#i can't read russian other than names and the alphabet

[randomnameless]

Faerghus is based on Russia and Adrestia on Rome right? I can't tell why they made the agarthan language Russian. Is it some kinda big brain move to connect them like Ancient Greece and Rome are connected, or was that just a coincidence?

On another note, some nabatean names (among other things) are inspired by Celtic/Irish mythology so their language can even be old Irish.

In the end it depends on who you attribute Ancient Greece to. It could be the original of both of their cultures and they split off and did their own thing? Idk, we just don't know enough...

Eh...

I don't remember where I saw that post (maybe the dev interview from 2020?) but Faerghus's real life inspirations was a mix match between various "northern" "european" countries, idk, Fr-england-ssia or something like this.

While Adrestia has a coliseum and used to rule over "the world" a long time ago, Enbarr's current architecture is closer to the eastern part of the roman empire (that'd later be called the byzantine empire!) who... used way more greek than latin! IIRC in that same interview the devs said Adrestia was inspired by Germany and Italy? Italian inspirations (historical at least) are evident with the coliseum and Enbarr's palace (it has a crapton of mosaics in Nopes!) while the German ones can be spot through names of Adrestian characters and particles, and how squads are called.

I think the first historical nonsense that pissed me was about someone trying to fit ancient greece/rome in the Nabatean/Agarthan conflict - but reading too much about languages and irl parallels, while fun to honeypot, is ultimately a sterile debate when Japan has been known to use several languages/names in various video games because they sounded cool/exotic enough (Jugdral's Sigurd and Deirdre and Chulainn come to mind, but then Granvalle's knight squads made me learn the name of some colors in german!) - even if Agarthan units being named after ancient sages, and their titans - i mean giant robots - having an arte called "titanomachy" is pretty revealing on the aesthetic the devs wanted to give them, which is also all kinds of interesting when you take into account that Rhea is the only one of Sothis's kids who is named in this fashion - from her name we could guess she's an Agarthan, but no, Sothis named her youngest kid the Agarthan way?

Anyways, I thought about it for funsies in the original language post (rather, tags) to be something like aramaic, with an alphabet that would be so different from modern day Fodlan's alphabet that randoms who never thought those symbols might be letters would just, ignore it - but it's basically headcanon land.

If nabatean language came from Sothis, is it like "the blue sea star's language", or are they even communicating in "Nabatean" through words, can this language be vocalised by humans, is it like entish, or was it kept secret and only used between Nabateans like Tolkien's khuzdul?

Or, about Agarthans - maybe they used a certain language before being wiped out and shared it with those lizards and some other random humans, Sothis confined them underground, Enbarrians kept on using the Agarthan language and through centuries of usage it eventually branched to become the Enbarr language - and pissed to speak something even similar to the language of those beasts, Agarthans evolved their original language to the one we can now spot in Shambala?

#anon #replies #idk if it makes sense #usually i wouldn't think too much abotu comparing a fictional coutnry to its rl inspiration #even if some parallels sting like #uh Almyra #and Adrestia's leader suddenly sprouting a dubious rhetoric about people sekritly controling the world and hoarding gold #imagine Chilon being so pissed because he wrote the Illiad back then #and then some beast in what is now Enbarr found it and plays it in a random odeon like #no that's his!!! #Rhea being named 'Rhea' when ancient greek names are agarthans in nature is fascinating #like maybe Sothis wanted to break peace with them and picking her latest kid's name like this was supposed to be a sign of pacification? #i don't think we are supposed to see links between who is connected or not #i saw a stupid post early in 2020 basically saying nabateans were liek rome and stole tech from the greek agarthans #but dude #the tech Agartha had came from Sothis and the Nabateans word of god said so #if anyone has screenshots of Zanado hit me plz #I'd like to check the background #from what I rememeber we can spot ruins of aqueducts ? #I thought about aramaic bcs of Sothis and Seiros's religions #but maybe nabatean was something like akkadian? #damn now i'm imagining young!Cichol reading a bedtime story to even younger!Rhea and siblings #like the epic of one of their sibling and his human partner heavily inspired by the epic of gilgamesh #Enbarr being way more inspired aesthically by the eastern roman empire rather than the western one we keep on seeing everywhere was a choic #I still dig it though #FE16 #nabatean stuff #sort of since we talk about their languages and it spiralled in me ranting about i don't even know what lol

