Amanda Babcock wrote:
> Oh, for crying out loud. Would you two like me to send you copies of
> the pronunciation tapes from my college Russian texts? :)
Tristan asked me for this kind of favor. I've got no opportunity to send
him sound files. Maybe *you* can help?
> It's simple. In a word like "ob#jasnit'", where # is the hard sign
> (which means "don't palatalize this") and ' is the soft sign (which
means
> "palatalize this"), the /b/ is held - swallowed almost - and the
breath
> stream stops completely. It's almost a pause. Then the word starts
> back up with the /j/.
>
> I think the /b/ has no release at all.
I would even suggest, that the consonant preceding the "hard sign" gets
a bit velarized or pharygealized, for better contrast. So |ob#jat'| may
sound smth like [@"b_ejat;].
-- Yitzik