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TheHockeyist · 10-02-2019, 12:41 PM

Igor has decided that he might as well do something useful for the league and teach everyone how to read those weird Russian letters on the back of some players' jerseys.

"First off, there are only 33 letters. This is not Chinese or Japanese. You guys can handle 33 letters. Each letter generally makes one sound. I say generally because there are a few exceptions. We'll be going in order of complexity."

Кк and Мм and Тт

"You know these three. Just try not to let out much air on Кк and Тт. They're more like Spanish or French and less like English."

Аа

"Open your mouth like you're at the doctor's office or like you've taken a refreshing sip of whatever the hell you guys have in the locker room. Aaah. Aaah. This is the only sound this letter makes."

Оо

"Like the Spanish or Japanese o. If you say score and focus on the vowel there, you'll get close to the Russian sound."

"And by the way, this sound only occurs in stressed positions - on emphasized syllables. If you have an о that's not under stress, it sounds like а. So томат (tomato) is really "тамат" when reading it out loud. tah-MAHT. Or атом is "AH-tahm". That's clear, right?"

Сс

"This is like English, but isn't. You know face-off, ice, and center? It's that c, and not the other one in cat or car. We have another letter for that one."

Ее

"This letter is two sounds in one - yeh. Unstressed, it sounds more like yee."

Нн

"This is the n sound. Like in нет, you know that word. And окно (window). Remember the first о is unstressed."

Вв

"This is the v sound, like in every player's last name that ends in -ов. Like mine, Волков. Unstressed о at the end."

Рр

"The rolled r of Spanish or Italian. Like the type of music called рок. Or река (river)."

Уу

"This is the u in flu or true, so утка (duck) is our word. Or уксус (vinegar)."

Хх

"The German ch. If you have no idea what that is, place your tongue in the position to say /k/, but say /h/ instead. You'll hear a distinct rough sound. That's what you want. It kind of sounds like evil laughter if you say хахахаха."

Пп

"The letter p, like pie, puck, etc. But like Кк and Тт, there shouldn't be much air coming out. It also looks like pie, no not that pie - the other pi. The 3.14 pi."

Бб

"The letter b. It's not Вв - that's v. This is b. Many people mix these two up."

Гг

"The letter g. It's only a hard g sound like in gas or goal."

Дд

"The d sound, да?"

Зз

"This is the z sound, like zoo, zebra, zero, etc."

Ии

"This letter is the i in ski or police, "ee". It almost always makes this sound."

Йй

"Now, this is a consonant. It's a y sound like in boy, day, etc. ой, ай, ей... "oy! ay! yay!" you know?"

Лл

"The l sound. But it's a bit dark and pulled back, like full, ill, etc."

Фф

"This is the f sound."

Ээ

"And this is the eh sound, like in это, meaning this. Not a lot of words have it, but this one of the most common. Don't confuse it with Ее, which is "yeh", remember? Russian е = й + э."

Ёё

"This is й + о, or йо - "yoh". It's always stressed. Many people write it like Ее out of laziness."

Юю

"And this is "you", й + у."

Яя

"And this is "yah", й + а. On its own, it's the word for "I". Also, when unstressed, it sounds like "yee", just like е does."

Цц

"This is the ts sound in cats, boots, etc. and it can start words in Russian."

Шш

"This is the sh sound. But you really have to pull your tongue back a bit and get a low-pitched sound, like you're blowing on top of a bottle to make a musical note."

Щщ

"This is... also the sh sound. It's higher pitched. You want to make a long hissing sound here."

Чч

"This is the ch sound, but it's pronounced like щ. High pitched. In terms of phonetics, т + щ = ч. It's shorter in length than щ, though. One important exception. In the word что (what), it's pronounced што."

Жж

"This is the French j sound. You hear it in the middle of pleasure, treasure, collision, usually, measure, etc. It's low pitched like ш, and the tongue is in exactly the same place."

ы

"No capital form. This letter is a vowel sound that doesn't exist in English. It's about halfway between "ee" and "oo", or и and у. If you say иуиуиу and shop halfway, that's about the sound of ы. Also, after ж, ш, and ц, и sounds like ы. We write жи but say жы and so on."

ъ

"No sound. Just make a slight pause between the letters on either side and it will be close enough."

ь

"Also no sound. But it modifies the sound of the previous consonant by sort of blending it with a y. Compare food and few in English and compare the f's. You'll get the effect of the letter ь. This letter can occur after almost any consonant. Like in my name, Игорь. It's not Игор, but Игорь. You get the difference?"

"And that's it for the Russian alphabet. You can now read every player name in Russian. Hope you had fun with this lesson!"

***hhh81*** · 10-02-2019, 02:10 PM

This is hella helpful. When I was starting to try to learn Russian a few years ago, the Cyrillic alphabet wasn't sticking, so I was writing everything in the standard English alphabet. Not good.

I need to save this for any future attempts to learn Russian. Спасибо (or as I previously would type it, spasibo!)

TheHockeyist · 10-02-2019, 02:25 PM

10-02-2019, 02:10 PMhhh81 Wrote: This is hella helpful. When I was starting to try to learn Russian a few years ago, the Cyrillic alphabet wasn't sticking, so I was writing everything in the standard English alphabet. Not good.

I need to save this for any future attempts to learn Russian. Спасибо (or as I previously would type it, spasibo!)

Не за что. (No prob.)

**The__Y-man__100** · 10-02-2019, 03:26 PM

Дуже гарно (it’s Ukrainian but hey they’re like the same thing)

First ever Yukon Malamute draft pick (1st overall S65)

TheHockeyist · 10-02-2019, 03:33 PM

10-02-2019, 03:26 PMThe__Y-man__100 Wrote: Дуже гарно (it’s Ukrainian but hey they’re like the same thing)

The Russian equivalent would be "Очень хорошо".

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