[qwanderer]

As I'm reading through the Vorkosigan saga this go-round, I can't help but imagine how I might read it aloud, even though I almost certainly won't; it's so long and it's such a complicated prospect. The question of accents alone is just boggling! I can only read consistently in three accents, maybe fudging it to four because I can go a little bit up and down the plumminess scale with my English accent. Obviously there are a lot of different accents going on throughout the books, but I have to pick and choose where to assign my three to go with where differences would be most impactful and realistic.

The evidence is that the vast majority of the dialog in the books is spoken in some futuristic variety of English. When word origins are discussed, they line up with the true English word origins; when the MCs visit Earth, they are in London, and they can communicate easily with the locals; at the embassy in London, translation technology is required for conversation between people speaking other languages, and similar technology isn't mentioned often in other settings. Beta Colony is pretty North American coded (religion is common, but liberal ideas are dominant) and Barrayar is pretty Europe-coded; it's mentioned the empire has four official languages, and we see people speaking Greek, not expecting to be understood by the nobility. Based on the feel of the naming conventions and a mention of the Cyrillic alphabet being used, I'm guessing the four languages are (or have evolved from) English, French, Russian and Greek, but that English is pretty dominant in the cities.

Other nearby places in the galaxy seem to be able to speak to the MCs without translation more often than not, but they are mentioned to have accents. I have an idea what an Escobaran accent might sound like, based on implied name origins, but I wouldn't want to attempt to reproduce it myself. I imagine there are a lot of places in other parts of the galaxy where other languages are more dominant, but that we don't see much of those areas in the series (at least in the parts I've reread so far).

I imagine from the description of a Betan accent as "flat" and a Barrayaran accent as "guttural" that using my inherent mid-atlantic American accent for Betans is probably pretty spot-on, but the Barrayaran accent would be more of a pan-European beast that I wouldn't dare approximate. I'd sub in various English accents instead, from plummy for the Vor to more cockney for the lower classes. And American and English are my two most solid accents, and the most important contrast to make plot-wise. It's a pretty obvious choice.

I also have a solid-ish Irish accent, and I think the way to use that to best effect would be to assign it to the Komarran characters. I don't know how it fits with the actual background of the Komarran settlers, but it's very much appropriate to their galactic political role.

That leaves every other place we see to a default American accent, as well, but I think that makes a fair amount of sense, given how Barrayar's history played out in terms of instilling their differences, while allowing Betans and other "galactics" to sort of marinate into a more uniform culture, at least linguistically.

So that's how I'd assign people their accents, broadly speaking! Of course that leaves Miles wildly swinging between American and English, and Mark probably a muddy combination of all three, unless he's focusing. But deciding how that works on the fly would be the fun part!

#vorkosigan saga #reading #language #meta

[council-of-beetroot]

co cię skłoniło do nauki polskiego? czemu sobie to robisz?

I get asked this a lot usually for example when i am putting in a phone number for a customer and just for fun i pronounce their long polish last name and they are like wow you pronounced it correctly and I'm like yeah my family is from Poland and learning Polish and their response is why would you do that to yourself?

When i was younger i wanted to learn more polish and my grandma only knew so much so at one point i signed up at like seven for some polish online learning thing back in the day and took one look at words like piętnaście and turned my sights to mandarin Chinese. (Never got far on teaching myself Chinese at seven but i do remember some really random things that come back to me when i see some Chinese tik tok on Tumblr.

Flashforward a bit to where i did manage to learn a second language - Spanish. The state gave me a piece of paper that says i am literate in Spanish and English but reading my fanfiction it suggests otherwise.

