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Are O and A the same in Russian?

 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
ANK47
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 Message 1 of 4
23 December 2010 at 1:04am | IP Logged 
I was watching a video on YouTube where they went through the names of different animals in Russian. They had cobaka (dog) and the O sounded just the an A, sabaka. Also with koza (goat). It sounded like kaza. Is my hearing just not attuned to the nuances of Russian or are O and A the same sound? Thanks muy mucho and كتير كتير!
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egill
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 Message 2 of 4
23 December 2010 at 1:11am | IP Logged 
I haven't studied Russian but I think this is what you're talking about:

Russian Vowel Reduction

Basically unstressed vowels often merge together. This strikes me as similar to what happens in English. I'm sure
other more knowledgeable people can elaborate on this.
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M. Medialis
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 Message 3 of 4
23 December 2010 at 1:42am | IP Logged 
A short answer:

The letter 'o' can have two different (and distinct) pronunciations. When you see the letter 'o' in Russian, you can rarely know whether it's pronounced like 'o' or 'a'. It depends on the stress.

The stress is often marked in dictionaries with an accent: ó.


So, for each word, you need to find a way to remember the pronunciation of the 'o's. Either by using some sort of dictionary, or by using some audio-based methods.

Good luck!
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Jase27
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 Message 4 of 4
23 December 2010 at 5:57am | IP Logged 
As M. M said, an "o" is usually pronounced like the a in sofa when it is unstressed. If it's stressed, it's pronounced
like an o.

However, outside of learning material/dictionaries, there is usually no indication of whether the o is stressed.


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