Thursday, January 31, 2008

Russian ABCs



It goes...
A БЭ ВЭ ГЭ ДЭ Е Ё Ж З И Й (read и краткая, short eee), КА ЭЛ ЭМ ЭН О ПЭ ЭР ЭС ТЭ У ЭФ ХА ЦЭ ЧЭ ША ЩА (the reader hardly distinguishes them) Ъ и Ь (read твёрдый знак [hard sign] и мягкий знак ([soft sign]) Э Ю Я

A phonetic language like Russian hardly needs an alphabet song, much the less to "Frère Jacques"... Most Russians have trouble remembering the order of the letters in the dictionary, so maybe this song has some use.

And, frankly, the commercial comes across more creepy and sinister than comfy and consumery... The tagline Учитесь спать с нами (Learn to sleep with us!) only emphasizes the M. Night Shyamalan overtones.