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HelpRussian 101
in reply to a message by blue_belle
In Russian, voiced consonants (like "d") are pronouned voicelessly ("t") at the end of a word.
What's voiced / voiceless? It's a linguistic term for describing one feature of how sounds are made.
To illustrate, place your finger tips on your Adam's apple / voice box in the middle of your throat. Say the sound "d" sound. Feel the vibration in the voice box? Now say the sound "t." Everything else your mouth / tongue is doing to produce the sound "t" is the same as the sound "d" except there is no vibration in your voice box.
Think of the cartoon "Rocky and Bullwinkle." Remember the characters Boris and Natasha? Natasha would call Boris "darling" but it always sounded like, "dar-link." That's because "g" and "k" are another one of those voiced / voiceless pairs.
Ever wonder why the surname Romanov is sometimes written as Romanoff? "V" and "f" are voiced / voiceless pairs.
So, Leonid becomes "lay-uh-NEET" in Russian. Da?
Leonid isn't one of my favorite male names in Russian. But it certainly isn't a bad name. In English, I'd pronounce it "lay-uh-NEED." Plenty of names are pronounced slightly differently when spoken in a different language. I wouldn't expect anyone to actually go around saying, "lay-uh-NEET" for Leonid. I'd be happy if they just got the first syllable correct. :-)
By the way, a Leonid from the Ukraine works as a janitor in our building. He and I have great fun trying to speak each other's language. Anyway, he originaly introduced himself as Leo ("LEE-o") to me. So even he doesn't expect anyone to get "lay-uh-NEET" correct.
What's voiced / voiceless? It's a linguistic term for describing one feature of how sounds are made.
To illustrate, place your finger tips on your Adam's apple / voice box in the middle of your throat. Say the sound "d" sound. Feel the vibration in the voice box? Now say the sound "t." Everything else your mouth / tongue is doing to produce the sound "t" is the same as the sound "d" except there is no vibration in your voice box.
Think of the cartoon "Rocky and Bullwinkle." Remember the characters Boris and Natasha? Natasha would call Boris "darling" but it always sounded like, "dar-link." That's because "g" and "k" are another one of those voiced / voiceless pairs.
Ever wonder why the surname Romanov is sometimes written as Romanoff? "V" and "f" are voiced / voiceless pairs.
So, Leonid becomes "lay-uh-NEET" in Russian. Da?
Leonid isn't one of my favorite male names in Russian. But it certainly isn't a bad name. In English, I'd pronounce it "lay-uh-NEED." Plenty of names are pronounced slightly differently when spoken in a different language. I wouldn't expect anyone to actually go around saying, "lay-uh-NEET" for Leonid. I'd be happy if they just got the first syllable correct. :-)
By the way, a Leonid from the Ukraine works as a janitor in our building. He and I have great fun trying to speak each other's language. Anyway, he originaly introduced himself as Leo ("LEE-o") to me. So even he doesn't expect anyone to get "lay-uh-NEET" correct.
This message was edited 2/22/2010, 12:04 PM
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