Changes in Russian pronunciation

[Goldstone, Nathan Merle]

Mr. Dunn,

My name is Nathan Goldstone, I am currently a junior studying Russian at Middlebury College. Your comment on the language differences in old films reminded me of something similar that I noted last year while watching Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky (1938). I don't know how valuable my observations are to you, as I have only gained adequate fluency in Russian since then (having spent the last year in Irkutsk), but at a time when I was beginning to watch Soviet films from the '70s and '80s without subtitles I had extreme difficulty with the dialogue in Nevsky. I mentioned this to a native speaker from Vilnius, and she also said that she had trouble understanding certain parts.

I have not watched the film since coming to Russia, or any other film from the period. But even at that time, the differences in the lilt of the language, the manner of response, and pronunciation of certain words was very clear to me.

Have you considered listening to old speeches? This would eliminate concerns of cinematic delivery and may give a closer look into the language of the time.

Nathan
________________________________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at listserv.ua.edu] on behalf of John Dunn [John.Dunn at GLASGOW.AC.UK]
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2012 4:31 AM
To: SEELANGS at listserv.ua.edu
Subject: [SEELANGS] Changes in Russian pronunciation

Yesterday I had the opportunity to see Ivan Pyr'ev's 1936 film 'Partyjnyj bilet'.  Leaving aside the debatable cinematic qualities of the film (some of which may be inferred from the title), I was struck by how different Russian, as spoken by the actors in the film, sounds in comparison to the present-day language.  It is difficult to draw too many conclusions based on a mere 90 minutes, but in part this seems to relate to the method of delivery: in a film that shows distinct signs of having been made at a time of transition from silent films to 'talkies'  the actors have a tendency to declaim.  There also seem, however, to be differences in pronunciation, particularly relating to akan'e and the difference in weight between stressed and unstressed syllables.

I am used to the fact that the English pronunciation of British actors of the 1930s bears little resemblance to present-day practice, but I was a little surprised to find something similar reflected in a Russian film.  Does anyone have any comments?

John Dunn.



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