The Pronunciation of The Letter Ц
Всем привет! I was wondering how someone would pronounce this letter. I've instinctively been pronouncing it as a strong push of air from the side of my tongue, much in the same way as another native speaker in English would pronounce pizza. Recently however, I've come across an explanation in my textbook that this letter is actually pronounced with the tongue in the same position as when one is about to pronounce the "th" sound in English. I'm able to do this to an extent but it still feels so weird to me. It feels more natural to do it as I was originally. Which is right? As a strong wisp of air being pushed out the side of your tongue and mouth or with the tongue touching the back of your teeth?

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Answer

I think you accidentally swapped English and Russian.

And I'm in no place to give you pointers (because I know zero Russian), so I'm going to do a quick search.

..

Okay, apparently it's called a "voiceless alveolar affricate", and it's pronounced similar to the "zz" in "pizza" and the "ts" in "cats", just like you said. So maybe your tongue is in the right spot but you have to put it a little lower? I don't know.

Oh, I found this: http://www.study-languages-online.com/russian-articulation.html
It offers a sound file, a graphic (showing you how your tongue should be positioned and everything), and a description for each sound.

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