the good old days, and that pesky letter "shee" (formerly "shch")

[Blake Galbreath]

Devin,

I have never heard the vowel [i] after the 26th/27th letter - always [a]
(while reciting the letters).  You can listen to Natasha Bulashova recite
the letters of the alphabet at
http://www.friends-partners.org/oldfriends/language/russian-alphabet.html

Blake Galbreath
UVA

On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 9:01 AM, Devin Browne <dpbrowne at mac.com> wrote:

> So I'd appreciate some feedback.  When I was learning Russian, back in
> Gorbachev era late 1980s, we learned that the 27th letter of the Russian
> alphabet was pronounced "shch" ("as in fresh cheese," the woman on the
> cassette tape would say during a visit to the language lab).  But I
> understand that now standard Russian teaching shows this letter's
> pronunciation as "shee" and that's how I teach it.
>
> I have an exchange student (I teach HS Russian and French) this year from
> Lithuania.  Nice boy, although a little bored since he has studied Russian
> for several years but (due to scheduling) has to sit in on the Russian 1
> class.  He insists that the pronunciation is "shch" and that "all music and
> movies and video" coming out of Russia say the letter like "shch."  Now, I
> know my French is much stronger than my Russian (this move to teaching
> Russian again coming after 15 years of teaching only French), but I'm
> assuming that the "shch" issue with this boy is either a product of his
> individual Russian teacher or a regional pronunciation of the letter.  He's
> been polite about it, but fairly insistent nonetheless.
>
> There are many who know better than I, of course.  What do you all think?
>
> Devin
>
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