Verified answer

The letter "Я" in Russian is used for the sound [a] ("u" in "bus, cup") in the following combinations of sounds:

1) [ja] - iotacized "a"

- "я" in the beginning of the word, e.g. яд [jat] - poison;

- "ья" - after a consonant followed by "soft sign", which shows, that the preceding consonant is soft (pallatalized), e.g. скамья [ska-'m'ja] - bench;

2) [a] after a soft consonant (without "soft sign"), e.g. мясо ['m'a-sa] - meat.

In these three examples the syllables with "я" are stressed, [a] is pronounced. Let's look how "я" behaves in the unstressed syllables, in which reduction changes its pronounciation.

1) If the syllable with "я" follows the stressed one, we still pronounce [a], but it's "weaker" than in stressed syllables. We can compare it with the mentioned "uh" in this case, e.g. красивая [kra-'s'i-va-ja] - beautiful, время ['vr'e-m'a] - time.

2) If the syllable with "я" precedes the stressed one, we pronounce [i], which is not homogeneous. It resembles a bit the English diphthong [ie] (like in "near), but it's a rather "sly" sound.

- after a soft consonant we hear clearly the [i] part of this sound and almost don't hear the [e] part (you don't need to articulate it), e.g. рябина [r'i-'b'i-na] - mountain ash.

- if we use iotacized [a], the [e] part becomes stronger and we hear rather [je] than [ji], e.g. ягнёнок [jig-'n'o-nak] (or rather [jeg-...] in this case) - lamb .

Your books don't seem to take into account the "duality" of this reduced [i], that's why you're so confused.

An apostrophe in front of the syllable is a stressed mark, after a consonant - the sign of softness.

"o" = "o" in "not, log", "e" = "e" in "pen, help", "i" = "i" in "sick, bit"

I speak russian, email me if you have any question.

Dont ever stress that letter as a "ye'. Its always going to be a " yah: other letter yes, but never that one. Sometimes when its infront of some vowels maybe the stress are different. Ille be glad to help.

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