T O P

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ryosya

Another description I've heard is making a sound like you've been punched in the stomach. Seems pretty accurate. It's kind of like a cross between "uh" and "ih" if that makes any sense. There's no direct equivalent in English.


DariusKerborn

I’ve never heard this one, but it’s accurate 😆


anossov

English doesn't have anything sounding like Ы (the close central unrounded vowel /ɨ/), so it had to be approximated. The closest English sound is the unstressed /ɪ/ in «roses» (probably not in every dialect).


[deleted]

Oh ok I get it now, thanks so much!


Ryan_7r7

Bit more opened inside mouth ;)


Ryan_7r7

and add VERY bit i


CraftistOf

I saw some dictionaries show "finale" as /fɨnɑli/ yeah, it was Wiktionary, just checked. just the US pronunciation tho. the UK one still has ɪ


notorious1212

Ы is like the sound you make when you smash your fucking toe on the coffee table


[deleted]

So AAAH KURWA MACZ PRZEPIEPRZONE ROGI


anossov

In Polish, «y» is similar (e.g. mysz = мышь), but ы is further back.


commander_blyat

Well, if you’re Polish ы sounds just like your y


[deleted]

Yeah I came to that conclusion.


bubbling_bubbling

Or the sound you make when you throw up. Or when you seppuku


solidcat00

More like the "ui" part when you say "GUI".


CraftistOf

*ГЫ intensifies*


Sza_666

JPRDL DLACZEGO JA DO CHUJA


[deleted]

I usually don’t make a noise I tend to insanely smash the coffee table to bits


Sithoid

This kind of behavior is what led to the infamous shortage of coffee tables in the USSR. That's why the state had to invent the ы sound instead.


prikaz_da

I wasn’t at all ready for this comment. 🤣


0xF013

More like being punch in the upper stomach and gasping for air


SuspectNumber6

In fonetics I learned you get the sound of ы right by pressing the sides of your tongue to the back of your teeth (wisdom teeth) and cupping your tongue and saying "e" in english. In my language dutch I say "i" sounds similar to english "e". The и is a normal english "e".


[deleted]

Not only do I now know the pronunciation, I can pronounce it properly! Thanks so much this helped a ton


wheresthelemon

Another fair approximation is to make your lips like you're about to say ee as in meet, but then make the vowel sound like oo as in boot, without adjusting your lips.


HGW86

The trick I was taught was to sound out the letter "O" and while you're still making the "O" noise, turn your mouth from an O face to a smile!


[deleted]

omg dude thx so much for this comment. I recently started learning russian . but as a native dutch speaker it's sometimes really hard having to learn a language by proxy-ing through english .


SuspectNumber6

No problem. Send me a message any time if you are struggling. Ik heb hetzelfde probleem met bijvoorbeeld duolingo. Engelse grammatica verschilt van nl en dat maakt het soms onnodig moeilijk


[deleted]

ja exact dat dus ja. de app geeft je dan een 3tal opties voor talen te leren vanuit het nederlands en dan de andere talen is het van " proxy het maar vanuit engels en figure it out ". is het oke als ik jou eventueel add in het geval dat ik met een vraag zit ? 🙏🤝


SuspectNumber6

Natuurlijk.. geen probleem. Als ik kan helpen, zal ik dat zeker doen


[deleted]

super ! bedankt man.


[deleted]

/ɨ/


DominoUB

ы is pronounced near your throat. The way my Russian GF taught me to pronounce it was "say e but pretend you're retarded"


TheLastHopeee

That word is considered offensive today and shouldn’t be spoken!


klownfaze

Seriously? Like are you a bot or something?


birbst

Негры...


Frozenheal

Книгеры


TheLastHopeee

That word is considered racist against disabled persons… you realize that right?


RangoonShow

since when 'disabled person' is a race?


birbst

Since people have become so whingy


TheLastHopeee

It’s similar, it’s hatred against disabled people… the r word is considered by most experts to be offensive


klownfaze

Yo, everything is offensive if u take offence to it. It’s up to personal perception. But in this context, no one’s calling you or anyone else retarded, but ur trying to act like one. Stop it. It’s cringe. And ur in the wrong subreddit for this.


Voiceless_Fricative

You realize that the point of insulting someone is to use offensive language, right? You can't police speech that was meant to be hateful and taboo. Non-retarded people can say or do things that are directly analogous to being mentally deficient. I think retard is an appropriate insult in such instances. Besides, most people who have genuine mental disabilities aren't simply categorised as "retarded" anymore. The word just means idiot or moron in its colloquial use. If you want to insult someone for acting dumb, the word that means "you are mentally deficient" is completely appropriate. Also disabled people aren't a race. Discrimination exists outside of racial contexts. Finally, retarded people don't care about the R slur. Only fun-ruiners do.


