Russian accent in english

1.

RUSSIAN ACCENT IN
ENGLISH
Kuznetsova A, AIN-1701 (1)

2.

History
Historically, the English language in Russia began to be
studied quite late: it is known that the beginning of this
process is somewhere in the XVII century, although there
were some experts-translators before that. However, until
the beginning of the XIX century, its study was not as wide
as it was, and later the French language obviously prevailed.
It is interesting that the reason for this, in addition to
pragmatic considerations (French was more common in
Europe at that time, and Russia's contacts with France were
undoubtedly closer), English was also considered a
language, firstly, difficult, and secondly, not too beautiful.

3.

History
Today English has replaced all other languages in Russia. It is passed as a
compulsory subject in schools and universities, and other foreign languages are
timidly huddled. In addition, the expansion of American films and English and
American songs to Russia, as well as the spread of the Internet.
It is interesting that the younger generation, who have grown up more relaxed
and cosmopolitan, as a rule, does not have much difficulty in using their, even
the most meager, knowledge. But the elder, even after learning all the rules of
grammar and phonetics, very often can not open his mouth and is completely
unable to communicate. Which once again proves that the problem here is not in
knowledge, but in psychology.

4.

Pronunciation
■ Ordinary phrases such as “is the,” and “is there” can be real
headaches for Russians – due to a jumble of unpronounceable
vowels, the tongue is just getting tied.
■ Words and phrases like `Tina Turner’ and `happy birthday’ are hard to
pronounce because Russians put the ё [yo] and з [z] everywhere.
■ Some people confuse “s” and “th.” So, don’t be surprised if your
interlocutor tells you that he “sinks,” instead of what he “thinks.
■ The length of a sound is also a tricky thing. Russian often confuse
‘ship’ and ‘sheep.’

5.

Pronunciation
■ For example, there is a sound [ae] as in the word ‘cat’ that is wide
when you ‘put’ your jaw on the chest, And there is the word ‘led’ with
the narrow sound [e]. And this sometimes takes time to listen and
reproduce.
■ Some kids, to avoid memorizing English names for things and places,
just try to make Russian words sound more English, for example,
‘proods’ (ponds) and ‘greebs’ (mushrooms)
■ English intonation is also different from the Russian one. Sometimes,
when Russians try to speak English with their usual intonation,
foreigners think they are angry and rude.

6.

Grammar
■ For many, English grammar is very scary. For Russians, it’s
hard to understand that in English some tenses include
additional context and don’t need additional explanation.
■ Russians often forget and confuse English articles. They
don’t understand that it’s necessary because there’s no
such thing in Russian.
■ The most difficult is to understand speech. In the end, this
is a matter of training and the amount of time spent
listening.

7.

Insidious phrasal verbs
■ There are no really difficult words to pronounce in English for
Russians, but to learn all the rules of reading is a major challenge: you
will always find a lot of exceptions – sometimes there are more
exceptions than rules.
■ Another challenging phenomenon for Russian students is when
English is a foreign language of their interlocutor. As a result, you get a
Frankenstein language when a person speaks English with their
German or French pronunciation, but maybe also with a Russian
accent.
■ And yes, many Russians still follow the rule: if a foreigner doesn’t
understand you, then just speak louder or yell. It always works.

8.

Interference
Interference (Linguistic interference) (lat. interferens, from inter — between + ferens —
carrier, transferring) — refers in linguistics to the consequence of the influence of one
language on another, i.e. the application of the norms of one language in another in written
and / or oral speech.
Examples of phonetic interference can be heard in almost every school English lesson. First
of all, it is a change in the place of stress in some foreign words under the influence of the
native language: industry, botany, influence
Compared to the Russian phonetic system, English sounds are divided into 3 groups:
■ similar to Russian;
■ different from Russian;
■ those that are not in Russian.

9.

Typical Russian errors
■ Letter-by-letter pronunciation of the ending «- ed»
■ Vocalization of the nasal «- g»
■ Strong distortion of the interdental «- th»
■ Replacing «- w» with «- b»
■ Pronunciation of «- t»; «- d»; «- l» and the «n» as dental
■ Absence of articles and the to particle before verbs
■ The same sound of both long and short vowel sounds
■ Stun final consonants
■ A rolling "R"

10.

1) The stressed vowel O in a closed syllable.
Examples: spot, dot, hop
Russian Russians pronounce this sound as a clear Russian "o". But Americans say it closer to /a/, not
to /o/. This is a long sound, pronounced longer than unstressed English vowels.
2) The stressed vowel A in a closed syllable.
Examples: mask, pass
Russian Russians pronounce this sound as /a / under stress in Russian. But in the American version,
this sound is pronounced as a long /e/. The length of the sound is the same as the closed O under
stress. The mistake is also that this sound is spoken quickly, although you need to stretch it out. It
should sound at least 2 times longer than the neutral (unstressed) /e/. Compare the sound of" a " in
the word harassment: the first A is short, the second A is significantly longer, both times we say A as
/e/.
3) W sound
Examples: wall, wave, sway
This sound is not available in Russian, so many people replace it with a" similar " sound /in/. But the
problem is that in English, the sound/ b / is transmitted by a separate letter V. The sound of W is
something in between /V/ and / y/. To pronounce this sound correctly, pull your lips into a tube, as if
you are making a kiss. But /v/ is pronounced firmly, using teeth. The teeth are not involved in the
formation of /w/.

11.

4) Letter combination ing and nk
Examples: song, prank, think, going
In these combinations, the letter n is pronounced in a special way. This sound is called "nasal n",
denoted as /ŋ/. Russians persist in pronouncing it as a solid /n/. In English /ŋ/ is soft, the air
flow outputs sound through the nose, not through the mouth. In the letter combination ing, the
sound /g/ is not pronounced. If it is pronounced, it is not clear. In the letter combination nk, the
sound /k/ after /ŋ/ is pronounced clearly.
5) Th combination
This "classic of the genre", this mistake is made by absolutely all Russians. It takes a lot of
training to stop doing it. The letter combination th gives 2 nonexistent Russian sounds:
a) a sound that is closer to the short sound /d/, with the tip of the tongue touching the front
teeth. For some mysterious reason, they try to replace it with Russian / z/, which sounds
very bad for English-speaking people. This sound is very common in speech, because it
contains popular service words and pronouns. Examples: the, this, that, they, than, fatherb)
b) the Sound θ, which sounds closer to the short /t/, the position of the language is the same
as with β. Russians try to replace it with /with/, which, to put it mildly, does not sound very
good. Note the word something. The first s sounds like an ordinary /C/, and the letter
combination th sounds like θ. These are different sounds. Examples: thanks, think,
bathroom

12.

Examples
https://youtu.be/N4BpvaT_HqY
https://youtu.be/XqKn5HXxeLA