Anyway i get into genealogy after learning that i actually had a family and turns out ancestry is useless if you are anything other than of western Europe heritage (it's gotten better though but still) so i go straight to the source and find archives in Białystok which lead me to some other archives and it's pretty successful (I still don't know much the one side of my family that comes from Toruń idk why the areas of the Russian partition is easier to research than the Prussian partition. Maybe it's also that that side has a ridiculously common last name.

Anyway to actually use the polish archives it's good to know some polish and have a handle on things like the alphabet and pronunciation or you'll just be lost. So i start learning some more of that.

Then i was like fuck it I'll just study more polish and i was kinda absorbing random polish because there are stores i shop at that sell polish items for example and whatnot

Polish is hard! Cases are the main bane of my existence. Anytime i learn a new vocab word it's like i can't even use it until i learn seventeen other versions of the exact same word. As a result i understand more polish than what i can actually speak and write ☹️

But i won't give up and there is a small possibility that my sister and i can go to Poland in a year or two so that motivates me a bit.

Every once in a while my uni offers polish classes but usually there aren't enough people dumb enough to take polish at my small university. I envy my friends at larger universities because they have more classes and public transportation.

For some reason Spanish impacts how i learn polish because when my brain isn't in English mode the default is Spanish which sometimes makes it so i get them mixed up or accidentally use Spanish grammar in a Polish sentence.

Pronunciation isn't as difficult but please tell me how to pronounce Strz correctly

#polskie rzeczy #language #council rants #asks and replies #speak your language day

[housefashionblog24]

clocks

Recently, was watching a video tour of one of those Russian grocery stores at shopping mall, and I noticed part of the name had the letters "TOK" and it sounded the same as saying "TOK" with English alphabet. I don't know the sound of all the Russian letters, so I can't quite read in Russia.

I saw something with the word "TIK" recently too, I don't know what it was about was it some Asian thing. Who is TIK? Who is TOK? TIKTOK is of course an app, but it is the sound a clock makes. I think about how can I keep track of time or scheduling techniques, where do clocks come from. I always suspected there was something about cuckoo clocks, but there must be some danger and violence of history. I have many questions and ideas about timing but no way to answer.

I also watched video tours of historic Philadelphia recently, including the Liberty Bell. I don't remember what it was for, but I'm mystified by the crack in it and then everybody took a piece of it when it went on tour in the 1800's or something like that. Maybe it was used for important meetings in the government history. There are bells or alert sounds to do things with groups like an old fashioned dinner bell (homestead alert not Pavlov's dog), or school class start and dismissal, or prayer time for some religious communities. Does the old Taco Bell logo have a bell that looks like the Liberty Bell or what is that for?

This morning, I was watching a video of a young mom's thrift shop haul, and she had a couple of clocks, decorative analog styles for a mantle or tabletop, one reminded me of something my brother made in his middle school wood shop class. I thought about getting the clock parts to make anything into a clock for a DIY, LOL.

Now I'm watching a shopping video at Burlington. Of course they show a style of Juicy watch similar to what I was interested in when I went through a time when I wanted Juicy Couture clothing and accessories from the brand's website or an upscale fashion online retailer I shopped at frequently, I didn't check for those things in person at the department stores or discount department stores because of practical lifestyle reasons (too busy or far away) but also because my attained status of graduate student required making up some of my own rules, and I thought the more expensive things from the premium stores and brands and department stores would make me more recognizable as a successful person. Why did I trust the sources I used? Because of the tech scene, I am using high tech and want a career to evolve from my engineering educational background. And I want to keep on learning and becoming a better person. I need to justify my plastic surgery, on the inside.

So I have been thinking about clocks, and now there is that style of Juicy couture watch in the video at the Burlington. It has blue gemstones around the face and it is silver tone, but I remember the gold tone with rainbow gemstones on the Juicy Couture back in the day. It cost hundreds of dollars or something, so I didn't get it, but it was so cool. Recently, I was browsing shopping marketplace and there was a similar style no name brand price for less than one hour minimum wage, it wasn't as good quality and the name on it was unknown and random brand name.

