest —ё (yo)? Well, dictionaries and all Russian population agrees that whenever you see this letter in a word, this is where the stress is: мёд (myod = honey), ковёр (kuh-vyor = rug), ребёнок (ree-byo-nok = baby) —works every time!
Only... very often Russians omit the two dots over the letter writing it like this: мед, ковер, ребенок —because it is so obviously a ё there! For them, anyways :) So it kind of looks like a different letter —е (ye)— and can be confused with it by a beginner. Oopsie!
Stress also affects the pronunciation of vowels. Say, in the word ребёнок, letter е that is pronounced as ye in a stressed position, when unstressed pronounced as ee. Just a quick example. Or in the word ковёр the letter о in an ustressed position sounds like Russian а (in the previous Episode, there is a video about letters and their sounds —give it a whirl), or, for my English readers, like u in a word mug. But this is just that bit of the reading rules which I warned you about. Learn them, and you are good to go! It's not much.
Number 2. Soft and hard consonants
That's what we call them in Russian, but for an English speaker it makes no sense whatsoever. In English consonants don't go soft or hard —they are always of the same... well, hardness :) And, really, it's not just consonants that change from hard to soft depending on what comes after them. Vowels are divided into these 2 groups, too —5 in each. AND! There are two special letters that are actually called "soft sign" (ь) and "hard sign" (ъ) that do not have a sound but affect the consonant pronunciation they follow, as in they make it either soft or hard.
Explaining hard and soft consonants in text merely impossible. Yet, without this concept, you'll always sound as a foreigner, or worse —may end up saying something you did not intend for there are words in Russian that change their meaning if you prononce the consonant differently. Here comes an example with a quick reminder beforehand that softness is usually marked in a transcription with an apostrophe after the letter we make soft, like this: [l']. With that in mind: угол (oo-gul) is "angle", whereas уголь (oo-gul') is coal. As you can see, the only difference in pronunciation is the hardness/softness of the last consonant —l.
I believe the easiest way to go about it is to get acquainted with the rule and then let it get into your body and brain through the magic of practice and immitating the Russians you are talking to. With the rule part Olga is going to help us in this short video where you can try your ear at the soft/hard sounds of Russian consonants (4:33)
Anything's gotten clearer? Нет? Don't worry if not, it's a new idea for an English speaker. But I'd like to demonstrate it one more time on a simple Russian word for "no" —Нет.
So this is how a Russian pronounces it: [n'et] = нет.
And this is how a foreigner does: [niet] = ньет (like Spanish nieto = "grandson").
See? As if there is a sound between n and e. But there isn't any! It's just the consonant n went soft. So try to say English net which equals Russian [нэт]. Now try yet, and feel how e sound in this word is not the same as in net, as it joins with y and makes it.. softer? Now, using Olga's бэ/бе training from the video above, loose the y, take that "softening quality" and pass it onto the n making smooth, uninterrupted "нет"!
Well, did it work? If not today, then another time it surely will! Do not despair, it becomes really easy once you heard it enough times. Everything is possible!
Number 3. Particles
Brace yourself for his one: Russian is a very emotional and a very emotionally intelligent language, if I can call a language that. In a sense that all kind of feelings are integrated into the speech through the usage of little language bits called particles, and you need to be aware of the context to interpret them properly. It is not a novel concept —English have those, too. But in Russian the diversity of their application is mind-boggling!
I cannot count the amount of times I had to explain to the foreigners the meaning of a partcile ну (noo). The first issue lays in the fact that everyone hears no when I say it, due to it being the closest familiar word they know. The second problem is that it's exceedingly difficult for me to just cut it out from my speech —I'm so used to its incredible power to channel great many things in one little syllable! From "Well, let me think" to "Not exactly", to "I am not sure that this statement is a correct one, but give me a sec to figure out why", to its ability to convey surprise, discontent, admiration, disbelief, indignation, impatience, irony, and especially empasis, amplification of a feeling, word, or even a whole message.
All of this with one simple ну! And as you can imagine, the context is the king in these situations.
Speaking of a no, look at the Russian yes: the word да. This particle has more than 10 different usages besides a simple yes function. Additionally, it can work as a conjuction and, a conjuction but, and even be translated to English as "not"! I mean can you use an English yes this way? No wonder that such a common Russian answer as "Да нет" can be a puzzling concept: how do you proceed if someone tells you "Yes no"? By the way, the meaning is "no" but with an air of hesitation, hidden sadness, or irritation (although, there might be some other feelings I did not cover here).
And what about particles like же (zheh), то (toh), ли (lee), бы, уж (oozh), ведь (ved'), -ка (kuh) and many others including вот (vot), whose meaning I won't even pretend I know how to explain! They fill Russian with colors, and depths, they change "density" of a message, they convey tiniest tinges of emotions that are otherwise lost.
How to learn those? My answer: just like the Russians do. And they don't use a book for that. It all comes by itself over time through constant contact and interaction with other people who had already absorbed that magical power of Russian particles.
It will not be your first step in learning Russian but the one you will have to make sooner or later if you are to speak and understand this language. Because if it even comes through when a Russian speaks English, imagine how often you'll encounter particles in a usual conversation with a Russian person, or in a Russian book or movie!
And this is all Russian for you in 3 simple bullet points:
- Stress that is tricky but crucial;
- Soft and hard consonants that you will have to wrap your mind around;
- and Particles that will broaden your emotional scope within a language and beyond.
I do not mention here other grammatical pecularities of Russian, such as aspects, for example, that are a major point of struggle and confusion for the Russian language learners, as they directly influence the endings of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. And there are 6 of them!
Which is, as it turns out, a simplification, for my research done solely to prepare for this article shows that Russian has 15, not 6, aspects —meaning, 15 (!!!) different ways for word endings. And this information is something Russians do not know! We only learn 6 aspects in school and stick to them for life (and so will you, don't worry, you don't need the 15 types). I wouldn't ever discover the other 9 if it wasn't for this very Langventure.
So this is something I am learning about my native language since the moment we've langventured into it: there is a lot I don't know about it, like a deep sea that you dive into and the futher you go, the more things you find. How surprising and exciting to find out something completely new and unexpected about stuff you considered routine, usual, habitual!
What kind of revelations will the next Episode bring?
Curious? Let's dive straight into it!
Вот это да! (Vot eh-tuh duh!) This is so cool!
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