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Russian: Hard and soft sign | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| JK ROFLing Newbie United States Joined 5820 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 4 24 December 2008 at 1:56am | IP Logged |
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Здравствуйте!
I've been attempting to teach myself Russian. I've always loved this language and because of a discrepancy at my University, I won't be able to take a language class until next fall. So I've decided to start teaching myself. One problem with the language is the use of the soft and hard signs. "Ъ" and "Ь" I've read over several lessons online, but I still can't get the hang of these and what they do. Could someone maybe clear this up for me? That would be greatly appreciated. Спасибо. Edited by JK ROFLing on 24 December 2008 at 1:57am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Eimii Groupie United States Joined 5838 days ago 44 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Polish | Message 2 of 4 24 December 2008 at 2:44pm | IP Logged |
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The hard sign (ъ) is almost never used. The soft sign (ь) kind of just separates two letters. So in мальчик or большой, the л & ч and the л & ш are separated by a mini y.
I found a video and this guy can teach you better...he's a little strange: http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-pronounce-and -write-the-hard-and-soft-signs-in-russian-245471/ 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dragonfly Triglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 6485 days ago 204 posts - 233 votes  Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, Mandarin | Message 3 of 4 24 December 2008 at 2:54pm | IP Logged |
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The soft sign also palatalizes the consonant that comes before it. For example, конь and кон are two diffeent words, and the difference in prononciation is that in the first word the last sound is [n'], and in the second - [n].
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bradley326 Groupie Joined 6182 days ago 78 posts - 104 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Kazakh, Spanish | Message 4 of 4 25 December 2008 at 10:23am | IP Logged |
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I feel your pain. I also self-taught myself the majority of my Russian before taking university classes and the hard and soft signs confused the hell out of me.
Here's some advice: don't worry to much about them. I noticed that after 2+ years of studying Russian I've finally gotten a grasp on them. I didn't specifically try to study them, but just began to hear the subtle differences in sounds as I listened to more and more Russian speech. If people know you're a foreigner then you won't cause any confusion by just ignoring the hard and soft signs when speaking. Sure, there is a difference between words like конь and кон, but context will easily tell people what word you're saying. After a while you'll just naturally start to be able to hear and say them. Spelling is pretty easy too. They generally appear after a certain few letters in most words, and you'll pick up the patterns. So if someone says a word and you want to write it down or look it up, even if you don't hear the soft or hard sign, you can generally guess that one is or isn't there based on the other letters in the word. So don't sweat it. Take it from someone who's already gone through it, it isn't worth the trouble :) 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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