I think about my interview at Goodwill recently. They asked if I knew the difference between like name brands and cheap stuff. Probably because I have gotten cheap things and donated to them in the past. Want me to buy something nice and get robbed by tweakers? Want to get me high on some other stuff so I can feel sorry for people easier and give away designer stuff or feel bad about the past and just put it in a dumpster or free stuff pile on a whim then watch out the window and see a street drug addict girl pick up that Juicy jacket and walk away? Different programs apples and oranges! I'm not trying to do anything important anymore, I'm not in with any groups so there isn't anything worth investing more into besides what I can use alone by myself and then just don't leave the house very often because I don't know what I'm doing. Sometimes that means there are things as seen on social media or advertising that were donated to Goodwill, the brand name was not as important for the excitement.

Earlier today, I found out that a previous employer for one of my undergrad internships was looking at my LinkedIn. I don't have my internship there on my LinkedIn, I wasn't looking for related work when I signed up for a LinkedIn profile. When I worked there, I was coming out of a drinking problem that consumed my life for many years, and I spent a lot of time shopping on the Forever 21 website when I worked there. Everything was work appropriate for casual corporate tech office, but some fun colors and prints. Someone who has no idea who would wear something like this besides a youthful, budget and quality minded Forever 21 customer. I just thought it was cool stuff for the location where I was, and I was excited to try the new styles as I began a truly changed life. However, I don't know what I would wear for that job, or any job working for that company now. It's just like my recent Goodwill job interview- no makeup, baggy jeans and whatever boring enough clean shirt I could find, I brushed my hair that is down to my waist. Inspire me, give me more, give me something to do if you want more than however it is, just the way I am now. Recently, I haven't been able to come up with my own bad ideas to go for it with anything, and the opportunities don't seem like much more than bad ideas lately.

[alan-p-49]

Introducing my cards for my cartomancy work

Work Your Light Oracle Cards

These cards are great. They've been speaking to me ever since I saw them on Amazon and honestly I can't stop working with them. They're totally if vaporware was spiritual and this desk isn't sassy and is more like if Capricorn was a card deck: honest but kind. Tbh I just got them yesterday but boy oh boy I am resonating with them. It also comes with a guide book which is nice and compared to my other Rebecca Campbell deck I have, this one is much more organized than the other one

The Rose Oracle

These cards I got them in Salem because I was looking for the work your light cards there but these were also resonating. I would say, these cards are quite shy and very polite so I'll just need to work with them so that they get to know me and they would know that I prefer more direct answers. Based on the box, these seem to be oracle cards based on healing and for communication with gentle energies. This one also comes with a guide book but I would prefer if they were more organized than being sorted in alphabetical order (minus the "the" article)

Origami Lenormand

These are the kind of lenormand cards I've been looking for: simple images with the name and the associated playing card is not in the way. Lenormand cards are more practical compared to oracle and tarot and for me to really read them I need clear and simple images like this. Very easy to use and these cards are very straightforward and factual. I'll need to work with these more to help with intuition but the messages this deck tells me I'll understand later on because these cards talk about situations

The Wild Unknown Tarot

These are my very sassy but very honest tarot cards and have been my first and only cards I've had for the past four years. These cards are like a Russian mother that gives tough love while you two live in a dark old wood forest in your cottage and the messy hand drawn images are like some old maternal ancestor made these long ago. These cards are very blunt and maybe that's what's so popular about them besides the organic feel of them. I wouldn't suggest these cards for someone who wants kind and sweet messages and at times I wish they were kind when I wanted them to. But they're like my mom and they can be kind you just can't fight with them

So yeah these are my decks and I love all of them :3

Maybe I'll make a blog where I just post readings for Tumblr. Is that a thing? It is a thing on YouTube

