[lit-ideas] FW: Re: Movie

  • From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "lit-ideas" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 17:30:12 -0400

I just want to say that although his grammar is rusty, Walter's Russian is
quite good.  He obviously has an ear for the language and obviously can
speak it fluently.  Truly, his Russian is very good.



> > [Original Message]
> > From: Walter Okshevsky <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
> > To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Date: 8/31/2006 9:27:58 AM
> > Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Movie
> >
> > Andrey,
> >
> > Russian seems to be a very odd language. 
>
> I don't know what you mean.  It's not odd at all.  It's got rules like any
> language, and it follows them without caprice.  It's a beautiful language.
>
>
>
> Why have a soft "t" in the
> > language when the 24th letter of the Russian alphabet is exactly the
same
> > sound/phoneme: "ts" as in "tsar" or "tsapnul" (snapped)? It's written
like
> > the Englisch "u" with a squiggle at the bottom right side.  
>
>
> The u with the squiggle on the bottom is a completely different letter,
> pronounced as 'ts'.  At the end of a word it doesn't have the same sound
as
> a t with a soft sign. It's got a distinct s sound on it.  It would be like
> saying why does English need an 'x' since we have the ks sound, or 's' and
> 'c' have the same sound sometimes.   'ts' is rarely, if ever, used at the
> end of an infinitive.  It doesn't even start that many words.  Tselii
> (whole) comes to mind, tselobat' (to kiss).  
>
>
>
> I thought the
> > Soviets eliminated all forms of redundancy from the culture and
> > governement. 
>
>
> Not sure about that.  They eliminated the "hard sign", a now archaic
> letter.  You'll find it in 19th century literature.  Also not seen anymore
> are the two dots over the 'e' that make the yio sound.  Beyond that, I
> don't think there were a lot of changes, but I'm open to correction.
>
>
>
> Also odd is that there is a soft "r" in Russian
> > (as in "tsar" but not "rabota" or "razboynik") but it is not marked in
the
> > language by either a soft sign or any other marker. Any hypotheses?
>
>
> Tsar does have a soft sign, making it a soft 'r'.  'Rabota' is a hard r;
> all r's in Russian are rolled, like in Spanish.  In English r's are
> diphthong; our r's have a vowel sound attached to them.
>
>
>
> > Aren't languages supposed to be logical semantic and syntactic
> > frameworks? Like Phoenix, AZ? 
>
>
> It is logical, organized, sensible.
>
>
>
> Strana Mariyevana, chay pila a puza
> > holodnaya. Do all Russian infinitives end with a soft "t"?
> >
>
> Strana Mariyevana (someone's name I guess) drank tea but her belly was
> cold.  Reference?  Yes, all, or nearly all infinitives end in a soft 't'. 
> It's the Russian equivalent of the English 'to' (to drink, etc.).  There's
> also a 'ch' ending, such as in pech'" (to bake) also followed by a soft
> sign.
>
>
>
>


------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts: