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My dictionary (Большой универсальный словарь русского языка) indicates that дождь can be pronounced in two ways /doʂtʲ/ as it is written or /doɕ:/ as if it were written дощ.

Does that hold true for oblique cases as well? In other words can дождя be pronounced /dɐ'ɕ:æ/ as if it were written дощя or perhaps with voicing /dɐ'ʑ:æ/?

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    @Elena В Петербурге сегодня дожжи.
    – Abakan
    Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 15:48
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    If this question is about omitting д, then yes some people omit it, and @Abakan gives a good example. Listen to this song at 1:53 to hear plural of дождь as [дожжи]. (Excuse my using letters instead of proper transcription symbols). So, if a person prefers to pronounce дожжь instead of дождь, this person will do it in all grammatical cases and in plural too. Nom: дожжь дожжи, Gen: дожжя дожжей, Dat: дожжю, дожжям, Acc: дожжь, дожжи, Inst: дожжём дожжями, Prep: о дожже, о дожжях.
    – farfareast
    Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 2:11
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    @Alex_ander it depends on a speaker (or a singer in this case) not on place.
    – Abakan
    Commented Dec 10, 2019 at 10:25
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    I have heard multiple times this word to be pronounced as "дощ" throughout my life, so it is a valid, but quite rare pronunciation. Commented Dec 12, 2019 at 15:08
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    Now when we have a detailed video about Old Moscow pronunciation style (see around minute 11), we have to agree with @Alex_ander: the pronunciation depends on geographical place where the person come from. See the map in the video at 16:24. :-)
    – farfareast
    Commented Jan 16, 2020 at 1:51

2 Answers 2

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Shortly speaking - no, even if someone pronounces /doɕ:/ и "по дождём" most likely "ж" will be clearly articulated - there are some variations though where /d/ could be omitted or "ж" will be geminated and/or palatalized.

However, as it was mentioned in this post, the pronunciation norm in Russian is not set in stone and in some cases there can be surprising variations. If I would hear something like /dɐ'ɕ:æ/ I would most likely recognize it though might find it odd.

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Two-consonant [ʐdʲ] ([ʂtʲ] unvoiced in Nominative): Зимовье зверей - Ход дождём - multiple occurences in nearly all grammar cases. As the singer is from Sankt-Peterburg (then Leningrad), it could be accepted as excellent example of this norm.

Similarly: Игорь Корнелюк - Дожди - rhymed "подожди" and "дожди"; may be also treated as SPb variant. (But it could have also rhymed with [ʑː] in both, with the same success.)

A likely Moscow variant with [ʑː] is noted in comments to the question.

Recorded dialects include variants as [ʐdʲʑ], [ʑdʲʑ], [ʑː], [ʐː] as well (with respective devoicing).

Anyway, the main thing here is that this consonant sequence is normally voiced (and can be voiceless only at word end position).

Fully voiceless implementation is, to compare with, in Ukrainian (and respectively spelled: дощ - доща - дощу - ...); common norm requires [ʂtʂ] here ([ɕtʲɕ] in дощі).

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  • Good illustration of pronunciation in St. Petersburg - with Kornelyuk's song.
    – Alex_ander
    Commented Dec 18, 2019 at 15:42
  • @Alex_ander But why IYO it's better than K. Arbenin's one? Nearly just curious.
    – Netch
    Commented Dec 18, 2019 at 19:55
  • I was only familiar with Kornelyuk's song, so I liked your observation on rhymes in it.
    – Alex_ander
    Commented Dec 18, 2019 at 20:49

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