#witchblr #witchcraft #cartomancy #oracle decks #tarot cards #lenormand

[bow-echo]

Wait...what?? From Russian Aviation:

A Soviet isolation chamber for cosmonaut training stolen in Moscow Russian Aviaton » Monday April 16, 2018 19:50 MSK An isolation chamber that must have been used in pre-flight training by the first man in space Yuri Gagarin has been stolen in Moscow. The press-service of Moscow’s Cosmonautics Museum told TASS it disappeared from the premises of an industrial enterprise where it was to be examined for authenticity. "It is true that the isolation chamber has gone missing. It was temporarily on the register of the Cosmonautics Museum. At the moment of theft it did not belong to the museum and was not inside the museum. It was stolen from a restoration workshop in the Strogino neighborhood," the press-service said.

No further details are available. According to the museum, Soviet cosmonauts had used several isolation chambers for training. At the workshop in Strogino experts were to find out whether the chamber was the one Gagarin, German Titov and other Soviet cosmonauts from the first group used in pre-flight preparations. "After attribution the chamber was to be restored and delivered to the Cosmonautics Museum," the press-service added. Law enforcement sources told TASS the chamber had been stolen late last week. The Moscow police have opened a criminal case and investigation is in progress.

Later it was found stripped in a parking lot:

Source: Odessa News That’s a lot of effort to go to, to harvest scrap metal..

#cosmonauts #isolation chamber #wait...what? #if that's the real one it's probably haunted by #valentin bondarenko #really dumb crooks #i used google translate and feel like i need a shower #i can't read russian other than names and the alphabet

[tyunni]

(imma try to make my asks shorter lol cuz i feel bad for taking up sm room on your blog dkdjdkjd) oooh that’s fun! i love kids lol i have a job as a teacher assistant and i work with kids that are like 4-6 years old 🥺 oH which is where i got the inspo for that one riki drabble with lil yn kissing lil riki on the cheek and stuff lol. that actually happened in one of the classes 😭 it was so cute skdjsjsj

how did you learn english btw? and ugh i totally understand. english grammar is SUPER confusing. even as a native speaker, sometimes i question my own grammar lol. so i always admire ppl who learn english when it’s not their native language, esp when they’re as fluent as you! <3 srsly

and i’ve heard of georgia. idk much about it tho lol. i only know of it bc when i was in grade 8, for fun (literally FOR FUN 💀 SKSJSK), i memorized all of the countries of the world and where they’re located on a map lol i was a huge nerd ig skjdksjd so yeah i’m familiar with georgia but ik like nothing about it sksjsk and the alphabet is sooo pretty pLS. is it an easy alphabet to learn? like compared to english let’s say lol

naur really? my vocab has impressed you??! whEN?? sksjsdkjs i remember in your work there were words that impressed me lol which is another reason why i find it so hard to believe eng isn’t your first language!!!! naurrr thank you 🥺 your def one of the vv talented writers on here too, i’m serious. also also! the long hc in your drafts (did you say it was a hc? lol i can’t remember already skdjskd im soRRY) idk if you’ve talked about it more before bc i’m literally terrible at keeping up w things but mind me asking what it’s about? 👀😏

HELP PLS DONT WORRY ABT THE SPACE ON MY BLOG😞😞 i have over 1.5k posts alr and its literally just me screaming and crying so we're good dwdw

AND PLEASE THATS SO CUTE :( i love kids too but theyre such a pain in the ass sometimes, especially the very young ones like 2-5 years old cuz during that age they're more... actuve ig :/ HOW DO U EVEN TAKE CARE OF THEM I WOULD'VE GONE MAD HELSPSMNS

and we learn english at school, from grade 1 up until grade 12 but the level is VERY LOW. we use the same A2-3 or smth levels EVERY SINGLE YEAR so it gets very infuriating as someone who's i guess ahead of everyone else because i know all that stuff already 😭😭😭 and yeah english grammar is a bit confusing but it's nothing compared to russian AND ESPECIALLY GEORGIAN GRAMMAR. as a native speaker,,,, yeah georgian grammar is fucking hell. it may look simple but it's far more difficult than english, german, italian, french & all that jazz :/ its a very difficult langauge overall. sometimes even i'm not fluent in it, that's how difficult the grammar is 😭😭

