carpo-rusyn,
Does your ACROD pew book have the prayers in both languages? If so, all you have to do is learn the Slovak version of the Latin alphabet and where the stresses fall in the words.
Quick rundown of Slovak accent marks:
c^ (turn the carat upside down and move it over the letter) is pronounced 'ch'. (Cyrillic -ç)
+à= 'sh' (Cyrillic -ê)
+ÃÂÂc^ = this is really a 'sh-ch' sound like in Russian (Cyrillic -ë) but the difference is slight. (I can't hear it when Russians pronounce it.) Ruthenian-American congregations pronounce it as 'sh' and that's fine.
++ = 'zh' (z as in azure or s as in measure - Cyrillic -¦)
c = 'ts' (Cyrillic -Ã¥)
ch = 'kh' or in practice with Ruthenian-American congregations, 'k' (Cyrillic x)
j = consonant 'y'. ja = 'yah' (Cyrillic -Å), je = 'yeh', ji = 'yee', ju = 'yoo' (Cyrillic -Ä)
y = an 'i' sound (Cyrillic -ï), functionally the same as i when pronounced by Ruthenian-American congregations.
You'll also see some letters have apostrophes after them: n', t', d', l' and r'. In Slavonic and Russian (' = Cyrillic mark -î, mjagkij znak, 'soft sign'), and in Slovak, that 'palatizes' (softens) the sound of the letter before it, so n' has kind of a 'ny' (+¦) sound, t' a 'ty' or 'ts' sound, d' a 'dy' or 'ds' sound and l' a 'w' sound. (The difference in the r is so slight I don't know how to describe it.) Also, properly l'u represents the Cyrillic letters -+-Ä, 'lyoo'.
But in Ruthenian-American congregations you'll probably hear them simply pronounced n, t (except t'a, which is 'tyah'), d, l and r, and 'loo' for l'u.
You'll see 'i, too - in Russian that has a 'yeh' sound (and used to have a special letter - not used in Russian since 1918) but the pronunciation you want to learn just gives it an 'ee' sound, like i and y.
Vowels are pretty simple: a, e, i, o, u are ah, eh, ee, oh, oo.
You can learn where the stresses are in the words by listening - they aren't marked with accent marks.
But to get you started, here are the very first Slavic prayers I ever learnt, written phonetically in the accent you want to learn:
The sign of the cross: Vo EEMyah otSAH ee SINNa ee svyahTAH-ho DOOha, ahMEEN.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us: SvyahTEE BOzheh, svyahTEE KREEPkee, svyahTEE bezMERTnee, poMEElooy nahs.
Glory Be: SLAHvah otSOO ee SINNu ee svyahTOHmoo DOOho, ee NEEnee ee PREESno ee vo VEEkee veeKOV, ahMEEN.
Our Father: OTcheh nahsh EEzheh yes-SEE nah neh-beh-SEEK, dah svyahTEETsyah EEMyah tvoYEH, dah preeYEEdet TSARSTvee-yeh tvoYEH, dah BOO-det VOLyah tvoYAH YAHko nah neh-beh-SEE ee nah zemLEE. Kleeb nahsh nahSOOSHnee dahzhd nahm dness, ee oh-STAHvee nahm DOLhee NAH-shah, YAHko-zheh ee mee oh-stah-VLYAH-yem dolzh-nee-KOM NAH-sheem. Ee neh veh-DEE nahs vo ees-koo-SHEN-ee-yeh, no eez-BAH-vee nahs ot loo-KAH-vah-ho.
And a few more, for the season:
Christ is risen from the dead: KreeSTOS voh-SKRES-seh eez MERTveek, SMERTeeyoo SMERT poh-PRAHV, ee SOOsheem vo HRO-bee zheeVOHT dah-ro-vahv.
(Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.)
Christ is risen: KreeSTOS voh-SKRES-seh!
Indeed He is risen: Voh-EEST-ee-noo voh-SKRES-seh!
Have fun!
