nice guide to cyrllic

[Bob]

At least I think so.

http://www.russianforeveryone.com/RufeA/Lessons/Introduction/Alphabet/Alphabet.htm

[p2u_]

At least I think so.

http://www.russianforeveryone.com/RufeA/Lessons/Introduction/Alphabet/Alphabet.htm

Nice indeed, but to learn it really fast, especially visually, you might want to put the letters into groups and practise words within those groups:
Group 1: 5 Letters that are the same as in English;
Group 2: 6 Letters that are similar to Greek;
Group 3: 6 Letters that are the same as in English, but are pronounced differently;
Group 4: 16 Letters that are distinctly Russian.

Examples of sites that give such groupings:
http://www.dorogadomoj.com/se03abv.html
http://learn-cyrillic.ehpes.com
http://masterrussian.com/russian_alphabet.shtml
http://www.russianlessons.net/lessons/lesson1_main.php
http://www.gadling.com/2009/03/30/gadling-teaches-you-to-read-the-cyrillic-alphabet-in-5-minutes/
etc.

Paul

[Bob]

True about grouping them. 

My Russian is getting rustier.  I need something that shows the handwritten and printed Cryllic like that.  Using a regular US keyboard font confuses me a bit. 


Thanks for the links though.

[p2u_]

My Russian is getting rustier.  I need something that shows the handwritten and printed Cryllic like that.  Using a regular US keyboard font confuses me a bit.

What operating system do you have? On Windows, for example, it's a piece of cake to install an extra language pack for keyboard support.
Let's say you have Windows 7:
1) Through "additional updates" in the Windows Update Center (Control Panel)
or
2) Through so-called MUI language packs, issued by Microsoft.
Here are the instructions:
http://learnrussian.rt.com/speak-russian/how-install-cyrillic-keyboard-windows-7
http://www.mydigitallife.info/windows-7-sp1-mui-language-packs-official-direct-download-links/
If you have another system, please do a Google search.
P.S.: If it looks like too much of a hassle to you, I'm also willing to make screenshots of Russian learning materials to help you.
P.S.2: What browser do you have? Did you try playing with the "coding" settings when you see sites that have Cyrillic? I have support for Russian on my computer, but sometimes, I still have to switch the coding in Firefox for certain sites to be able to read.

Paul

[p2u_]

P.S.2: What browser do you have? Did you try playing with the "coding" settings when you see sites that have Cyrillic? I have support for Russian on my computer, but sometimes, I still have to switch the coding in Firefox for certain sites to be able to read.

Additional info:
dorogadomoj.com (meaning "the way home") uses "windows-1251"
learn-cyrillic.ehpes.com uses "utf-8"
masterrussian.com uses "utf-8"
russianlessons.net uses "utf-8"
gadling.com uses "utf-8"
The site you gave the link to in your first post (russianforeveryone.com) uses "utf-8".

This is announced in the source code of the page. Look for "charset=".

Paul

[Mayla]

.

[Bob]

I think Cyrllic is trickier because... The letter differ from Romance/Latin languages.

You got the western font -- Capital, lowercase.
Cyrillic typed font -- capital, lowercase
Cyrillic handwritten -- capital, lower case

Then the way people actually hand write it.  I'm looking at you zhe.

And then the pronuncation is a little different than Romance sounds.  It's got the softening.  (Who's knock?  Meeyehki's knock.)

And then there are the letters that are similar to English but have a different sound.  Like P, R, L, etc.   M and t.

And the confusion from what Meeyeki's knock and tvyordi's knock actually sound like.  A "yi."    But there's also shcha.  


I'm more interested in being able to read it so I can tell what's printed on the music.  I need to be able to hear and speak it a little too though.  It's not just printed text.  It's got sound attached to it.

[p2u_]

Then the way people actually hand write it.  I'm looking at you zhe.

And then the pronuncation is a little different than Romance sounds.  It's got the softening.  (Who's knock?  Meeyehki's knock.)

And then there are the letters that are similar to English but have a different sound.  Like P, R, L, etc.   M and t.

And the confusion from what Meeyeki's knock and tvyordi's knock actually sound like.  A "yi."    But there's also shcha.

Try to keep it simple, Bob; one step at a time. Handwriting is a little different and should be learned only AFTER you have mastered printed font.

As to pronunciation: The "rules" were not created to make it difficult. They are merely a description of what happens naturally. Let's take the "zh". It is VOICED (put your hand on your chest and you can feel it) at the beginning and in the middle of words. At the end of a word, it becomes "sh" (without voice). There is no other way, otherwise it would become unnatural.

You will learn to read it faster if you know how the language sounds, so learning pronunciation is inevitable. Here are the results on YouTube for "Russian Pronunciation". I'm quite sure that with a more specific search, you'll find what you need.

Paul

[Bob]

Looks good.

[p2u_]

Looks good.

youtube.com/watch?v=uT6K1yNS3cc

And how about this one as a NEXT step? The Best of Russian - Easy Tour

Paul