Comments on: The Russian Alphabet: Its all Greek to Me!

By: Hevel

Hevel — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:59:14 +0000

I learnt to read cyrillic when Yuri was adopted. I used to read bedtime stories to him in Russian. I had no idea what Iw as reading, but I did a pretty decent job reading them, he keeps telling me. Later when I first move dto Hungary every kid around me knew the cyrillic alphabet, so we used to pass notes in hungarian but written in Cyrillic letters, to confuse teachers. (As if that worked!)

By: Lynn

Lynn — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 04:51:09 +0000

Marcie, I’m so proud of you using his native language to calm him at night. You’re a GREAT mother! Lynn

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 04:10:45 +0000

Yes – good for you, to calm him in Russian. Wow! And you are exactly right on the meaning. Tee ha (again, as you mentioned, phonetically here) is “quiet” as in please be quiet and “nee che voo” is literally “it is nothing.” So you are spot on. Marcie, wondering how to get an alphabet photo to you – an email address?

By: Marcie

Marcie — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:46:10 +0000

I would love a picture!

You know what is really funny (not ha, ha, funny)? Last night AJ had one of his bad night terrors (he has had two in the last week) and I was able to calm him in Russian but not English. I don’t know much Russian, only what we like to call “toddler Russian”, enough to get us by and give him commands, but it worked great.

I used (phonetically) tee ha, and nee che voo.

shhh! and its okay? Am I correct?

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:18:26 +0000

Goodness, Marcie – Lots of information packed into this post! Would you like a photo of the alphabet to add? Just holler and I can easily send. Or a photo of Russian Scrabble game. Also, at my blog, several photos of Russian signage out on the streets.

The Russian letter ы, as you mentioned is one letter. That letter is a hard one to pronounce, for us speakers of English. Helps to put a pencil in one’s mouth, parallel to shoulders, to get the sides of the mouth waaay back. That’s how I was taught anyway.

My name, Eileen, in Russian is spelled Айлин, pronounced exactly the same, although I go by Eileena here. As you mentioned, the letter й goes for diphthongs. One nice thing about the Russian language and alphabet – it’s easy to know how to pronounce a word. Like, 98% of the time, a letter makes the same sound. So different from English, with, say, “ph” making an “f” sound, etc.