{"id":11544,"date":"2019-02-07T07:28:17","date_gmt":"2019-02-07T07:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=11544"},"modified":"2019-02-06T23:51:24","modified_gmt":"2019-02-06T23:51:24","slug":"why-you-should-learn-to-read-russian-vowels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/why-you-should-learn-to-read-russian-vowels\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Should Learn to Read Russian Vowels"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Russian alphabet is one of the first challenges a prospective student runs into. We have posted some advice for learning the alphabet<\/a> on this blog, but if you don’t know where to start, start with the vowels. Learning to read and pronounce Russian vowels is a manageable task that has many benefits.<\/p>\n

\"letter

Photo by\u00a0Pearse O’Halloran<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Only 10 Vowel Letters<\/h2>\n

The Russian alphabet only has 10 vowel letters. Here they are, listed alphabetically, in an uppercase and a lowercase form. Their names correspond to the way they are pronounced in isolation (if that makes sense).<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u0410\u0430<\/strong>\u2014ah<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. \u0415\u0435<\/strong>\u2014yeh<\/em><\/li>\n
  3. \u0401\u0451<\/strong>\u2014yaw<\/em><\/li>\n
  4. \u0418\u0438<\/strong>\u2014ee<\/em><\/li>\n
  5. \u041e\u043e<\/strong>\u2014aw<\/em><\/li>\n
  6. \u0423\u0443<\/strong>\u2014ooh<\/em><\/li>\n
  7. \u044b<\/strong>\u2014listen here<\/a>, does not normally occur at the beginning of a word<\/li>\n
  8. \u042d\u044d<\/strong>\u2014eh<\/em><\/li>\n
  9. \u042e\u044e<\/strong>\u2014you<\/em><\/li>\n
  10. \u042f\u044f<\/strong>\u2014yah<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \"man

    Photo by\u00a0Gem & Lauris RK<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

    Only 6 Sounds (Or Even 5?)<\/h2>\n

    What’s more, there are only 6 sounds (some researchers argue there are actually only 5<\/a>)! Why is that? Because 4 of the letters are often pronounced as \u0419\u0439<\/strong> (\u0438 \u043a\u0440\u0430\u0301\u0442\u043a\u043e\u0435, ee kratkoye<\/em>, “y” consonant sound) plus another vowel. In other cases, they are pronounced like another vowel, but the consonant before them becomes “soft” (palatalized<\/a>). Here is a handy table explaining the pronunciation of these 4 letters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
    Letter<\/th>Pronunciation at the beginning of a word, after another vowel, \u044c or \u044a<\/th>Pronunciation after a consonant<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
    \u042f<\/td>\u0439+\u0430<\/td>a<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \u042e<\/td>\u0439+\u0443<\/td>\u0443<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \u0415<\/td>\u0439+\u044d<\/td>\u044d<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \u0401<\/td>\u0438+\u043e<\/td>\u043e<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

    So, all in all, we have 6 vowel sounds:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. [\u0430]<\/li>\n
    2. [\u044d]<\/li>\n
    3. [\u0438]<\/li>\n
    4. [\u043e]<\/li>\n
    5. [\u0443]<\/li>\n
    6. [\u044b]<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \"woman

      Photo by\u00a0Michael Bar\u00f3n<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

      Similar to Latin<\/h2>\n

      Both the Latin and the Cyrillic alphabet have their roots in the Greek alphabet, so some letters have a similar look and sound in Russian and other European languages that use the Latin alphabet.<\/p>\n