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Russian: Words without Vowel Reduction? | ||
Tags: Pronunciation | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Γρηγόρη Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 4460 days ago 55 posts - 154 votes  Speaks: English*, Greek, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: German, French, Russian | Message 1 of 3 03 March 2014 at 3:07am | IP Logged |
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Earlier today, I was using what little Russian I have to converse with an elderly Russian woman from church. I used
the word богородица and pronounced it as I thought it should be pronounced, with vowel reduction: buh-gah- ROH-dyi-tsa. I was corrected, however, and told to say boh-goh-ROH-dyi-tsa, that is, not to reduce the first two vowels (at least, I think that was her criticism). So my questions are: 1) is this common or correct? and 2) do Russians say certain ecclesiastical terms without vowel reduction because of the way that they are pronounced in Church Slavonic during services? If so, are there other examples? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Dragon27 Diglot Groupie Russian Federation Joined 4246 days ago 41 posts - 71 votes Speaks: Russian*, English | Message 2 of 3 03 March 2014 at 4:57am | IP Logged |
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Church Slavonic doesn't have vowel reduction, like Russian does. Although, I think, some Russians may pronounce these words with reduction (casual conversation), it's considered as incorrect (at least, in more formal circumstances).
I'm not sure, I don't use them in my speech. Edited by Dragon27 on 03 March 2014 at 7:42am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6602 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 3 of 3 03 March 2014 at 12:07pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah, if you speak to religious people, it might be better to follow these rules. Especially since you're a non-native and consciously reduce the vowels - if a native just naturally reduces them a bit, it may be less noticeable, though I imagine this woman would've corrected them too if she noticed. Also, I wouldn't say it needs to be a clear o - it's VERY hard to pronounce for Russians in an unstressed position. Just don't make it a clear obvious a. (If you ever visit Belarus, I'd say you can safely disregard it there - the reduction is more obvious over there and doesn't have a somewhat low prestige)
One more thing are the word-final consonants, btw. I can't think of a specific example but afaiu they should stay voiced. If these things are important to you, I think your best bet is to find some interviews/podcasts on the topic and imitate the speaker(s). For example, Андрей Кураев is well-versed in languages and history, but at the same time clearly speaks modern Russian and accepts the fact that languages change. (although I haven't checked now - maybe his speech would be deemed "too progressive" by the more conservative folks. rely on what you hear, not on what I say) Edited by Serpent on 03 March 2014 at 1:18pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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