Thursday, April 24, 2008

Hello! My name is...

Hello again!
So, let’s continue with our lessons. Now that we’ve learned how to say “Hello”, it seems only logical to learn how to introduce yourself. Well, if you’re not planning to say “Hello” and then run away all of a sudden :). So let’s move on.

If you look at any Russian language textbook, this phrase will always be the second one. And here’s how it is spelled - “Menya zovut John Smith”. Literally, it means “They call me John Smith”. Who are those mysterious “they”? We’ll never know :). But this is what it means. I didn’t make it up, I swear.

Ad now, how to pronounce it properly? Well, first of all, this “nya” can give you some problems. The “n” is soft, like in Spanish “mañana”. And this “ya” is actually a separate vowel. In Cyrillic alphabet it look like an inverted “R” (Actually, this “ya” is a word by itself and means “I”, but we’ll come back to this later).

So, to pronounce this “menya” you need to say something like “me-ña” in Spanish. And remember - it’s a very soft “n” follower by a very soft “a” , and please, don’t pronounce this “y”. Sometimes I hear how people say “meñ”, then they pause, and then say “ya”. That’s awful! Russian people will laugh at you. They will point their finger at you and say “Hey, look, here comes this American guy who can’t even say ‘menya’ properly!” :).Seriously, guys, don’t do this. Don’t pronounce this “y”.

The next word is “zovut”. It’s simple. There’s only one catch - it is actually “zavut”. Because you see, when there’s an “o” someplace in the syllable, and stress falls on ANOTHER syllable, this “o” is pronounced like “a”. Or, you can pronounce it, if you want to sound like someone from the Deep Russian South.

And by the way, the stress falls on the second syllable in both words.

So, try this in front of the mirror. And don’t forget to say your own name instead of “John Smith” :).

Bye!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Here are a few links with MP3s where you can hear Hello, other greetings and lots of useful phrases in Russian
http://amiestreet.com/music/max-bollinger/easy-russian-for-english-speakers/

http://www.emusic.com/album/Max-Bollinger-Easy-Russian-For-English-Speakers-MP3-Download/11452257.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Max-Bollinger/dp/B001UF7LW4

http://www.goodnoise.com/album/Max-Bollinger-Easy-Russian-For-English-Speakers-MP3-Download/11452257.html

http://download.music.yahoo.co.jp/shop/ip/64/260757139

http://twitter.com/Russian_for_All

Learn Russian said...

Check out these blogs, you can download MP3s with actual English tutorials and all these Russian phrases read in Russian

http://suggestinrussian.blogspot.com/
http://russiansouls.blogspot.com/
http://dosvedania.blogspot.com/
http://datingarussian.blogspot.com/
http://bizrussia.blogspot.com/
http://russianmonth.blogspot.com/
http://russiantime.blogspot.com/
http://suggestinrussian.blogspot.com/
http://russiandirections.blogspot.com/
http://russianshops.blogspot.com/
http://russianhotel.blogspot.com/
http://russiantheatre.blogspot.com/
http://travellinginrussia.blogspot.com/
http://understandrussian.blogspot.com/
http://russianalphabet.blogspot.com/
http://russiandrink.blogspot.com/

flowersaspring said...

how do you pronounce "fedor sigaev"? can you phonetically notate it plzzz?

Unknown said...

fEdor (the stress is on E, and the E here is more like in girl and in yo, it is basically fYOdor)

sigAev - stress on A. and v at the end alsmost sounds like F. Very mild though. sig - as in signal. nothing too difficult there.