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From: ilyal@world.std.com (Ilya R. Lapshin)
Subject: Re: Russian palatized consonants at the end of a word
Message-ID: <ilyal-1804960204160001@192.0.2.1>
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References: <4kmg46$gti@tuba.cit.cornell.edu> <lindock-1604961405090001@p18-166.dialup.uvic.ca>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 06:03:35 GMT
Lines: 24

> In article <4kmg46$gti@tuba.cit.cornell.edu>, adrian@cam.cornell.edu
> (Adrian Mariano) wrote:
> 
> > I had a chat with one of my Russian teachers about this and she
> > insisted that at the ends of words, the "m" sound could be hard or
> > soft.  
> > 
> > She pronounced sem' and sem.  They sounded different, but the
> > difference sounded to me like it was in the vowel and not in the "m"
> > at the end.  
> 

Another good idea is ask her to say "vosem'" (eight) _IF_ she is
from St. Petersburg. For some reason nearly every person I know
from that city pronounces "sem" for seven but "vosem'" for eight.
They are oddly consistent about it. Some other local pronounciations
might have this feature as well.
I (coming from Nizhny Novgorod (former Gorky)) rather clearly patalize "m"
and slightly alter the vowel for "sem" (as in "sovsem") vs. "sem'".

IRL

-- 
My dogma chases my karma
