They used to say “measles [shn] evy”, “young [shn] th”, “plum [shn] th”. This is one of the features of the old Moscow pronunciation. Now it is outdated, and today the combination “chn” is pronounced according to the spelling.
However, in some words [shn] has survived and is considered a literary norm:
- horse [shn] oh,
- sku [shn] oh,
- naro [shn] oh,
- yai [shn] itza,
- skvore [shn] uk,
- bitter [shn] uk,
- devi [shn] uk,
- oche [shn] uk,
- empty [shn] th.
Also, “chn” is pronounced as [shn] in feminine patronymics that end in “-ichna”, for example Ilyini [shn] a or Nikiti [shn] a.
And in some cases, both pronunciation options are now acceptable – the old [shn] and the new [chn]:
- bulo [chn] th and bulo [shn] th;
- midno [chn] ik and polino [shn] ik;
- forge [chn] th and forge [chn] naya;
- bitter [chn] th and bitter [chn] th;
- two [chn] ik and two [shn] ik;
- kopeck [chn] th and kopeck [chn] th;
- lava [chn] ik and lava [shn] ik;
- illumination [chn] ik and illumination [shn] ik;
- order [chn] th and order [shn] th;
- laundry [chn] th and laundry [chn] th;
- match [chn] th and match [shn] th;
- shuto [chn] th and shuto [shn] th;
- yai [chn] th and yai [shn] th.
Probably, the new options with [chn] will eventually win, and the old ones with [chn] will go down in history. But for now, the pronunciation given above corresponds to the literary norm.
The most recent spelling dictionaries take into account not only the strict norm, but also the acceptable options. If you are in doubt as to how to do it right, take a look at the Dictionary of the Difficulties of the Russian Language for Media Workers. Stress, pronunciation, grammatical forms ”(2016) by MA Studiner or in“ The Great Orthoepic Dictionary of the Russian Language. Literary pronunciation and stress of the beginning of the XXI century: the norm and its variants “(2018) M. L. Kalenchuk, L. L. Kasatkina and R. F. Kasatkina. Our selection is based on these dictionaries.
