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CONTENTS

ABBREVIATIONS USED IN PART II

 §1. SOUNDS

In indicating pronunciation and in explaining grammatical forms we shall use a modified English alphabet. Everything that is printed in this alphabet is inclosed in square brackets.

We can here give only a very rough description of the sounds of Russian.

Hard and Soft Consonants. Most Russian consonants occur in two varieties: hard (or plain) and soft (or palatalized).

In producing a hard consonant the Russian speaker lowers the middle or back of his tongue and slightly thrusts out his lips. This gives the consonant a dull sound; to the English 