Japanese → Russian
Russian uses 46 sounds. You already own 17 of them from Japanese. The other 29 are the work — and 27 of those are the dangerous kind: close enough to something you already say that you will substitute them without hearing yourself do it.
The silent swaps
Your mouth has something close enough to reach for. These survive for years precisely because they sound right to you — the fix is hearing the difference first, not trying harder.
the move: bilabial → labiodental
Russian: film · written "ф", "в (final)"
Your /ɸ/ is the one in ふゆ fuyu (winter).
the move: palatal → velar
Russian: good, well · written "х"
Not /k/ and not English h — the sound at the end of Scottish loch.
Your /ç/ is the one in ひと hito (person).
the move: alveolo-palatal → retroflex
Russian: school · written "ш"
ALWAYS hard, whatever vowel follows. ши is said /ʂɨ/, never /ʃi/.
Your /ɕ/ is the one in すし sushi (sushi).
the move: close → near-close
Russian: winter · written "е", "я (unstressed)"
Your /i/ is the one in いま ima (now).
the move: palatalised
Russian: five · written "пь", "пе", "пи", "пя"
Your /p/ is the one in きっぷ kippu (ticket).
the move: palatalised
Russian: white · written "бь", "би", "бе"
Your /b/ is the one in ばん ban (evening).
the move: palatalised
Russian: books · written "ки", "ке"
Your /k/ is the one in かさ kasa (umbrella).
the move: palatalised
Russian: guitar · written "ги", "ге"
Your /ɡ/ is the one in ごはん gohan (rice, meal).
the move: palatalised
Russian: all · written "сь", "си", "се"
Your /s/ is the one in さかな sakana (fish).
the move: palatalised
Russian: winter · written "зь", "зи", "зе"
Your /z/ is the one in みず mizu (water).
the move: close, but not identical
Russian: borscht · written "щ"
Always SOFT and always long — the mirror image of ш.
Your /ɕ/ is the one in すし sushi (sushi).
the move: palatalised
Russian: day · written "нь", "ни", "не"
Your /n/ is the one in なつ natsu (summer).
the move: close-mid → near-close
Russian: hand · written "у (unstressed)"
Your /o/ is the one in おと oto (sound).
the move: alveolar → labiodental
Russian: water · written "в"
Your /z/ is the one in みず mizu (water).
the move: front → central
Russian: son · written "ы", "и (after hard)"
The vowel English has no name for. Say /i/ and pull your tongue straight back without rounding.
Your /i/ is the one in いま ima (now).
the move: alveolar → dental, palatalised
Russian: to take · written "ть", "ти", "те", "тя"
брат 'brother' vs брать 'to take'. The soft sign is the only difference, and it is not a sound of its own.
Your /t/ is the one in たべる taberu (to eat).
the move: alveolar → dental, palatalised
Russian: day · written "дь", "де", "ди"
Your /d/ is the one in だれ dare (who).
the move: bilabial → labiodental, palatalised
Russian: film · written "фи", "фе"
Your /ɸ/ is the one in ふゆ fuyu (winter).
the move: palatal → velar, palatalised
Russian: chemistry · written "хи", "хе"
Your /ç/ is the one in ひと hito (person).
the move: alveolar → retroflex
Russian: wife · written "ж"
Always hard too.
Your /z/ is the one in みず mizu (water).
the move: fricative → lateral
Russian: spoon · written "л"
Very dark — the tongue humps at the back. Closer to the l in English 'full' than in 'leaf'.
Your /z/ is the one in みず mizu (water).
the move: tap → trill
Russian: hand, arm · written "р"
Trilled, as in Spanish perro.
Your /ɾ/ is the one in さくら sakura (cherry blossom).
the move: open → near-open, front → central
Russian: water · written "о", "а (unstressed)"
AKANYE: unstressed о is said as an a-sound. молоко́ is /məlɐˈko/ — the three о are three different vowels.
Your /a/ is the one in あさ asa (morning).
the move: close-mid → mid, front → central
Russian: good · written "о", "а (far from stress)"
Further from the stress, the reduction goes further still.
Your /e/ is the one in えき eki (station).
the move: alveolar → labiodental, palatalised
Russian: evening · written "вь", "ве", "ви"
Your /z/ is the one in みず mizu (water).
Words you may say identically
Two or more Russian sounds landing on one sound of yours. Until the ear separates them, the mouth cannot — which is what the ear trainer is for.
- v = vʲ = z = zʲ = ʐ = l → your z vs vs vs vs vs
- i = ɨ = ɪ → your i vs vs
- p = pʲ → your p vs
- b = bʲ → your b vs
- t = tʲ → your t vs
- d = dʲ → your d vs
- k = kʲ → your k vs
- ɡ = ɡʲ → your ɡ vs
- f = fʲ → your ɸ vs
- s = sʲ → your s vs
- x = xʲ → your ç vs
- ʂ = ɕː → your ɕ vs
- m = mʲ → your m vs
- n = nʲ → your n vs
- a = ɐ → your a vs
- e = ə → your e vs
- o = ʊ → your o vs
Genuinely new
Nothing in Japanese sits close to these. They sound foreign in your mouth — which is the good news: you can hear that you are not saying them yet.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Japanese | Russian | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Mora-timed | Stress-timed, heavily reduced |
| Stress | No stress in the English sense — syllables are not louder or longer, so a Japanese speaker reading English tends to flatten it, and an English speaker reading Japanese tends to hammer syllables that should be even. | Contrastive, and NOT written. За́мок is a castle and замо́к is a lock. Worse, it moves within a word’s own declension — рука́ but ру́ку, окно́ but о́кна — so knowing the word is not the same as knowing where to hit it. Dictionaries mark it; native writing does not. |
What you have that Russian doesn't
14 sounds with no job in Russian. They are not mistakes — but they are where an accent leaks in, because a sound you own is easy to use when a hard one is due.
The honest caveat
This is a prediction from the shape of two sound systems, not a recording of you. It says what your inventory makes likely — it cannot know that your Japanese has a regional variety that already owns one of these, or that you learned Russian from someone whose accent you copied. A teacher listening to you beats it. Use it to know what to listen for.
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