Holt.Blue

Добро пожаловать! (Welcome!)















Russian may look difficult because of its unfamiliar alphabet, but behind the strange looking letters are many familiar words!

In order to read the language, our main task in this session will be to learn the Russian alphabet.

But first, let's talk a little about the country which birthed this beautiful language!













Pop Quiz















Russia is Big

• Russia is the largest country by area in the world. It has roughly twice the area of the U.S. (Including Alaska!)
• Russia's population is about 144,000,000 (9th in the world.)
• Russia spans 9 time zones

Russia is Old

• Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire was adopted by slavic peoples around 988.
• The mix of Byzantine and Slavic cultures gave birth to Russian culture.
• The influence of Byzantine culture is still seen in the architecture of its cathedrals.

Russia is Old

• Ivan III threw off the "Golden Horde" and unified the various city-state principalities which made up "old Russia."
• When Constantinople fell in 1453, Russia took up the mantle of the "Third Rome" from which the Russian coat of arms was taken.
• This marked the beginning of the Tsardom of Russia.

The Story of the Russian Alphabet

• Before adopting Chrisianity, slavic peoples had no written language.
• In the 9th century, Byzantine Emperor Michael III wanted to spread Christianity to Western Slavic peoples.
• He entrusted this task to two monks named Cyril and Methodius.
• In order to translate the Bible into their strange languages, Cyril and Methodius had to invent a new alphabet!
• This alphabet (left), called the Glagolitic alphabet, is the origin of the Cyrillic alphabet (right).

The modern Russian alphabet uses characters from the Cyrillic alphabet.













Some Facts About the Russian Language

• Russian is the 7th most spoken language in the world (including native and non-native speakers).
• Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
• Russian is an inflected language with six grammatical cases.
• For English speakers, Russian is not as difficult as you might think; it's harder to learn than Spanish, for instance, but much easier to learn than, say, Chinese.

We shall now begin our journey into the Russian language.

However, in order to properly speak the language, one must get into the right frame of mind...













The Russian Alphabet

Russian may look difficult because of its unfamiliar alphabet, but behind the strange looking letters are many familiar words!

For example, if you know that the Russian letter В makes a "v" sound, and Д makes a "d" sound, you can read the following word:















TRUE FRIENDS (look the same, and sound the same):

А	а	"ah" as in "father"
К	к	"k"
М	м	"m"
О	о	long "o" as in or
Т	т	"t"

Read these words: кот, том, мак, так













FALSE FRIENDS (look the same, but sound different):

В	в	"v"
Е	е	"ye" as in yesterday
Н	н	"n"
Р	р	"r"
С	с	"s"
У	у	"oo" as in boot
Х	х	"ch" like the Scottish "loch" or German "Ich"

Syllable Practice!













Reading Russian Words

• Every Russian word has one heavy stress.
• Changing the stress changes the word.
• For this lesson, letters in red will denote the stress.

Example: Read the following Russian words:



























Reading Practice


Note: When "о" is unstressed it sounds like "а."













NEW FRIENDS (look new, but sound similar):

Б	б	"b"
Г	г	"g"
Д	д	"d"
З	з	"z"
И	и	"ee" as in meet
Л	л	"l"
П	п	"p"
Ф	ф	"f"
Э	э	"eh" as in fed

Syllable Practice!













Reading Russian Words

• Consonants at the ends of words are unvoiced.

Example: Read the following Russian words:













Reading Practice













Pop Quiz: Look at the picture below.


Question 1: Can you name the restaurant?

Question 2: What is the name of the menu item at the top?













STRANGERS (look different, and sound different):

Ё	ё	"yo"
Ж	ж	"zh" as in "pleasure"
Й	й	"y" as in boy
Ц	ц	"ts" as in "its"
Ч	ч	"ch" as in "check"
Ш	ш	"sh" as in "shall"
Щ	щ	"shsh" as in "fresh sheep"
Ъ	ъ	the "hard sign" (rare)
Ы	ы	approximately i as in bit
Ь	ь	the soft sign
Ю	ю	"yoo" as in you
Я	я	"ya" as in yawn

Syllable Practice!













Reading Russian Words

• The letter ё is ALWAYS the stressed vowel in any Russian word.

Example: Read the following Russian word:













Reading Practice













Two Very Special Letters

The Soft Sign: ь

The Hard Sign: ъ

Note: the hard sign is a rare letter.













The Full Russian Alphabet













Exercise: Write your name using the Russian alphabet.