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From: "Vladimir Menkov" <vmenkov@cs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Re: Russian vowel  bI
Message-ID: <1995Mar26.221609.14096@news.cs.indiana.edu>
Organization: Computer Science, Indiana University
References: <3kcq7c$167k@news.ccit.arizona.edu> <3kpp90$phs@news.ycc.yale.edu> <joeclark-2503951129140001@joeclark.tor.hookup.net>
Date: Sun, 26 Mar 1995 22:16:04 -0500
Lines: 17

>> It is indeed transliterated as "y", and, like all other vowels in Russian 
>> or in any other language I know, its precise pronunciation varies 
>> depending on the phonetic environment.  It's a high back unrounded vowel, 
>> but I don't know what the IPA symbol is. 


Actually, the high back unrounded vowel (which is indeed written as an
	>upside-down and backwards small m
in IPA) is not the [usual] Russian "y"; it is rather the similar vowel
present in many Turkic languages (perhaps, Kazakh or Tuvan), and maybe
in Cornish. The Russian "y" is usually a high _central_ unrounded
vowel, and is written in IPA as a crossed `i'. Admittedly, the Russian
"y" is backed in front of e.g. velar [l].

	--Vladimir


