The afternoon is an ordinary one, in a neighborhood on the north side of Austin. Leo is twelve. A friend is over after school when Leo's father picks up the phone, and a minute later the friend asks Leo to do the accent. Leo tries and cannot, even though the sounds have been in the house for all of his twelve years.
The friend who asked is after a party trick, a voice that can be switched on for a laugh. But the way Leo’s father sounds is left there by a first language that was Russian, and each piece of it can be tied to a sound the two languages do not share. What Leo cannot fake is what his father does without thinking, reaching for the nearest Russian sound wherever English asks for one that Russian does not carry.
How to do a Russian accent and the trouble with "w" and "v"
The feature that reaches a listener first is the closeness of the w and the v. The Russian language has a v but not the w that English uses, and as a result, many Russian speakers perceive them as one sound that varies slightly, rather than a pair that must be distinguished. When Leo's father remarks that the water is warm, the word "water" can be pronounced closer to "vater," and on a different occasion, the word "vine" might drift toward "wine." The tendency isn't fixed in one direction, and therefore, someone studying how to speak with a Russian accent who transforms every w into a v has actually gone beyond the way Leo's father speaks.
How to talk with a Russian accent and the "th" sounds
Russian does not contain either "th," the one in "think" or the one in "this," and so Leo’s father reaches for the nearest sound that he already owns. The word "three" can be heard from him as "tree," and a quick "thank you" can arrive as "sank you," while the "th" in the middle of "bother" is given a soft "z" whenever he says that he will not bother with something.
The 'r' and the 'l' in a Russian accent
For a person studying how to do a Russian accent feature by feature, the R and L are the sounds the mouth has to be retrained for, because they are produced in places that English does not use.
They dropped the "a" and the "the" in a Russian accent
There is one feature of the accent that a listener catches by what is left out rather than by any sound that is added. Because Russian works with no "a" and no "the" at all, a person who was raised inside that system tends to let those words drop when speaking English, so that an English sentence such as "put the keys on the counter" can be produced by Leo’s father as "put keys on counter." When his father tells him to "shut the door behind him," the "the" in front of "door" is liable to go missing from the sentence Leo hears.
| Feature | What happens | Example |
| w and v | Russian has a "v" but no "w," so the two merge into one sound that drifts in both directions. | water → vater, vine → wine |
| th as in think | Replaced by the nearest sound the speaker already owns: a 't' or an 's' | three → tree, thank you → sank you |
| th | Replaced by a soft z | bother |
| r | Tapped or rolled with the tip of the tongue, where the English 'r' curls the tongue back without touching | river |
| l | Made with the tongue pressed flat and heavy, darker than the light English l | little said with a heavy heart |
| a and the | Dropped entirely, since Russian has no articles. | put the keys on the counter |
A child who keeps the Russian language is in possession of those same sounds from the inside, which is the reason the imitation is not available to Leo as a trick to be switched on. An accent like his father’s is the audible record of a second language that a person carries, and a child who holds onto both languages is handed the same set of sounds, with the added ease of moving between them at will.
Common questions from parents about a Russian accent
01It's generally advisable to avoid using accents like a Russian accent in a school skit. While your intention might be to be funny or to portray a character, accents can easily be perceived as mocking or stereotypical, which could be hurtful to students from that background or just generally offensive. It's usually safer and more respectful to focus on other aspects of your character, like their personality, their actions, or their dialogue, rather than relying on an accent.
02Will my own accent rub off on my kid's English?
Keep your child's Russian active
For a family where Russian is spoken at home, the practical step is to provide regular reasons for the child to use it, and that is the work our program carries out for children who are growing up in English environments. It is designed for children ages four to seventeen.
A beginning can be made with Two free lessons. The first of these is an assessment with a methodologist, during which the child is spoken with and their current level is determined, so that the work is tailored to the child from the start. After the assessment, there is a trial group lesson with a teacher, in which the child is placed in one of our small groups and the flow of a regular class is experienced firsthand. Nothing needs to be prepared beforehand, and the two lessons together provide a clear way to ascertain the child's progress and to keep their Russian moving forward.
