Changes in Russian pronunciation

[George Kalbouss]

	I'm not a linguist, but I sense there are two reasons for these differences.  The first has to do with what the Russians
call сценическая речь, i.e. the way actors project words into the auditorium, over-accenting certain syllables, ostensibly to
be heard better.  We know that the Russian cinema drew a lot of actors from the Moscow Art Theater (MXAT), and MXAT, in
the first half of the twentieth century, dominated in how actors pronounced words.  There are a few examples provided in
the Russian Wikipedia article, Сценическая речь.   All actors (and singers, too)in all languages, practice this to some extent, obviously it
is not as crucial nowadays with microphones and certainly on television and films, and that's why, perhaps, the practice
it less.  I think of the mumblings of people like James Dean,  Marlon Brando, etc. (ironically influenced by Actors Studio
which in turn was influenced by MXAT).

	The second reason is I think there have been changes in the intonational "tone" of the Russian language after the Revolution.  I
grew up in an immigrant community of the first and second "waves," i.e. pre- and immediately post-revolutionary emigres,
and I don't recall the "sing-songy" ups and downs of Soviet speech.  The emigre's speech was much more even in its
intonation than what one would hear on the Soviet radio.  Perhaps some of the movie actors in the 30's were still intoning
the pre-revolutionary way (if there, indeed was such a way), I do recall the opposite, though, of great intonational
variances in many actors' utterances.   I would appreciate someone else's thoughts on my observations.

	These are my observations, perhaps they are helpful.

George Kalbouss
THE Ohio State University

On Jun 25, 2012, at 5:31 AM, John Dunn wrote:

> 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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