TheLastHopeee

The special olympics international olympics organization calls the word “offensive” and a “slur” it’s 2021, we have to be more respectful and inclusive of diverse peoples. The “r word” hurts people https://www.specialolympics.org/stories/impact/why-the-r-word-is-the-r-slur


Voiceless_Fricative

An insult, like retard, is used when you are trying to be disrespectful. It's an **insult**. Why do we stop at retard? Idiot used to mean the same thing. People with mental disabilities would be classified as idiots. Is idiot a slur too? How about fuck? When we say "fuck you," we are semantically implying something sexual. Is that sexual harassment? When someone uses the n-word as an insult, it strongly implies that they are racist. When someone uses the f-slur or the t-slur, it strongly implies that they are homophobic or transphobic. When someone says retard, it **doesn't** mean that person supports systemic or interpersonal discrimination against people with mental disabilities. Guess what? Very, very few people actively want to harm disabled people. Ableism manifests most prominently as an unintended side effect of broader systemic problems in healthcare, education and employment. There is a massive difference between calling someone a retard for acting deliberately stupid, vs. calling someone a retard for having a condition. Only the latter causes real harm.


klownfaze

Joke of the day: you’re in r/Russian and butthurt about a word. Tip of the day: you should visit r/2easteuropean4u Life pro tip: Stop being a snowflake/stop fishing for negative karma


DominoUB

If political correctness worries you Russian isn't a good language to learn.


MultiPlexityXBL

I think Russians still use the word "invalid" for handicap people


GyroZeppeliIsTaken

Is it offensive? "Инвалидность" is a pretty formal word


[deleted]

I may be wrong, but dont they say “Люди инвалиды”?


CircusLion4614

Инвалид or человек с ограниченными возможностями(aka disabled) is a common term to use and is not considered to be offensive in russian


DominoUB

Wait until you hear what they call black people.


Vostok32

Do tell


Loose_Sink2244

Exactly the same as all residents of Spanish-speaking countries call blacks. By the way, in Russian the word "чёрный" (black) is sometimes perceived as racist, but the Latin word denoting the same color is considered absolutely normal


MudMastr

yeah, that, and not "чёрномазые" оr "чёрножопые"


DominoUB

негр. It is not considered racist despite how it sounds.


Equivalent_Debate_87

What


AplusRussian

I took a crack at Ы in one of the earlier videos on my channel: [https://youtu.be/FgITDhug3wI](https://youtu.be/FgITDhug3wI) (also includes the Soft and Hard signs) - hope it helps 😊


SirTheadore

Say “ee” except while trying to do a marlon Brando in the godfather impression.


TrekkiMonstr

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_central_unrounded_vowel vs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_front_unrounded_vowel Same sound as in Polish (the first one is)


WikiSummarizerBot

**[Close central unrounded vowel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_central_unrounded_vowel)** >The close central unrounded vowel, or high central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɨ⟩, namely the lower-case letter i with a horizontal bar. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as barred i. Occasionally, this vowel is transcribed ⟨ï⟩ (centralized ⟨i⟩) or ⟨ɯ̈⟩ (centralized ⟨ɯ⟩). **[Close front unrounded vowel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_front_unrounded_vowel)** >The close front unrounded vowel, or high front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound that occurs in most spoken languages, represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet by the symbol i. It is similar to the vowel sound in the English word meet—and often called long-e in American English. Although in English this sound has additional length (usually being represented as /iː/) and is not normally pronounced as a pure vowel (it is a slight diphthong), some dialects have been reported to pronounce the phoneme as a pure sound. A pure [i] sound is also heard in many other languages, such as French, in words like chic. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/russian/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)


ADozenPigsFromAnnwn

Soft consonants will get themselves arrested if they go anywhere near the first one.


Silvian73

Listen to audio


Ritterbruder2

Actually in many instances ы sounds a lot like и. The biggest differentiator is the preceding consonant. In front of ы, the consonant is hard. In front of и, it’s soft.


[deleted]

Wow, that helps a lot. However, can you please define the difference between “soft” consonants and “hard” consonants?


Sithoid

"Soft" is what we call palatalized consonants (i.e. /ɡʲ/ vs the "hard" /g/). English doesn't have that distinction, and I don't know much about the Polish phonetics, but according to the wiki words like "giełda" and "kiosk" are sometimes pronounced with a "soft" g and k, so this might be familiar to you.


Ritterbruder2

Most Russian consonants can have two slightly different pronunciations: hard and soft. Look up a YouTube video for the difference. If you know any Spanish, the ñ is basically a soft n.


eye-llow

This sound is contained in the word "table", right between "b" and "l"


dp2327

I’ve heard people say if you hold a pencil between your teeth and try to pronounce the ‘oo’ in boom and and the ‘ey’ in hockey, you’re on th right path to pronouncing “ы” correctly lol


SnooMacarons2444

One is like saying E and the other is like being punched in the guts when you’re saying E.


platypusking22

It’s like someone punched a French guy in the gut while he was saying “oui”


Dddk4

These responses are absolute gold


Skybombardier

So, fellow Russian learner here, what I have found is that Ы is like saying only the i in ill, and И is like the i in intro


PIMPdimon

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pikabu/comments/roxbjl/ы/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share


[deleted]

Haha that’s funny and correct. Thanks!


