Dictionary of Spoken Russian/Russian-English/Section 2

§2. RUSSIAN WRITING

Russian writing and printing, like English, fails to show the place of the stress. In books like the present one, which are intended for non-Russian students, the stress, is indicated by an accent mark, and by two dots over the letter e when it has the value of accented [é]: мука [muka] "torment," мука [muka] "flour," ковёр [kavjor] "rug." Two such marks on one word mean that this word is spoken in two ways, with one or the other stress: броня "armor" means that they say either [bronja] or [branja].

The Russian alphabet, with the most usual values of the letters, is as follows:

Capital	Small	Value	Name of Letter
А	а	[a]	[a]
Б	б	[b]	[be]
В	в	[v]	[ve]
Г	г	[g]	[gje]
Д	д	[d]	[de]
Е	е	[e, o]	[ye]
Ж	ж	[ž]	[že]
З	з	[z]	[ze]
И	и	[i]	[i]
Й	й	[y]	[i kratk'ya]
К	к	[k]	[ka]
Л	л	[l]	[elj]
М	м	[m]	[em]
Н	н	[n]	[en]
О	о	[o]	[o]
П	п	[p]	[pe]
Р	р	[r]	[er]
С	с	[s]	[es]
Т	т	[t]	[te]
У	у	[u]	[u]
Ф	ф	[f]	[ef]
Х	х	[x]	[xa]
Ц	ц	[c]	[ce]
Ч	ч	[č]	[če]
Ш	ш	[š]	[ša]
Щ	щ	[šč]	[šča]
Ъ	ъ	[y]	[tvjord'y znak]
Ы	ы	[i]	[yiri]
Ь	ь	[y]	[mjaxk'y znak]
Э	э	[e]	[e abarotn'ya]
Ю	ю	[u]	[yu]
Я	я	[a]	[ya]

Vowel Letters. The Russian alphabet has two signs for each vowel sound:

sound:	[a,	e,	i,	o,	u]
letter (1)	а	э	ы	о	у
letter (2)	я	е	и	ё	ю

In general, the letters in row (1) simply represent the vowel sound: ад [at] "hell," баба [bdba] "country woman." The letters in row (2) represent the vowel sound and in addition indicate that a preceding consonant has the soft sound: няня [njanja] "nurse"; at the beginning of a word or after another vowel letter or after the letters ъ and ь, they indicate that the vowel is preceded by [y]: яд [yat] "poison," шёя [ščya] "neck," объять [abyatj] "to embrace," семья [sjimjya] "family." There are various special cases and exceptions, mentioned in the following paragraphs.

At the beginning of a word, the vowel sounds are written а, э, и, о, у: ад [at] "hell," это [eta] "this," имя [imja] "name," он [on] "he," ум [um] "intelligence." Note that here и (and not ы) is used; this accords with the fact that at the beginning of a word [i] has its sharp sound, much as after a soft consonant.

Hard and Soft Consonant Spellings. The Russian alphabet has no special signs for the soft consonants other than [č, šč, y] ч, щ, й, which are always soft. There is no letter for the consonant [žj], long soft [ž]; it is written зж or жж: езжу [yežju] "I ride," жжёт [žjot] "he burns."

When a soft consonant comes before a vowel, the vowel letters я, е, и, ё, ю are used to show that the consonant is soft:
баба [baba] "country woman": дядя [djadja] "uncle"
сет [set] "set (of tennis)": вес [vjes] "weight"
сын [sin] "son": винт [vjint] "screw"
дом [dom] "house": лёд [ljot] "ice"
муж [muš] "husband": люблю [ljublju] "I love"

But after some consonant letters a different choice is made. After the letters ж (including зж, жж), ч, ш, щ the vowels are written a, e, и, о, у:
час [čas] "hour," шар [šar] "sphere" честь [čestj] "honor," шесть [šestj] "six"

щи [šči] "cabbage soup," шина [šina] "tire"

чорт [čort] "devil," дружок [družok] "little friend"

хочу [xaču] "I want," шум [šum] "noise"

In many words, however, е (which we distinguish as ё) is written for [o] after these consonants: жёны [žoni] "wives," чёрный [čorn'y] "black," шёл [šol] "he went," щёки [ščokji] "cheeks."

