Pronunciation of vowels: е, ё, ю, я

The basic rules of pronunciation the russian letters are given in one of the fisrt my post - The Russian alphabet.

Now I want to give you more about specific russian sounds - pronunciation of vowels.

There are 10 vowels

 
But for describing pronunciation four of them (е, ё, ю, я) we use the term yotation.

 

Yotation is a form of palatalization which occurs in Slavic langaguges.

Following the rules, we yotate the letters е, ё, ю, я:

• at the beginning of a word;
• when they follow a vowel;
• when they follow a hard sign;
• when they follow a soft sign.

In all these cases above the letters е, ё, ю, я are prononunced like ye (yes), yo (New York), yu (usually), ya (yacht).

ель	ye	e at the beginning of a word
поём	yo	ё follows a vowel
объяснение	ya	я follows a hard sign
вьюга	yu	ю follows a soft sign

We also must yotate the letters е, ё, ю, я when they follow a consonant. But the yotation should be less than in the previous cases. There are similar sounds in English language.

лента	e (mess)	е follows a consonant
рёв	eou (Seoul)	ё follows a consonant
пюре	u (tuna)	ю follows a consonant
пряность	ya (hyacinth)	я follows a consonant

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