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MUSCOVITE Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary
problems of mispronouncing some voiced consonants
Hi,
Some native Russian speakers have problems pronouncing some voiced consonants, especially the sounds "R" and "G". "R" is pronounced as a "voiceless R" (sometimes resembling the sound "L"), "G" is pronounced as "K".
What is the English for this phenomenon? It is definitely a medical problem, not language-specific.
My Eng-Rus dictionary suggests the entry "burry" (like in to say in a burry voice) but I'd like to doublecheck this point.
I have found in the internet a few VERY academic terms (such as rhotacism :-) relating to people mispronouncing some consonants.. I just need to find the right words/terms ... those least formal and most common
mus-te
Some native Russian speakers have problems pronouncing some voiced consonants, especially the sounds "R" and "G". "R" is pronounced as a "voiceless R" (sometimes resembling the sound "L"), "G" is pronounced as "K".
What is the English for this phenomenon? It is definitely a medical problem, not language-specific.
My Eng-Rus dictionary suggests the entry "burry" (like in to say in a burry voice) but I'd like to doublecheck this point.
I have found in the internet a few VERY academic terms (such as rhotacism :-) relating to people mispronouncing some consonants.. I just need to find the right words/terms ... those least formal and most common
mus-te
Top answer
It's not a medical problem. Theoretically, all infants can learn to pronounce all sounds (unless they have a speech defect), but we all unlearn certain sounds that are not found in our own language. In Russian, G becomes unvoiced at the end of words, so this habit may carry over into other languages that Russians learn.
- It's not a medical problem.
- Theoretically, all infants can learn to pronounce all sounds (unless they have a speech defect), but we all unlearn certain sounds that are not found in our own language.
- In Russian, G becomes unvoiced at the end of words, so this habit may carry over into other languages that Russians learn.
- I do not know of another term to describe this problem, but your best bet might be to look up things like "English pronunciation for Russian speakers" or "how to pronounce English consonants" etc.
- The basic study is called Phonetics.
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3 Answers
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It's not a medical problem. 
Theoretically, all infants can learn to pronounce all sounds (unless they have a speech defect), but we
Theoretically, all infants can learn to pronounce all sounds (unless they have a speech defect), but we
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Thanks Elanguest!
Let me explain in more detail what my original post was about...
(1) To begin with, my question had nothing to do with Russian native speakers learning English.
Some native Russian speakers (from kids with a very limited vocabulary to teenagers and adults) are obviously unable to pronounce the Russian voiced consonants "R" and "G" correctly. And to all appearance
Let me explain in more detail what my original post was about...
(1) To begin with, my question had nothing to do with Russian native speakers learning English.
Some native Russian speakers (from kids with a very limited vocabulary to teenagers and adults) are obviously unable to pronounce the Russian voiced consonants "R" and "G" correctly. And to all appearance
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Oh, I see. Yes, in that case it probably would qualify as a speech defect. The only word I can think of in English is "lisp," which means the inability to pronounce s, substituting instead th. Some children also pronounce r as w, but both problems usually go away with time. If not, a speech therapist is often employed.
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