'Z' as in Zoo zone.
To David et al. Sorry for causing such a stir with my humble exercises on transliteration... I really should have looked in IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) first.
1)Letter 'Z' - David correctly described as "the one we transliterate as z in English - that looks like the numeral 3 (in Russian - V.T.) and is the first letter in 3gpaBcmByume = zdravstvuite (means - be healthy, used for saying "Hello" - V.T.)." Letter 'Z' used mainly for representing [z] sound as in Zoo zone. Bet you will not be a dispute here! And it's the only one 'z' sound in Russian Language.
2)The confusion I've caused with 'Z' grew from my attempt to represent the other sound. That of the 23rd letter in Russian alphabet (you can look it up in Unabridged Websters Dictionary, on the inside cover, or on the web), which David correctly described as "that looks like an upside down (Greek - V.T.) 'pi' with a little tail in the lower right hand corner. We usually transliterate it as 'ts' in English." And also: "This would be the letter that is doubled in the Russian word for pizza and the initial letter in the word we normally transliterate as Tsar." Perfect! I also think this sound is "heard" in the word quartz (here comes another turmoil...). That is why I used this letter 'Z' for this sound. Because that is what we, russkie (russians), hear in pizza, and I "heard" Italians pronounced it "just like that", without [ts] sound. We should ask Emanuela to clarify. But, (there is always but, isn't it?) my years of immigrant experience taught me, that people tend to "hear" in foreign languages sounds and forms that are familiar to them. In reality their hearing apparat (after all, we have to stay on the subject!) conducts the foreign sounds to the brain precisely, but the brain can't make a sense of it and relays info to the conscience in the forms of phonetics, that are familiar to the person... That humble almighty brain... The sound is further altered when it is spoken by foreigner, not having corresponding sounds in their native language. When such a speaker is corrected, he is arguing and swears that he heard it "just like that"! In fact he honestly think he did, when he really "heard" it. That is why it is so hard for us, adult immigrantuses, to learn to speak without an accent, if it's at all possible... Excuse us.
Viktor V. Trukov
