Pronunciation of Russian Names?

[Nosajimiki]

I'm trying to read "The Cherry Orchard" for a class but everyone in there is having trouble pronouncing all the Russian names, and it's making in-class discussion difficult with everyone saying them differently. Can anyone decently fluent in Russian give me some pronunciation keys on the following names?

Ranevskya
Lyubov
Andreyevna
Gayev
Andreyevich
Lopakhin
Yermolai
Alekseyevich
Semyonov
Yepikhodov
Semyon
Panteleyevich

A few of the characters I've omitted b/c I'm pretty sure I know how to pronounce them, but I'm having trouble knowing when ch is a "ch" or a "k", when y sounds like what, and I also know that I see kh a lot in Russian and I'm not sure if that has a conjuncted sound or if they are part of separate syllables.

[rklenseth]

Considering some people can't pronounce "Lenseth" that doesn't surprise.

But I cannot help you as I'm not Russian or of Slavic origin.

But if you really want to see people screw up pronuciation then use Irish names with their gaelic spelling. For example, like my great grandfather surname; Meagher.

[Nosajimiki]

... I'd guess either May.ger or or Ma.geer, lol.

[rklenseth]

No, the g is silent. The Americanized spelling is 'Maher'.

[Nosajimiki]

oh! Maher, I know that one *smiles*, it's pronounced like Mayor, right?
... or atleast that's how my room mate last year said it.

[rklenseth]

My family pronounces it with more of an 'her' sounding at the end. But I have heard pronounced with a 'yor' at the end.

[Nyaraka]

I'd help, but I have a hard enough time trying to romanize Russian so other Russians can understand it... @_@ Russian is, in my opinion, one of the most irritatingly difficult to romanize. After Chinese and Korean, anyway. (Or I could just be amazingly horrible at it.)

[saztronic]

I'm trying to read "The Cherry Orchard" for a class but everyone in there is having trouble pronouncing all the Russian names, and it's making in-class discussion difficult with everyone saying them differently. Can anyone decently fluent in Russian give me some pronunciation keys on the following names?

Ranevskya
Lyubov
Andreyevna
Gayev
Andreyevich
Lopakhin
Yermolai
Alekseyevich
Semyonov
Yepikhodov
Semyon
Panteleyevich

I'm not fluent in Russian, but I'm conversant.

"Ch" is almost never a hard "k" sound, except when it's been transliterated incorrectly. So, for example, the city "Archangel" looks like it should be pronounced the way we say the word "Archangel", with a hard "k" sound in the middle; but transliterated from Russian properly the name is "Arkhangel'sk". The "kh" sound is like a throaty, breathy "k" sound much like the "ch" in "Achtung".

In any case, in all of the names above the "ch" is pronounced as in "sandwich". Russian is further complicated by the fact that like English, but unlike French or Turkish or Hungarian, the accent of a word can occur on any syllable.

So for example, "Andreyevich" is pronounced "Ahn-DRAY-ye-vich", roughly, while "Lyubov" is pronounced "LIU-bov".

That second one is kind of tricky. Imagine you were saying "L-you-bov", but with the "L" and the "you" run together as one syllable, "Lyou". And "L" sounds are difficult in general, because there are two in Russian. One is hard, as in "lard". One is palatalized, meaning it's prounounced lighter and with the tongue farther forward in the mouth. There's no real counterpart in English, but the "l" in the words "ceiling" or "helium" come kind of close. But not really. And then there's the "o" in "Lyubov", which is more like a schwa sound than anything else.

One last thing. "ai", and sometimes "ay", can be pronounced as a long "i" sound -- like the word "eye".

So I can't guarantee the following list will do you right, but here's a shot at pronunciations that will get you closer:

Rahn-EHVSK-ya
LIU-bov
Ahn-DRAY-yev-na
GAI-yev -- "eye"
Ahn-DRAY-ye-vich
Lo-PAKH-in -- Lo, as in "Lo and Behold", and "in" as in "in and out"
YAIR-mo-lai -- again, that "ai" as "eye"
Al-eks-AY-ye-vich
Sem-YON-ov (could be SEM-yon-ov, not sure of the accent)
Ye-PIKH-o-dov
SEM-yon
Pahn-tel-YAY-ye-vich

[Jos Elkink]

Lo-PAKH-in -- Lo, as in "Lo and Behold", and "in" as in "in and out"

The o is not really pronounced like in Lo, I think - more like an under-emphasized a ... (somewhere between 'a' and 'euh').

Otherwise I think you're talking in a southern Russian/Ukrainian accent they laugh at in Moscow ...

Good job, though - it's pretty much impossible to explain these pronounciations without sound recording.

(Take my comments with a grain of salt - I'm very much only a beginner in Russian ...)

[saztronic]

You're right, I forgot about that. When "a" and "o" are in different positions it affects their pronunciations. When they are the first vowel in a word they usually do have that long "ah" sound.

Lah-PAKH-in

I did learn my Russian in the south -- Central Asia, actually. Muscovites are the ones with the funny accents, though.

Like New Yawkuhs.

[Nosajimiki]

Wow, these forums actually are useful for something other than flaming and complaining about what's wrong with the game, thanks guys.

Edit: only on question left... Rahn-EHVSK-ya, "EHVSK"? is there an "i" sound or something between the "v" and "s", or do Russians actually have a way of pronouncing that string of letters

[Jos Elkink]

Yeah, there's no vowel there ... It's actually easy to pronounce - try!

[Nosajimiki]

... now I know what my printer feels like when I try to use colors outside of it's gammit. Closest I can pronounce is Rahn-EHV-skya

[Duckers]

Now, this is interesting. Russian, eh? At school, I've always been told that I'm obsessed with Russia, and the people, culture, history, and geography thereof. Bunch of uneducated oiks, they are.

[Jos Elkink]

Who are uneducated?

And why are there only non-native speakers replying to this thread?