# Old Russian typewriter keyboard

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-russian-typewriter-keyboard/376983>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 18, 2006, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-russian-typewriter-keyboard/376983 "2006-10-18T18:54:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-russian-typewriter-keyboard/376983/21 "2006-10-19T20:57:00Z")

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[QUOTE=groman]  
In my attempts to teach some anglophones proper Russian pronounciation of some words, I found that syllables involving “ы” are extremely difficult. Since I grew up saying them I don’t really know how to “teach it” other than … ‘roll your tongue thusly’ and that’s not helping. I know this sound doesn’t really exist in English, but any tricks to it?  
[/QUOTE]  
I was told to say “ee” and then, with a (clean) pencil eraser, physically push my tongue backwards until it turned into Ы. It worked like a charm, though I can also see the potential to go horribly, horribly wrong.

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**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-russian-typewriter-keyboard/376983/22 "2006-10-19T21:11:05Z")

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[QUOTE=groman]  
Russian has had the letter “Э” for as long as the cyrillic alphabet has been used. I have never heard it called ‘oborotnoye e’ in Russian however. On my layout it’s where the english register '' button is (also the |).  
[/QUOTE]

I’ve heard it called ‘oborotnoye e’ in radio traffic by Russian speakers akin to Alpha, Bravo, etc.

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**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-russian-typewriter-keyboard/376983/23 "2006-10-19T21:28:07Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Regarding ы: If your prospective speaker of Russian already speaks German, French or Classical Greek, you have it knocked: “Goethe taught une jeune fille how to sound an upsilon.”

Ы is not the same sound as a French “u” or one of the German umlauted letters, but is like a “u” with the lips unrounded, like a Turkish “ı”.

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**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-russian-typewriter-keyboard/376983/24 "2006-10-19T21:58:44Z")

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[QUOTE=madmonk28]  
I’ve heard it called ‘oborotnoye e’ in radio traffic by Russian speakers akin to Alpha, Bravo, etc.  
[/QUOTE]

This is closer to a military phonetic alphabet you’d hear on the радио.

Anna, Boris, Vasiliy, etc. “Э” is “echo.” A little sloppy, but here’s a chart:

Letter, as pronounced, and the phonetic;

[ah] ah 'Anna  
[beh] beh Bo’ris  
[veh] veh Va’siliy  
[geh] geh Ga’lina, Gri’gory  
[deh] deh 'Dmitry  
[ye] ye Ye’lena  
[yo] yo Yozh  
[zheh] zheh 'Zhenya, Zhuk  
[zeh] zeh Zina’ida  
[ee] ee I’van  
[eey] eey I’van 'Kratkiy  
[kah] kah Konstan’tin, 'Kostya  
[el] el 'Lyuba  
[em] em Ma’riya  
[en] en Niko’lay  
[o] o 'Olga  
[peh] peh 'Pavel  
[ehr] ehr Ro’man  
[es] es Ser’gey  
[teh] teh Ta’tiana, Ta’mara  
[oo] oo Uli’ana  
[feh] feh 'Fyodor  
[kha] kha Khari’ton  
[tse] tse 'Tsentr, Tsaplya  
[cheh] cheh chelo’vek  
[sha] sha 'Shura  
[shcha] shcha 'shchuka  
[tz] tvyordy znak 'tvyordy 'znak  
[yery] yeryh 'igrek, yer’yh  
[mz] 'myagki 'znak 'znak, 'myagki 'znak  
[eh] eh 'ekho  
[yu] yu Yuli’ana  
[ya] ya 'Yakov

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-russian-typewriter-keyboard/376983/25 "2006-10-20T06:19:30Z")

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In my Berlitz volume the pronunciation for _yery_ is given as the sound of “i” in “Shirley.”  
As for Turkish…welll, konusmaarim turkce. 😛

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