After the letter ц they write а, е, ы, о, у: царь [carj] "tsar," цены [ceni] "prices," отцы [atci] "fathers," кольцо [kaljco] "ring," отцу [atcu] "to the father." But in some foreign words they write и: цирк [cirk] "circus."

When a soft consonant is not before a vowel, the letter ь, called мягкий знак [mjaxk'y znak] "soft sign," is placed after it: дать [datj] "to give," свадьба [svadjba] "wedding." However, ь is not used after й: чай [čay] "tea," чайник [čaynj'k] "teapot."

After the letters ч, щ (which represent consonants that are always soft) the ь is written in some words, but not in others: мяч [mjač] "ball," плащ [plasc] "man's cape," but мочь [moc] "to be able" вещь [vjdic] "thing."

The letters ж, ш, which represent consonants that are always hard (except for зж, жж [žj]), are nevertheless written in some words with ь after them: нож [noš] "knife," душ [duš] "shower bath," but рожь [roš] "rye," вошь [voš] "louse."

Spellings for [y]. The consonant [y] is indicated in writing as follows:

After a vowel when no vowel follows, [y] is represented by the letter й: чай [čay] "tea," гайка [gdyka] "screw-nut."

After a vowel when another vowel follows, [y] is indicated by the use of the letters я, е, и, ё, ю for the second vowel: шёя |šeya] "neck," боец [bayec] "warrior," стоит [stayit] "he stands," поёт [payot] "he sings," стою [stayu] "I stand."

At the beginning of a word, [y] occurs only before vowels and is indicated by the use of the letters я, e, и, ё, ю for the vowel: я [ya] "I," ест [yest] "he eats," им [yim] "to them," ёлка [yolka] "Christmas tree," юг [yuk] "the south." Thus the letter и at the beginning of a word is used for both [i] and [yi], but this latter occurs only in a few pronoun forms; see §18.

After consonants, [y] occurs only when a vowel follows. After a soft consonant [y] s indicated by the letter ь and the use of я, е, и, ё, ю for the following vowel: семья [sjimjya] "family," в семье [f sjimjye] "in the family," семьи [sjemjyi] "families," пьёт [pjyot] "he drinks," пью [pjyu] "I drink." After the consonant letters ж, ш, the same spelling is used: ружья [ružya] "guns," шьёт [šyot] "he sews," шью [šyu] "I sew." After hard consonants other than ж, ш, the [y] is indicated by the letter ъ, called твёрдый знак [tvjord'y znak] "hard sign," and the use of я, е, (и), ё, ю for the following vowel: объять [abyatj] "to embrace," объезд [abyest] "detour," объём [abуom] "circumference."

Irregular Spelling. Some words are spelled in misleading ways. In such cases the dictionary indicates the pronunciation in square brackets: дождь [došč] "rain," конечно [-šn-] (that is, [kanješna]) "of course."

The following are the more important cases of irregular spelling:

The adjective and pronoun ending [-ovo] is spelled with г (instead of в): ничего [ny'čivo] "nothing."

The adjective ending [-oy] when unstressed is spelled with ы, и (instead of o): плохой [plaxoy] "bad," but старый (star'y) "old," дикий [djik'y] "wild."

In some verbs the ending for "they" is usually pronounced [-ut] when unstressed, but it is spelled -ят, -at: видят [vjidj't] "they see," слышат [sliš't] "they hear."

In some foreign words e is written for э: туннель [tunelj] "tunnel."

Consonant letters are written double in many words where ordinarily only a single consonant is spoken, especially in foreign words: класс [klas] "class," суббота [subota] "Saturday."