Slavic languages are phonetic, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish
Phonetic Slavic languages
Phonetic comes from ancient Greek meaning ’sound - voice’. The Slavic languages are phonetic. This is one great advantage when trying to learn. Despite the strange streams of consonants or the Cyrillic alphabet, once you learn the 50 or so sound combinations and letters you can read as you would speak. Here is my page on the Russian alphabet and my page on the Polish alphabet. Spelling is also no problem. Reading becomes a powerful tool as since you will know the pronunciation of ever word, its like you have someone right there working with you when you are learning the language. Just reading alone in a Slavic language can teach you a lot because the pronunciations are phonetic and after a while reading out loud will almost be like speaking with someone. If you know the phonetics of the languages. I use flashcards to write the sounds down and drill them, when learning Russian, Ukrainian or Polish for example.
Tags: alphabet, language, phonetic, Polish, russian, slavic, Ukrainian
Permalink to Slavic languages are phonetic, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish
RSS feed for comments on this post
December 12, 2007at 4:44 pm
What makes you think Slavic languages are phonetic? Sure they’re far from French and English in that aspect but they aren’t phonetic…
February 5, 2008at 3:55 pm
ukrainian is very phonetic language, it is clear and how it pronouncd, it is written, the russian is a different story, because you say “a” but you write “o”, you say “i’ but you write “e” but it has anyway wuite clear prononciation if you don’t look at how it is written, polish has too many “sh”, “ch” sounds whish make it difficult to understand and to repeat
August 28, 2008at 2:05 pm
Hello- I’m looking for some help to find a special gift for my neighbors who are adopting two boys from Russia (ages 3 & 5yrs). I’d like to find a set of flashcards that have a picture, the english word and the russian word spelled phonetically. This way my friends can pronounce the Russian words accurately enough to teach their boys English. Do you have any suggestions as to where I might find something like that? I’m having a lot of trouble, so any help you can provide would be great. Thanks!
August 28, 2008at 2:25 pm
@Stacy, very noble quest your are on. I have some good news for you. Russian is almost perfectly phonetic. If your friends learn the Russian alphabet http://www.claritaslux.com/russianalphabet.html
they can pronounce any Russian word almost perfectly. I learned the russian alphabet with flashcards. I made my own and learn the alphabet, so now I can read Russian. It only took a day or two. But I understand where you are coming from and you are looking for something beautiful and gift like and easier to use. I am not sure about this. I intent to make something like this in the far future. But for now, the best thing I have is http://www.mp3languagelearning.com coming out about spring 2009.