The RUSSICA™ Transliteration System(for Russian and Church Slavonic)

ThetextinMusicaRussicaeditionsappearsinmodernCyrilliccharactersandinphonetictransliteration.TheRUSSICA™transliterationsystemhasbeendesignedspecificallywithsinginginmind,sincenoneofthesystemscur-rentlyused to transliterateRussiansucceed inaccurately transmitting thesoundof the language.Languageswidelyfamiliartosingers—Latin,Italian,German,andEnglish—havebeenusedaspointsofdeparture.EquivalentsintheInternationalPhoneticAlphabet(IPA)havebeensuppliedwhereverpossible.

VOWELS

RussianandChurchSlavonicvowelsarepure,withoutdiphthongs,asinLatinorItalian:

Cyrillic Transliteration English Key Word IPA Symbol † a father [ a ]

™,ˆ,¯ e bet [E]

∂,¥ i meet [ i ]

— o obey [o]

—(unstressed) O sofa [ O]

‚ u food [u]

Ú ï dip [ i ]

Thevowels˙ and¸ followingconsonantsaretransliteratedas˙ and¸,respectively.Inrealityitisthecon-sonantprecedingthevowelthatissoftenedbythefleetingi [j]sound(seePALATALIZEDCONSONANTSbelow).Thevowels ™(ˆ),˙,and¸atthebeginningofwordsorfollowinganothervowelaretransliteratedas ye,yu,andya, respectively.Thelettery intransliterationalwaysrepresentsasemi-vowel,blendedwithavowel,asinyetortoy;itneversoundsaloneasincopy orcry.

CONSONANTS

ConsonantsarepronouncedasinLatinorEnglish,withthefollowingrestrictionsandexceptions:

Cyrillic Transliteration English Key Word IPA Symbol or Explanation ¶ g get [g]

¶(initial) gh voiced;noexactEnglish [V] equivalent;distinguish from“Ê”below ¨ zh treasure [Z]

∏ y alwaysblendedwitha [ j ] vowelasinyet,toy ;never soundsaloneasincopy,cry p r alwaysrolled [r ]

fi s set [s]

Ê Ê aspirated,asinGermanBach; [x] noexactEnglishequivalent Ë ts lets [ts]

Í ch chop [tS]

Ï sh shop [S]

Ó shch fresh cheese [StS]

Copyright©1988byMusicaRussica,Inc.Allrightsreserved.

PALATALIZED (SOFT) CONSONANTS

Consonantsfollowedbythevowels™,˙,or¸arealwayssoftened(palatalized)byblendingthemwithafleet-ingsoundofy ([ j ]).Consonantsarealsosoftenedwhenfollowedbythe“softsign”(Ù).Thesymbousedtodesignatesoftconsonantsintransliterationisthetilde (~),whichissimilarlyusedinSpanish:e.g.,cañon.ThefollowingexamplesillustratetheoccurrenceofsoftconsonantsoundsinEnglish:

Transliteration English Equivalent IPA Symbol B abuse [bj ]

D bid you [dj ] L mill ion;Italiangli [ lj ] M amuse [mj] N canyon [nj ] P pure [pj ] R merriest(British) [rj ] T bit you(saidrapidly) [ tj ] V review [vj ]

Thesoftconsonants and donothaveexactequivalentsinEnglish;thenecessarysoundcanbeobtainedbyblendingthefleetingysoundwiththeconsonant.

APOSTROPHE OF SEPARATION

Anapostrophe(’)betweenaconsonantandavowelindicatesthatthevowelshouldbearticulatedwithaglottalattack,insteadofbeinglinkedtotheconsonant. Anapostrophebetweentwoconsonantssuchassand , forexample,indicatesthatthetwosoundsaretobepronouncedindividually,notastheconsonantcombinationsh.

CHURCH SLAVONIC VERSUS MODERN RUSSIAN PRONUNCIATION

ThelanguageoftheRussianOrthodoxliturgyisnotmodernRussian,butChurchSlavonic.Itspronunciationunderwentagradualevolutionoverthepasttencenturies,assumingitspresentformsometimeinthelateseventeenthcentury.Generallyspeaking,ChurchSlavonicispronouncedevenmorephoneticallythanmodernRussian,asthefol-lowingpointsindicate:

(1) Theadjectivalending-agoinmasculineandneutergenitiveandaccusativesingularis pronouncedaswritten,ratherthanas“-ovo”(“-avo”)asinmodernRussian.

(2) Thepronounsyego,tvoyego,moyego,etc.,arepronouncedaswritten,ratherthanas“yevo,” “tvoyevo,”“moyevo.”

(3) Theunstressedvoweloispronounced“o,”ratherthanasaschwaasinmodernRussian.

(4) Theinitialconsonantg(transliteratedasgh)isvoicedwithaslightlygutturalsound,ratherthan remaininghardasinmodernRussian.

(5) The verb endings -yesh, -yet, and -yem in second and third person singular and first person plural are pronounced as written, rather than as “-yosh,” “-yot,” and “-yom” as in modern Russian.

A NOTE ABOUT ACCENTED VOWELS

Toclarifythetextualstressesaccentmarkshavebeenplacedovertheappropriatevowelsinthetransliteration.Unlikeaccentmarksinsomeotherlanguages(e.g.,French),themarksintheRussica™transliterationsystemdonotchangethecharacterofthevowelinanyway:anaccented“e,”forexample,hasexactlythesamesound(shape,vocalplacement,etc.)asanunaccented“e.”