[w] for [v] in the speech of Russians speaking English

[Alina Israeli]

I don't think anyone has mentioned yet (unless I missed it) that some  
phoneticians treat Russian [v] as semi-sonorant; it used to be a  
sonorant in Old Russian and did not loose all of its sonorant  
qualities. For example consonants before [v] do not assimilate, just  
like before other sonorants:

к воде [kv]
к беде [gb]
к маме [km]

It's not only systemic but also phonetic and articulatory, Russians  
don't bite the lip unlike French, for ex. Teeth don't even touch the  
outside of the lip, but rather somewhere inside the mouth, barely  
touching the flesh under the lip.

Consequently, the sound produced, which is for Russians a [v] may be  
perceived by speakers of other languages as [w] (not in that video  
clip where she clearly confuses the two), but in the context of a  
Russian accent.

On Sep 18, 2013, at 4:52 AM, Piper Wheeler wrote:

> I've often wondered about this, due not least to my first Russian  
> teacher substituting the "w" in English *only* in the word  
> "village" (=willage). Because I've since noticed this particular  
> pronunciation in a number of Russians whose English is otherwise  
> very correct, I've thought the "w" cropped up due to the short "ih"  
> sound that's so foreign to native Russian speakers. This isn't a  
> rigorously, linguistically informed opinion, and I'm interested to  
> hear more reasoned answers.
> It does seem, though, that the "w" appears before phonemes that are  
> rare or nonexistent in Russian-- so we see "wery" and "willage." I  
> don't think any Slavic native speaker would say woracious, Kurt  
> Wonnegut, woodoo, or wandal (=vandal). For example.
> PW
>

Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
WLC, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu






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