pronuncation question about Russian

[Andrew Kaufman]

Question for Slavic linguists/phonologists.

What is the change in quality of the Russian letter e, as in "On edet", when 
it's pronounced after a sibilant (sh, shch, ch, zh, ts). I'm curious about 
two different cases:

(1)when e is in a stressed position, as in shedshij or tsentr.
(2) in an unsressed position, as in bol'she or khuzhe

What is the rule about this, and how would you explain it to 
English-speaking students?

Thanks, Andy Kaufman
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
University of Virginia

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