also grade 8 u was insane bcuz WHY?? WOULD U DO THAT 😞😞 i can't even memorize the name of my own country were you okay??? and yeah our culture is actually very unique and just overall based more on the artistic side. we have our own dances, singing, our own food, clothing and a very very long history. we may be small but we have definitely kept our traditions throughout the centuries and i'm very proud of that, so that stuff is also very hard to get used to when it comes to foreigners visiting or even moving here because it's VERY different from other places. as for the alphabet oH GOD NO ITS DEFINITELY VERY HARD TO LEARN, we spend at least 4 years with different types of textbooks that are specifically made to learn how to write the letters with step-by-step tutorials and guides. we also have some letters shortened a bit like ლ,დ so it's even more confusing for people who aren't fluent to read what we write 😭😭 and as the years pass everyone develops their own calligraphy (which is even more unique because of our strange alphabet) yet we can still somehow understand what the other is writing? it's very weird and definitely not an easy language or an alphabet to learn for foreigners.

ALSO YEAH WHAT IM WRITING IS KINDA?? HEADCANONS??? bulletpoints? idfk atp its a mixture of drabble + headcanon + bulletpoint and i had the time of my life writing it but now im too lazy to proofread (which i probably wont do at the end of the day OOPS) and write for the two members that i have left :///// and i'll give sort of a hint (?) it has smth to do with enhypen and highschool 😋😋 the rest is up to your imagination (well until it's released ofc) its smth that i haven't really done before cuz i usually do normal bulletpoints so it's kinda hard for me but Oh well there's a first for everything and i need to step out of my comfort zone sometimes 😈💪

#‼️.may answers #‼️.mutuals #‼️.em

[lilietsblog]

I remember reading that which patronymic the person gets depends on what letter the father's name ends on, and I just wanted to ask if this was true or not? For example, a daughter who has a man named Nikola for a father would be Nikolaevna as opposed to Nikolaovna. And if this is true, then what if the name ends in a Y, like Anatoly?

(Also, if you could please say what these five letters are supposed to be and if they have English equivalents, that'd be great too: ж, ш, ч, щ, ц; what's frustrating is that I studied Russian years ago and have always been fascinated with the Slavic countries in general, but now I can't remember a lick of it in terms of the language ^^")

Alright!!!

So Anatoly actually has two sounds that get lumped into the "y". It's "Anatolij" / "Anatoliy" => "y" is like in "yet". And that's a consonant sound! Almost all male Russian names end in consonant sounds.

So there are two categorizations of consonants that are relevant here. First, you have the "hissing" ones and the "all the other ones that arent hissing". Hissing ones just so happen to be the ones you're asking about! "Ж" is the trickiest fucker because no it doesnt have an English equivalent. It's usually transliterated as "zh" bc that's how Polish (which both has the sound and uses the Latin alphabet) does it, but when you look for this sound in Western European languages, you usually get "J' - think "Jean" and "Jeanette" in French. "Ш" is just "sh", "ч" is just "ch". "Щ" is the sound of the two previous ones sort of mixed together, so it's usually transliterated as "shch"... or something more creative. You know borsht? Yeah it's "борщ" in Russian. Actually the word - and the dish - originates from Ukrainian, which is where I'll note that in Ukrainian the letter really does denote two distinct sounds "sh ch" coming one after another, not blending like in Russian. Another way to think of it is as a soft version of "sh" but that's a whole other kettle of fish. Anyway "Ц" is another one English doesnt have, though I thiiink Latin does? I never studied Latin, but all the Latin words starting with "C" - Cicero, Caesar, whatever - get transliterated as starting with "ц". Also, the famous word "czar" / "tsar" starts with this sound. It's formally transliterated from Russian as "ts" and is basically the blend of the two of these (it's one of common spelling mixups in Russian actually! and Ukrainian actually has a rule that when you have "t" and "s" colliding from grammatical conjugation they usually merge into "ц").

