Russian Vowel Reduction

Vowel Reduction

Whan we did basics, we said we pronounce exactly what is written, but in phrases that wasn't exactly the case. Let's look at why...

In Russian, there is a concept of stressed and unstressed vowels.

This means that in a word certain vowels are pronounced as is (stressed) and some changed slightly (unstressed)

To start of, Ё (yo) is always stressed.

Stressed vowels will be shown in bold for easier reading.

МОСКВА = maskva = moscow
ЛОНДОН = londan = london

How vowels change when unstressed

• О : When it is unstressed it turns to the [a] sound
  • МОЛОКО = malako = milk
• Е : when it is unstressed it turns into the [ih] sound
  • СЕСТРА - sihstra = sister
• Я : when it is unstressed it turns into the [yih] sound
  • ЯМАЙКА = yihmaika = jamaica