Gary's Guide to Russian Diction for Singers

Russian phonetics is fairly simple, despite a few daunting phonemes. But the spelling of Russian sounds using the Cyrillic alphabet is less straightforward. It gets worse when it is transcribed into English through German or French filters with their odd spellings. Given the chaos of phonetics and spelling in English, the singer may be confronted by a confused welter of competing transcriptions, and may not know where to turn. Turn here. This guide will avoid esoteric linguistic terms as much as possible and clarify the most problematic issues. It will give you the Russian letters with their German, French, West Slavic, and typical English transcriptions, and also their values in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), discussing any troublesome matters along the way. It will present a consistent and user-friendly transcription system designed for singers, not for linguists or language learners or interpreters, but a practical singers' system designed for maximal clarity on the ground, in the studio, and on stage.