So these are the hissing ones, and among other features they're only ever one of the other division, soft or hard. "Щ" and "Ч" ("shch" and "ch") are and always soft, "Ш", "Ж", "Ц" ("sh", "zh", "ts") are always hard.

So the soft/hard division is its own kind of nightmare, because English doesn't have that, yall's consonants are a mix right in the middle. It's actually one of the ways to easily identify non-native speakers who are relatively new to the language, and one of the aspects that can make imitation of Russian speech by someone who doesn't know about this completely incomprehensible, because the division ABSOLUTELY affects the meaning of the words. (And conversely it's a way to identify Russian speakers doing their best with English, because we'll instinctively classify/hear English consonants in specific words as soft or hard too, and pronounce them like that. The middle version sounds to us like you're chewing something, clear Russian enunciation specifically requires training out of that, and reversing it takes conscious effort) Right, so in Russian spelling and phonetics, whether a consonant is hard or not, if it's not one of those that are always only ever one or the other, is determined by what comes after it. "На" - "na" - is hard, meanwhile "Ня" - usually transliterated as "nya" or "nia" - is soft, as denoted by the vowel letter. Funnily enough, the phoentic transcription I learned in school insisted that the "a" sound is actually the same and only the consonant is affected, but that's not true as best I can hear. Anyway, other than the vowels "я", "ю", "е", "ё", "и" (soft versions of "a", "u", "e", "o" and "i" is actually soft by itself), there's also the "soft sign" - "ь". For example, the name of my city - "Харьков" - has a soft sign right in the middle bc the "р" - "r" - is soft there.

The soft sign is what's relevant for the male name thing, as that's what gets put at the end of the word when the last consonant is soft. If the soft sign's there, the consonant is soft; if the soft sign's not there and the consonant is ч/щ/й, it's also soft; if it's not there and it's another consonant, the consonant is hard.

Now this is the point where I'd transcribe the rules for you, but here's the thing: I looked them up for reference, and there's THIRTEEN points. Thirteen. There's thirteen steps in the algorithm for determining how the patronymic gets formed.

http://zags.kurganobl.ru/obrazovanie_i_napisanie_otchestv.html

Basically you have -evich/-evna for hissing or soft, -ovich/-ovna for non-hissing hard, -ich/-ichna for a group of special historical exceptions, and then there's the exceptions for when the name ends in a vowel or "y"("j") bc its SPEEECIAL.

THIRTEEN

FUCKING

STEPS

#languages #names #russian

[haxyr3]

Dear Eugenia, do you have any tips to remember accentuation and pronunciation rules? Because I find it really hard. For example the о sometimes being pronounced а (like in the name Олег), I feel like I can't memorize these rules properly because I don't understand this very basic rule. Can you help me? :) English isn't my first language either so my explanations might be a bit sketchy

Dear anon, I think, I understand your question very well, your English is great! You are not alone. Many if not all beginner learners feel overwhelmed by the fact that in Russian, the stress is not regular, and one should memorize the accent in each particular word. Pronunciation, however, follows some simple rules, and I’ll explain them a bit later in my response.

Let me start with memorizing techniques. Here is what you can do to help your memory:

- Listen to songs in Russian. In songs, same words are repeated many times, everything is rhythmically organized,  and memorizing songs are easier than anything else. When you learn songs, you memorize pronunciation automatically.

- Practice ambient listening. Even if you don’t understand much, let Russian radio stations, TV shows or podcasts to play in the background. You’ll train your ear to recognize the melodic of the Russian language.  You’ll be surprised to learn how much you can catch subconsciously.

