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Phonetic rules of vowels


There are not many phonetic rules in Russian. It makes the language easy to learn.
ex, words with one syllable like, дом[dom], год[god], сад[sad] etc.

To read correctly it is necessary to differrenciate weak and strong positions of consonants


and vowels. In case the letter is in a strong position in a word it doesnt change. In case it is
in a weak position it changes.

Phonetic rules - Vowels

weak and strong position of vowels 'a, o, э'

if vowels 'a, o, э' are stressed (in strong position) their pronunciation does not change.

ex.
мама - mama - mother
серый - s'erji - grey
город - gorod - city,town
этот - etot - this

if the vowels are not stressed(weak position) their pronunciation change.


it depends on the position of the vowel accroding to the position of the stressed syllable.

Unstressed vowel in the beginning of the word

the vowels 'a, o' are read as short 'a', as in english word cup.

ex. арба - arba - araba


окно - akno - window

1st type of weak position


is when the vowel is situated be4 the stressed syllable:

after hard consonants the vowels 'a, o' are read as short '˄', as in english word cup.

ex. вода - v˄da - water


табак - t˄bak - tobacco

after soft consonants the vowels 'a, э' are read as short 'i'
ex. часы - chisji - watches,clock
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леса - lisa - forests

2nd type of weak position


is in all the rest cases:

the vowels reduce to [ə]:

ex.
поле - polə
города - gərada
садовод - sədavod

Let's see some more examples:


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Practice phonetic rules of vowels:

свобода
сорока
собака
четверг
яблоко
столица
телефон
библиотека
болото
борона
песок
корова
барабан

Write transcription of these words (if you need it to be checked and corrected).

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