Georgian → Russian
Russian uses 46 sounds. You already own 13 of them from Georgian. The other 33 are the work — and 31 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: uvular → velar
Russian: good, well · written "х"
Not /k/ and not English h — the sound at the end of Scottish loch.
Your /χ/ is the one in ხელი (hand).
the move: close → near-close
Russian: winter · written "е", "я (unstressed)"
Your /i/ is the one in ის (he / she / it).
the move: close → near-close
Russian: hand · written "у (unstressed)"
Your /u/ is the one in ღამე (night).
the move: without the aspirated part
Russian: post · written "п"
Your /pʰ/ is the one in ფული (money).
the move: palatalised
Russian: white · written "бь", "би", "бе"
Your /b/ is the one in ბავშვი (child).
the move: without the aspirated part
Russian: there · written "т"
Your /tʰ/ is the one in თევზი (fish).
the move: without the aspirated part
Russian: cat · written "к"
Your /kʰ/ is the one in ქალი (woman).
the move: palatalised
Russian: guitar · written "ги", "ге"
Your /ɡ/ is the one in გული (heart).
the move: palatalised
Russian: evening · written "вь", "ве", "ви"
Your /v/ is the one in ვაშლი (apple).
the move: palatalised
Russian: all · written "сь", "си", "се"
Your /s/ is the one in სახლი (house).
the move: palatalised
Russian: winter · written "зь", "зи", "зе"
Your /z/ is the one in ზღვა (sea).
the move: without the aspirated part
Russian: price · written "ц"
Always hard, even before и.
Your /t͡sʰ/ is the one in ცა (sky).
the move: palatalised
Russian: day · written "нь", "ни", "не"
Your /n/ is the one in ნინო (Nino (name)).
the move: palatalised
Russian: salt · written "ль", "ли", "ле"
Your /l/ is the one in ლამაზი (beautiful).
the move: alveolar → labiodental
Russian: film · written "ф", "в (final)"
Your /s/ is the one in სახლი (house).
the move: postalveolar → retroflex
Russian: school · written "ш"
ALWAYS hard, whatever vowel follows. ши is said /ʂɨ/, never /ʃi/.
Your /ʃ/ is the one in შვილი (child (son/daughter)).
the move: postalveolar → retroflex
Russian: wife · written "ж"
Always hard too.
Your /ʒ/ is the one in ჟურნალი (magazine).
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 ის (he / she / it).
the move: alveolar → dental, palatalised
Russian: day · written "дь", "де", "ди"
Your /d/ is the one in დედა (mother).
the move: uvular → velar, palatalised
Russian: chemistry · written "хи", "хе"
Your /χ/ is the one in ხელი (hand).
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Russian: borscht · written "щ"
Always SOFT and always long — the mirror image of ш.
Your /ʃ/ is the one in შვილი (child (son/daughter)).
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal, without the aspirated part
Russian: hour · written "ч"
Always soft, even before а.
Your /t͡ʃʰ/ is the one in ჩაი (tea).
the move: open-mid → close-mid
Russian: place · written "э́", "е́"
Your /ɛ/ is the one in ერთი (one).
the move: open-mid → close-mid
Russian: house · written "о́", "ё"
Your /ɔ/ is the one in ორი (two).
the move: without the aspirated part, palatalised
Russian: five · written "пь", "пе", "пи", "пя"
Your /pʰ/ is the one in ფული (money).
the move: without the aspirated part, palatalised
Russian: books · written "ки", "ке"
Your /kʰ/ is the one in ქალი (woman).
the move: palatalised
Russian: door · written "рь", "ри", "ре"
Your /r/ is the one in რძე (milk).
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 კარი (door).
the move: open-mid → mid, front → central
Russian: good · written "о", "а (far from stress)"
Further from the stress, the reduction goes further still.
Your /ɛ/ is the one in ერთი (one).
the move: alveolar → labiodental, palatalised
Russian: film · written "фи", "фе"
Your /s/ is the one in სახლი (house).
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.
- f = fʲ = s = sʲ → your s vs vs vs
- i = ɨ = ɪ → your i vs vs
- p = pʲ → your pʰ vs
- b = bʲ → your b vs
- d = dʲ → your d vs
- k = kʲ → your kʰ vs
- ɡ = ɡʲ → your ɡ vs
- v = vʲ → your v vs
- z = zʲ → your z vs
- x = xʲ → your χ vs
- ʂ = ɕː → your ʃ vs
- m = mʲ → your m vs
- n = nʲ → your n vs
- l = lʲ → your l vs
- r = rʲ → your r vs
- a = ɐ → your a vs
- e = ə → your ɛ vs
- u = ʊ → your u vs
Genuinely new
Nothing in Georgian 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.
to take
брат 'brother' vs брать 'to take'. The soft sign is the only difference, and it is not a sound of its own.
Closest thing you own: — but alveolar → dental, without the aspirated part, palatalised.
I
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → approximant, velar → palatal.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Georgian | Russian | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed, heavy clusters | Stress-timed, heavily reduced |
| Stress | Weak and non-contrastive. Two-syllable words take it on the first syllable; longer words tend toward the third-from-last. No pair of Georgian words is distinguished by stress alone, which is why dictionaries do not mark it. To an English ear Georgian can sound evenly stressed, almost flat — that is correct, not a lack of expression. | 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
20 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 Georgian 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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