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

[Hugh Olmsted]

Paul's suggestion about сч is supported by general phonetic /  
morphophonemic processes in the language:
cf, the pronunciation across the morpheme boundary, equivalent to щ  
(the letter shch),  in  счастье (schast'e) исчезнуть  
(ischeznut'), or any other combination of prefix-final -з (-z) plus  
root-initial ч- (ch-); or cf. the familiar allegro rendition of  
сейчас  (seichas) as счас (schas) (cf. the perceived  
identity with щ (the sound of the letter shch) in "ЩАС  
ВИРНУС"  (SCHAS VIRNUS) of Винни Пух (Vinni Pukh)).

Hugh Olmsted


On Sep 16, 2009, at 12:48 PM, Paul B. Gallagher wrote:
>
> Щ has always been entirely soft, from start to finish. The question  
> here is not whether any part of it is hard or soft (the rendition  
> "шч" would be misleading only because of the Russian convention  
> that ш is always hard), but whether there's a "hitch" or something  
> in the middle. In the fastest and most casual speech, we typically  
> hear a long soft [ɕ:], whereas in more careful or deliberate speech  
> speakers will often make a break. Whether that's an instantaneous  
> pause, a brief drop in volume, or a slight affrication at the  
> beginning of the second half of the sound will have to be left to  
> others with more sophisticated instrumentation than I possess. In  
> my experience, all three are valid possibilities.
>
> It makes good sense in many contexts to conceptualize щ as two  
> consonants -- for example, as сч. I regard it as spelling  
> convention that we write ищу and not исчу but щёки and  
> not счёки. This is probably why it has survived as a long/ 
> double consonant all these years.
>
> -- 
> War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
> --
> Paul B. Gallagher
> pbg translations, inc.
> "Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
> http://pbg-translations.com
>
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