Re[2]: [tied] Re: Order of Some Indo-Iranian Sound Changes

At 9:09:32 PM on Monday, February 23, 2009, Piotr
Gasiorowski wrote:

> Russian. Ordinary Russian /S, Z/ are apico-postalveolar,
> or even slightly retroflex, with a "dark" quality.

Which gives /Z/ a faintly R-like quality to many American
ears.

[...]

> /S:/ can be spelt <{s^c^}> [one grapheme], <sc^, zc^,
> z^c^>. It does have a variant realisation, [S'C'] (a
> cluster of two "soft" consonants), but I don't think this
> pronunciation is common any longer.

I think that it's near-total loss is relatively recent,
though. It's what I was taught by a native speaker back in
1967 or so, though it's true that Prof. Ulitin was at least
in his 50s at the time.

Brian