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I’d like to return to the topic of voiced and devoiced consonants,
looking at other letters this time, and more importantly, examining
how it works within consonant pairs and clusters. We recall that in
an unfamiliar word, it’s often very hard to guess the last letter.
Take the Russian word: дуб
that word spelled Д-У-П ? – which is
how it sounds – or Д-У-and a devoiced
‘Б’? Hearing the word in isolation like
that, there’s no way to know.
issue here isn’t so much of developing our pronunciation. I mean,
it’s no challenge to say the word дуб.
The issue is realizing that what sounds like, for ex, a Z might
simply be a voiced S. Or what sounds like a T might be a devoiced D,
and so on. This not only helps with reading, of course, but with
comprehending the things we hear.
let’s get to work. What I want to uncover is the pattern behind
voicing and devoicing when consonants are grouped together. Tell me:
The Russian letter ‘В’…is it voiced or
devoiced? Put a hand to your vocal cords…Right. So spoken in
isolation, ‘B’ is voiced. But listen to it here:
was four words: Я…иду…в…Старбакс.
That ‘F’ sound right before Starbucks was actually our Russian
‘В’. It was devoiced. But why?
look at the phrase again but instead of saying Starbucks, let’s say:
it was four words: Я…иду…в…Макдоналдс.
Suddenly our Russian ‘В’ is now
voiced? What’s going on? Let’s look at some more examples. All of the
following words will start with the Russian ‘В’.
Tell me if it’s voiced or devoiced. Ready?
going on with those three words where the В
was devoiced?
– вторник —
think I see a pattern: In Russian, voicing is determined by the
last letter in a cluster.
you hear that ‘S’ sound? That letter—which looks like the English
letter ‘C’—is naturally voiceless. That causes the В
to devoice, making it an F sound.
the next word: вторник Again, the В
becomes a voiceless F sound because the T that follows it is
naturally voiceless.
the next word: вполне The П
which follows is naturally voiceless, and that devoices the В
if the last consonant in a pair or cluster is voiced, then so are the
ones preceding it….if possible. So we heard: взаимно.
That 2nd letter is a Z (З)
…naturally voiced, which voices our В as
we heard: вдали. That 2nd
letter Д is naturally voiced, which
we heard: вместе The M is voiced, and
our official phrases, let’s use those that we heard at the start. I’m
иду в Старбакс.
‘В’ is devoiced here—it’s an ‘F sound.
Why? Because the consonants that follow—the ‘ST’ (Ст
)of Старбакс, are voiceless. But if we’ going to
a voiced ‘В’ sound. Why? Because the M of
Макдоналдс is voiced. So basically, voicing shoots
backwards from the end of the group.
about the phrase: I’m going to the theater. Will the ‘В’
be voiced or devoiced? Hit pause and think about it. Listen…
иду в театр. Devoiced into an ‘F’
sound, because the ‘T’ of театр is
about: I’m going to the park.
иду в парк. Again, ‘F’ park…an
F sound because the П in парк is
if you’re going to the bank?
it’s V bank…voiced, because the ‘Б’
work with a new letter. The Russian Д. On
its own, it’s voiced. Like in these words…
if it’s followed by a voiceless consonant? What sound will it become?
Hit pause and think about that. Answer: The letter Д
devoiced will sound like a T. Take the word ‘vodka’ which, in
Russian, is: водка…(sounds like
“вот-ка”). Because that ‘k’
is voiceless, it forces the Д to sound
Episode 13, if you recall, we worked with the letter Ж.
On its own, it’s voiced. Like in these words…
if it’s followed by a voiceless consonant, how will it sound? Hit
pause and think about that. Devoiced, the letter Ж
sounds like “sh” (Ш). Listen to
the following word, spelled L-O-ZH-K-A
the ‘k’ is naturally voiceless, which turns the Ж
of this works in reverse. If the last letter is voiced, then
voiceless consonants change into their voiced counterpart…if there
is one. Take the Russian letter ‘C’. On its own it’s voiceless. Like
if it’s followed by a voiced consonant, how will it sound? Like in
English, a voiced S (C) sounds like a Z. Think of the word dogs
(sounds like dogz). The following word starts with the
letters С then Д.
Listen: сделать
‘Д’ is naturally voiced, the С
sounded like a Z (З)…Z-dyelat. If I
asked my little boy to write out that word (сделать)
I’m sure he’d use a Z (Зделать)
because that’s how it sounds.
are not hard and fast rules. Some voiced consonants never change, no
matter what. But I’m not going to list a bunch of rules for you to
memorize, because that’s not how language is learned. We’re just
pointing out the patterns, and trying to apply them to new
we go, how would you say: I’m going to the center.
sound will the letter ‘В’ have?
job. See you in the next episode!
