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From: rickw@eskimo.com (Richard Wojcik)
Subject: Re: The Russian letter bl
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References: <1995Apr6.005152.27985@olaf.wellesley.edu>
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 1995 01:06:49 GMT
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In article <1995Apr6.005152.27985@olaf.wellesley.edu>,
Suzanne Henry <shenry@lucy.wellesley.edu> wrote:
>There do exist miinmal pairs that distinguish the hard and soft /i/ in
>Russian.  For example, bitz (to beat) versus byitz (to be).

These are only a minimal pair if the "b" sounds represent the same phoneme,
because minimal pairs differ in only one contrasting sound.  To Russian
ears, the initial consonants are distinct sounds: soft and hard "b",
respectively.  The following vowels might represent distinct sounds, but
that is what the controversy is all about.  Hard and soft consonants in the
Russian language tend to affect the articulation of surrounding vowels,
especially following vowels.  So one might just as well claim that they are
the same vowel, and that the different vowel letters represent spelling
conventions that signal the hardness or softness of the consonant.

A couple of other points about your rendition of the pronunciations.  The
final sound is not an affricate, which you represent as "tz", but a soft
(palatalized) "t".  English ears tend to hear final palatalized "t" as an
affricate, and that is why English-speakers pronounce it as such.  Also,
you have correctly noticed that the "bI" letter sounds like a diphthong
"yi" under stress.  It does tend to get pronounced with an offglide.


-- 
Rick Wojcik  rickw@eskimo.com     Seattle (for locals: Bellevue), WA
             http://www.eskimo.com/~rickw/
