Russian alphabet

The Russian alphabet has 33 letters. It descended from the Greek alphabet, so while some may appear like the English alphabet, the pronunciation might be very different.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	\|12	13	"14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33
А	Б	В	Г	Д	Е	Ё	Ж	З	И	Й	К	Л	М	Н	О	П	Р	С	Т	У	Ф	Х	Ц	Ч	Ш	Щ	ъ	Ы	ь	Э	Ю	Я
а	б	в	г	д	е	ё	ж	з	и	й	к	л	м	н	о	п	р	с	т	у	ф	х	ц	ч	ш	щ	ы	э	ю	я

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Basic pronunciation rules

Notes on the Alphabet and Pronunciation of Russian

While Russian has a mostly phonetic orthography, there are a few exceptions:
- The letter "г" between the letters "e" and "o" and between two 'os it is pronounced as /v/, e.g. "его" (his, him) is pronounced /jevo/. This rule only applies when "его" is at the end of the word.
- Voiced consonants with voiceless counterparts lose their voicing at the end of a word, e.g. "строганов" (stroganoff) is pronounced /stroganof/.
- Voiced consonants with voiceless counterparts become unvoiced before voiceless consonants, e.g. "водка" (vodka) is pronounced /votka/.
- Similarly, voiceless consonants with voiced counterparts become voiced before voiced consonants, e.g. "футбол" (soccer/football) is pronounced /fudbol/.
- Vowel is only fully pronounced when it is under accent. In the non-accented (weak) position, vowel is "reduced" to the neutral sound. Spelling, on the other hand, doesn't depend on whether position is accented or not. This particularly applies to the 'o'.
The hard sign (Ъ/ъ) indicates that the preceding consonant is not palatalized. However, it has been very rarely used since the spelling reform of 1918.
The soft sign (Ь/ь) indicates that the preceding consonant is palatalized.
The vowels Е/е, Ё/ё, И/и, Ю/ю, Я/я make the consonants before them palatal consonant. This means that one pronounces the consonant with the middle of the tongue raised, pressing against the hard palate.

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Pronunciation mnemonics

Letters identical to their latin equivalents : к о м е т а (comet)
"Greek" letters: г л ф (as in Gamma, Lambda, Phi). Try also, the Russian word, флаг, which means "flag".
да (da) нет (nyet): two easy Russian words that show you how д, н and е are pronounced
суши-бар (sushi-bar): these are popping up all over the place in St. Petersburg... this word is a very useful way of learning how с, у, ш, и, б and р are pronounced
хип-хоп (hip-hop): actually, the х is a much harsher sound, like the "ch" in Scottish "loch", but otherwise хип-хоп music can help you learn х and п
союз (Soyuz): useful for learning the ю and the з (which you should just think of as a cursive latin Z)
я (ya/I;) and вы (vy/you): pronouns you'll be using most often when talking with strangers, as in "do you speak English? I do not speak Russian". Unlike English, pronouns can be ommited due to context in the present and future tenses.
царь (tsar) and чай (chai): for keeping your ц and ч straight

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Typing Russian characters
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Mac OS X

You don't need to install any software or fonts, but you do need to add Russian to your computer's list of languages.

Open System Preferences from the Dock and click on 'International'.

There you will find a tab called 'Languages' containing a list which may already include Russian. If it isn't there, click 'Edit List' and add it.

Don't put Russian at the top of your list unless you want to start using Russian date styles or list attributes in all of your applications.

Another tab called 'Input Menu' in the same place will allow you to choose a keyboard layout such as Cyrillic or Phonetic.

Then you can switch keyboard layouts and languages at any time using the flag icon in the top-right of the screen.

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KDE
Make sure you have Russian i18n installed. Go to Regional & Accessibility - Keyboard Layout in the KDE Control Center. Add the Russian layout to your active layouts. You might want to choose the phonetic Layout variant (yawerty, or яверты). With the flag icon in your taskbar you can now switch between different layouts.

Many letters now are where you expect them to be (for example s - с, p - п, g - г), but some others are harder to find:
` ю
= ч
ш
щ
\ э
# ё (shift 3)
$ Ё (shift 4)

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XFree86

XFree86 4.3 may be configured for Russian keyboard layout in the Keyboard InputDevice section of the configuration file (typically /etc/X11/XF86Config). Add the following two lines to that section:

Option "XkbLayout" "us,ru" Option "XkbOptions" "grp:shift_toggle"

This arrangement will allow you to switch between US and Russian layouts by pressing the shift keys together. Note that this configuration is independent of the desktop environment (GNOME, KDE) or window manager (sawfish, metacity, kwin) in use.

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Windows

For Windows 2000:
Click the Start button.
Go to Settings...Control Panel.
Double-click Keyboard.
Click the Input Locales tab.
Click the Change... button to bring up the Text Services window.
Under Installed Services, click Add....
In the drop-down list of input languages, select Russian and click OK.
If you would like to change between keyboard inputs without going through the Control Panel each time, click the Language Bar button under Preferences in the Text Services window. Next select to Show the Language Bar on the Desktop and click OK.
To exit, click OK in the Text Services window and in the Keyboard Properties window.

If you don't see "Russian" in the list:

Go back to Control Panel.
Double-click Regional Options
Under Language Settings for the system check off Cyrillic
Click OK

Note: You might need Windows 2000 CD>

Better to check Cyrillic'' off during installation of Windows.

WINDOWS XP (Also works for Windows XP Pro)

To set up the keyboard for Cyrillic Russian/Ukraine in Windows XP

click on 'Start'
Go to 'Control Panel'
Click 'Regional & Language Options'
Click 'Language' tab
Click 'Settings'
Add 'Russian'
Click 'Apply' and then 'OK'

Keyboard icon wil show on taskbar. Left click to toggle between English and Russian.

As an added help, apply keyboard stickers for Cyrillic Russian/Ukraine. You can find them on e-Bay, under 'stickers, Keyboard, under Computer/Networking. They are available in several colors and are quite reasonable.

Tags for "Russian Alphabet"

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Comments

takk posted 4 months ago

its very useful for me...thanks !

Samet posted 5 months ago

hey all, here is a very usufull site http://www.ilike2learn.com/ilike2learn/russian/ you can at least learn how to read and pronounce russian. it is very usufull for beginers like me :)