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pronunciation of giraffe
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| harpsichord | Date: Friday, 2012-12-21, 2:06 PM | Message # 1 |
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Group: StudentF1
Messages: 30
Status: Offline
| You're going to get sick of me very soon, Olga. 
In Lesson 4, Exercise 17 of the Reading Russian Workbook, word number 14 is Russian for "giraffe." (I don't know how to insert the cyrillic alphabet into my post.) From the spelling it looks like it would be pronounced "zhee-raf," but the speaker says it more like "zhuh-raf." Why is this?
Thank you,
Mandy
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| Olga | Date: Friday, 2012-12-21, 7:54 PM | Message # 2 |
Group: Moderators
Messages: 85
Status: Offline
| Dear Mandy,
Don't apologize, keep asking - that's why our forum is alive.
First o fall - in order to insirt cyrillic into your post or into any palce on your computer:
1) open RSBS website in a new window (so you will have 2 windows of our website
2) go to Other (in the menu above) - then find Russian Keyboard.
3) type the words that you need
4) select them - Copy
5) Paste the selection into the needed place.
The word жираф is pronounced more like zhi-raf.
Russians are casual about unstressed vowels, therefore the first part of the word is not pronounced articulately. The accent mark falls on the a. That is why you here the second part quite vividly.
If you listen to the word очки (glasses) you will hear that the first unstressed о is rponounced like а.
Read the entry in our Blog - Accent Mark in Russian Textbooks
http://russianstepbystep.com/blog/accent_mark/2012-07-23-25
Best,
Olga
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| harpsichord | Date: Friday, 2012-12-21, 8:43 PM | Message # 3 |
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Group: StudentF1
Messages: 30
Status: Offline
| Olga, you are incredibly helpful, and I really appreciate it! I will need to listen to the recordings over and over until I get a natural feel for the casual aspects of pronunciation. I'm guessing that if I pronounce my words more formally, I am going to sound like a foreigner, am I right? I want to sound Russian. LOL
Thanks so much,
Mandy
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| Olga | Date: Saturday, 2012-12-22, 0:38 AM | Message # 4 |
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Group: Moderators
Messages: 85
Status: Offline
| First of all - it's OK to have an accent.
I have an accent in English.
But, if you listen to the audio and repeat after the native speaker - it will definately help you to sound more Russian.
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| harpsichord | Date: Saturday, 2012-12-22, 10:41 AM | Message # 5 |
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Group: StudentF1
Messages: 30
Status: Offline
| Yes, of course; I was just kidding about the accent. 
Mandy
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