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

[Helen Halva]

I think there really might be an issue here.  I was taught here, in the 
US, in the 1960's, by native speakers, that it was Sh ch, as in fresh 
cheese.  In the 1990's, in intensive courses in Russia, I was taught 
that fresh cheese was no longer current, that the sh letter had a harder 
sound and the formerly sh-ch letter was like a very soft shh, pronounced 
at the front of the mouth.  How are modern linguists weighing in on this? 

HH


Marsha Shisman wrote:
> Devin, 
>
> There is a letter "shch" and there is another letter for "sh".  The
> student in your class is correct (I am native Russian).
>
> Thank you.  MS
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Devin Browne
> Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 9:01 AM
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Subject: [SEELANGS] the good old days, and that pesky letter "shee"
> (formerly "shch")
>
> 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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