What are the pronunciation errors in this short story rendition?

Question

Russian pronunciation presents to a foreigner, and specifically to Italians like me, several difficulties. These are the major problems I encountered, approximately in order of their importance:

• 0) Correct placement of word stress.
• 1) The sound ы, especially after м, б, п, в, ф.
• 2) Proper reduction of non-stressed vowels.
• 3) Proper use of vowel allophones (all vowels change somewhat their sound depending on whether they are stressed or not and on whether they are followed by a soft or hard consonant).
• 4) Pronunciation and contrast of л / ль
• 5) Practically all soft consonant sounds apart from нь (especially мь, бь, пь, вь, фь, рь and even more so if word-final).
• 6) Proper prosody and intonation ('rhythm').

I study Russian on my own so I have no feedback on my pronunciation; I've therefore put here a recording of myself reading a short story (there's no need to listen to all of it, of course) and I would be very grateful to hear some opinions on my delivery, if possible in reference to points 0-6 above, so that I can focus on those particular aspects. For example, listening to the recording, I think I mispronounced the word жители, but in general it is difficult for me to know what erroneous features and mispronunciations stand out the most. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I can only congratulate you on such a great success! You sound quite good, and if you work on just few minor flaws, you can read aloud to record audiobooks. :) With your permit I'll name the mistakes I've noticed.

0) научатся - stress У here; каменная - stress the first А; не о чем - stress НЕ, it's a set expression, поглядывая - the second syllable is stressed, but the fifth is not;

2) самой is pronounced as [самай] when the stress is in the first syllable;

4) Exercise that. Sometimes your Л sounds correct, but sometimes not. Make your Л in лаем just like in ласковое. Also, work a bit more on Л in the end of words and before a consonant. E.x., попадал, дрожал, долго.

5) That is also to be trained. That was the most remarkable thing. Just remember that it matters, train your tongue, and you'll make your soft cosonants proper. :)

Also, the word добрее contains not only the soft рь, but also й between two е-s. I mean, the first Е softens the preceding consonant, and the second Е sounds like in the alphabet.

Besides, к примеру should be pronounced without any vowel between the preposition and the noun. It's not so easy, but it's possible. :) КПР.

Пример, при этом - do not omit рь, I mean the first and soft р.

The sound Ц should always be pronounced and it is never softened.

Так и повелось - these three saparate words should sound separately.

Занавески. Not завесёнки, but it sounded so nice. )))))

But I wouldn't even say a word if a foreigner spoke like you and did not ask for correcting him. You sound really great, and it is even more surprising that a person can achieve such results studying on his own. If you correct your soft sounds you can work as a spy in Russia. :) Or as a reporter, which would be better.

Answer 2

As the Russian pronunciations go, yours is not that bad at all!

The most prominent mistake you're making is inserting the [j] between a palatalized consonant and the following vowel: in the third word of your dictation, you're saying [gdʲje] (*гдье) instead of [gdʲe] (где), and this goes on with practically any palatalized consonant.

The rest of your mistakes are quite minor:

• You're overarticulating the reduced vowels. Try pronouncing the vowels which don't have stress on them shorter that you're doing now, as if you were mumbling.
• You're making a stereotypical Italian mistake of inserting vowels between consonant clusters: возьмём - [ə] - к - [ə] - примеру at 0:24, девяносто восемь - [ə] - собак at 0:57 etc. К, as most Russian prepositions, is a proclitic, meaning that phonetically it's an integral part of the following word, so as far as the stress, vowel reduction etc. are concerned, к примеру, про нас, о них etc. are single words. This, to a certain extent, is true even for larger phrases, and spaces between Russian words within an isolated phrase are much less articulate than those between Italian ones.
• Л/ль is something that would need some love indeed.
• You're mispronouncing some words and phrases (*не о чём instead of не́ о чем, *завесёнки instead of занавески etc.), but this happens to everyone.

Answer 3

Some points in addition to Quassnoi's rundown not related specifically to the points 0 - 6 of the original question (converted from a comment)

1) 0:58 так что is pronounced as one word тАкштэ

2) 1:08 всегда ведь - ведь is enclitic (appended to the immediately preceding word), pronounced with no stress всигдАветь

3)2:33 не о чем is pronounced as one word нЕочем, Е instead of Ё (Ё on the other hand is featured in the phrase ни о чём which is always coupled with negated verb and pronounced slower as ниачЁм)

4) sometimes slips through a typical feature of Italian pronunciation - lack of stop at the last consonant like in дом(э), рот(э), домикаф(э), окнах(э)

5) 3:10 in в той стране тOй shouldn't be reduced to тАй, pronouns always maintain their separate status & proper stress

6) 3:36 за стеклом has genuine E, not Ё, therefore the stress is за стеклОм

7) 4:23 к сАмому главному (here the word is сАмый and not сам, which in Dative does receive stress on the final syllable самомУ)

8) 4:47 добреЙэ, not добреэ

9) 4:57 наУчатся говорить (научАться is an infinitive form, which is somewhat dated, the stress pattern is identical to обучAться)