Toffeeliz Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5678 days ago 116 posts - 130 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Russian
| Message 33 of 49 27 January 2013 at 6:53pm | IP Logged |
Keep at it, Wort! I got my Grandma, a Spanish learner too, Harry Potter one for her
birthday; she says it's good!
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Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5054 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian*
| Message 34 of 49 27 January 2013 at 9:55pm | IP Logged |
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
And I do hear the difference after a "t. I do not hear the difference after an l, at
least I don't think I do, though
my teacher claims I pronounce it correctly, and I do not hear a difference after an "r".
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The situation with L is special. Unlike other pairs of consonats, the hard L is marked,
it is always velarized and dental. So the Norwegian (as well as most other Ls) seem soft
to a Russian ear, although they are harder than the Russian soft L. Another thing is that
for л/ль all positions are strong. The hard L can appear before or after soft consonants,
and the soft L too. (BTW is it a soft L or the soft L?).
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mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5224 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese
| Message 35 of 49 28 January 2013 at 1:30pm | IP Logged |
Марк wrote:
(BTW is it a soft L or the soft L?) |
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Sorry, when to use the indeterminate, determinate, or no article is highly dependent on context -- there's no general answer ;(
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The situation with L is special. Unlike other pairs of consonats, the hard L is marked, |
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Could you please clarify what you mean by "marked" here?
Quote:
it is always velarized and dental. So the Norwegian (as well as most other Ls) seem soft to a Russian ear, although they are harder than the Russian soft L. Another thing is that for л/ль all positions are strong. |
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Idem here. What are "strong positions"?
Edited by mrwarper on 28 January 2013 at 1:30pm
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Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5054 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian*
| Message 36 of 49 28 January 2013 at 2:41pm | IP Logged |
mrwarper wrote:
Марк wrote:
(BTW is it a soft L or the soft L?) |
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Sorry, when to use the indeterminate, determinate, or no article is highly dependent on
context -- there's no general answer ;(
Quote:
The situation with L is special. Unlike other pairs of consonats, the hard L is
marked, |
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Could you please clarify what you mean by "marked" here?
Quote:
it is always velarized and dental. So the Norwegian (as well as most other Ls)
seem soft to a Russian ear, although they are harder than the Russian soft L. Another
thing is that for л/ль all positions are strong. |
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Idem here. What are "strong positions"? |
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But here what article should I use?
"marked" means that an L is soft unless it is really hard (velarized), while most other
consonants are hard unless they are really palatalized.
"strong positions" means that both sounds can appear there. волна - вольна, волне -
вольнее.
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Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian
| Message 37 of 49 28 January 2013 at 3:18pm | IP Logged |
It's up to you which article you want to use in this case. If you say "the hard L" you're talking about the hard L in general. If you say "a hard L" you mean an arbitrary hard L. In your sentence there wouldn't be a change in meaning though, so you can use both.
EDIT: Interesting discussion, by the way!
Edited by Josquin on 28 January 2013 at 3:42pm
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mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5224 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese
| Message 38 of 49 28 January 2013 at 5:24pm | IP Logged |
Марк wrote:
[...]But here what article should I use? |
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Sorry, I thought you meant 'in general' because as our German godfather Josquin promptly pointed out, either one will do in your post -- we might try and find differences in meaning if we change your phrase "the hard L" to "a hard L" or "hard Ls" but it'd be pretty much hair-splitting.
Quote:
"marked" means that an L is soft unless it is really hard (velarized), while most other consonants are hard unless they are really palatalized. |
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Invaluable, thanks a million!
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"strong positions" means that both sounds can appear there. волна - вольна, волне - вольнее. |
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Mmmh. So, if I understood it, ANY word that has an 'л' can also have an 'ль' instead (aren't there minimal word pairs where changing 'л' <-> 'ль' changes meaning?) but with other consonants, one of them is somehow not to be found in some positions? Could you give us an example?
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Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5054 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian*
| Message 39 of 49 28 January 2013 at 5:48pm | IP Logged |
In Spanish at the beginning of words only the rr sound can be found, at the end - only
the r sound. These are weak positions for this pair of sounds. But between vowels both a
flap and a trill can be found (pero - perro). This a strong position for them. Any word
with an л could be pronounced with an ль instead, you are right. Of course there are
many words which are distinguished only by these sounds: стал (became) - сталь (steel),
лук - люк, лак - ляг and many others.
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Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5054 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian*
| Message 40 of 49 28 January 2013 at 6:03pm | IP Logged |
mrwarper wrote:
Mmmh. So, if I understood it, ANY word that has an 'л' can also have an 'ль' instead
(aren't there minimal word pairs where changing 'л' <-> 'ль' changes meaning?) but with
other consonants, one of them is somehow not to be found in some positions? Could you
give us an example? |
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I have already given an example волна (wave) - вольна ((she) is free). Both sounds appear
before a consonant - in the weakest position for hard/soft consonants. One could not find
a soft labial in this position, for example. It also means that л is never assimilated
(and does not usually assimilate itself). In the word песня c is automatically soft
because of the soft н.
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