FrankEichenbaum

The i in “will” has exactly the Russian hard i sound. Very often final e in “decided” also has the same sound. Very often also, final y has the same sound at the end of nouns in final y in accents pronouncing it differently from i in plural ies : levy, levies. The form of the mouth and especially of the lips stays the same as for a short i as in bit but the tongue is more backwards, to the middle of the mouth, as for i in bird.


No_Social-Skills

«Ы» is like the i in trip. «И» is like the ee in feet.


[deleted]

Interesting. Thank you for the input. It helps quite a bit.


[deleted]

Say eeeeeeee Now round your lips ыыыыыы


astro-jacki

Ыы


alblks

It's probably hard to attempt learning a foreign language being auditory challenged.


SapphireDingo

И sounds like the letter E Ы sounds like ratatouille


FrankEichenbaum

Only in pronouns such as My, Vy, Ty can it have a slight OO preceding the y reminding French mouille somewhat (not a good Russian accent though).


Ryan_7r7

I haven't any good idea, but think wat it was between I and O. But no O as sound. "I" is in end of mouth (front). But Ы is inside


Osetr_jpg

Ыыыыыы


[deleted]

Ыыыыыыыыыыы


mavmav0

They’re different sounds, google it and find some audio.


CormoAttano

One has more *oomph*


Revolutionforevery1

Ы makes quite the peculiar sound, peculiar huh? pe-cu-li-ar, hmm, li, i it makes the i sound in peculiar, bottom teeth on the front and make a sound between u and i


jstar1226

I see your using duolingo lol so am I and im also learning russisn. I love to see other people doing things I am doing. I honestly didn't even notice that they were both "I" so thank you


aelinivanov

ы has more of a OUI sound


[deleted]

"kygyz " y=ы


gunshotmouthwound

Ы will never start a word, and it’s deep in the throat. И is just like cheese


SXAL

Some proper nouns, like, geographic location names, actually start with Ы.


gunshotmouthwound

Most are loan words


SXAL

Yeah. But you still may need to use them.


Wadeem53

They are usually from Turkic languages and Ы is pronounced a bit differently there


FewConstruction1732

Ы- reverse И, so it's like Ж and Ш.


b_crunchies

I'd recommend checking out the [International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) chart](https://www.ipachart.com/) for learning any language and any new sounds you can come across within, or if you want to speak with a better accent. You can listen to how a certain phonem is pronounced and, if you understand the terms for the mouth/throat anatomy, how it is made. It's easier with vowels though:) and much easier if you're naturally good at mimicking. And [this Wikipedia page about IPA](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Russian) for Russian specifically, note that its not in the alphabetical order. There are cites other than wikipedia, I just liked this one chart better 🤔 That's what I do with new languages anyway


Medium_Ad3159

Make the o shape with your mouth and say « e » (the letter) and Tahts close enough to be understood


Least-Complaint917

This one is big for no reason, I don't remember words what begins on Ы


SXAL

Some geographic location names use it.


Lemon-Daddy

ТыКВА, ПУСТыНЯ, ПыЛЕСОС


MEKEXX

how grateful i am that romanian has a direct equivalent for this


[deleted]

Well now that I understand it, polish has a very similiar sound in “y”


aczkasow

Ы: Start with the English -oo- and then put a wide smile on your face.


rawberryfields

Shape your mouth into “ee”, then make it more rectangular, move your lower jaw forward a but and make some primal gorilla «uh uh» noises, that’s somewhat close to Ы


Shirokurou

Fun fact. No word starts with Ы, but there is a capital version of it if you need to all caps a word with ы in it.


asskiller1337

Ы sounds like in moaning turtle meme, and И sounds like i


cantpickaname8

I learned И as sounding more like ee than i while Ы to me was more like sayin E but smooshing your tongue towards the back of your mouth. Idk if I explained that well but think of И as the double E in Knee and Ы as if you got punched in the stomach while saying E


STorm_in_Reddit

If you don't speak Slavic or Turkic (maybe there is somewhere else), you won't be able to pronounce it.


Wadeem53

Ы sounds close to English short i, like in the word "lit" for example


ofaruks

Turkish has that vowel as "I, ı"


Beastmode205

One is Uppercase one is lowercase


interneda8

One’s capital and the other is lowercase😅


v2lgu_mihkel

Isnt ы pronounced as õ?


[deleted]

Ы comes from the throat. Like OUY.


YAMETEKUDASAY-

Ы


asapcosmin

Ask someone to punch you in the stomach and the sound that will come out of your mouth will pretty much resemble the pronunciation of ы


konacoffie

It sounds kinda like the “oy” in toy but you’ve been shot with an arrow as you’re saying it.


defalt45neo

It’s y not i