- Check pronunciation of new words whenever possible. Use Forvo on regular basis. Relearning is always harder. Mind you: in different grammatical forms in Russian, the stress may shift. You might want to check Wiktionary for all grammatical variations - and normally there are stress marks in the grammar tables.

It may seem impossible to memorize the accent patterns for each word, but it will come to you with practice. Just listen to the Russian speech as much as you can - you will absorb the correct pronunciation - sooner than you think.

Now let’s talk about pronunciation rules. Russian is not a phonetic language. In other words, what you see is not what you should articulate. But there are some pretty consistent rules.

Stressed syllable is a strong position for a vowel. Vowels sound most articulated and closest to their alphabetic when under the stress.

If unstressed, О --> А. 

О sound like А in unstressed syllables. Thus, in a word собака, there are actually three sounds А. (My colleagues may correct me saying that the О in собака is half-reduced, while the final а is almost schwa, but lets not get into too fine details).

If unstressed, Е --> И

E sounds like И in unstressed syllables: челове́к --> /чилавек/. 

If unstressed, Я --> И

Another vowel that sounds differently when unstressed is я. It should be reduced to и, and that и is quite weak:  лягу́шка --> /лигушка/

Letters У, Ю, И, Ы, А, Э sound (almost) the same in stressed and unstressed syllables.

These are the rules for vowels. Consonants are another story, I’ll write about them next time. Here you can find Rules of Reading - a document that I created for my students.

I hope my explanations helped you to understand the rules. Everything else will come with practice. Don’t despair, it is doable! Good luck!

[asphodelly]

Some curious facts about Russian Alphabet

📌 The majority of the Russian words that start with "Ф" [f] are borrowed from other languages in fact! Pushkin was proud, that he used just one word that begins with it - "флот" [flot] (navy) in "The Tale Of Tsar Saltan"

📌 It's hard to believe, but there're over 70 words in Russian that start with "Й" [j]. Truth be told, even native-speakers can't name more than 5-6 of them ("йод" [yod] (iodine), "йога" [yoga] (yoga) - are the most popular)

📌 The craziest fact is that in Russian we have words, which start with "Ы": Ыныхсыт [ynykhsyt] and Ытыккюель [ytykkyuel'], for example. That's pretty cute, isn't it? 😹This is just the names of geographic features, so you can breathe out, we actually don't use them at all.

Thank you for reading! I hope, it'll help you to memorize Russian Abc :3

#Russian #RussianAlphabet #RussianForForeigners #CuriousFactsAboutRussianAlphabet

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

What is the name of the book series that takes place in Russia, I think? You've made comparisons to SanSan from it, and one of the characters names... Dimirtri, or Gustav... Gosh I had in in my search bar forever and my phone resets and I can't find it! It sounded so cool I wanted to see it, please tell me you know the one???

heh… I think you’re thinking of the Vorkosigan Saga. It’s not set in Russia… well, Barrayar is kind of a space future Russia (by way of the Klingons), but it’s got English, French, and Greek ethnic groups too. (English is the primary language on the planet, mind you, though they write in a modified Cyrillic alphabet.) But Barrayar’s just one planet in a galaxy full of fascinating planets, including Beta Colony (space future California), Escobar (space future Spain), Kibou-daini (space future Japan plus cryogenics), and Jackson’s Whole (space future ultra-capitalist libertarian hell). Though, I mean, names like Aral Vorkosigan, Konstantin Bothari, and Ludmilla Droushnakovi are pretty darn Russian… Ivan, Gregor, Ekaterin too… so, yeah, I can see where you got that impression. :)

Anyway, my guide to the Vorkosigan Saga is here, since you’re interested. I don’t think I have a rec post as such (other than pleading “please read these books” in my tags), but you can check out my tag for more info too. Hope that helps!

#tishabisha #vorkosigan saga #lois mcmaster bujold #book recs #i think the only book i might have talked about that actually takes place in russia is naomi novik's uprooted? #no wait that's fantasy world poland rather #well anyway close enough #but yeah back to the vorkosigan saga - i get sansan feels from several of the couples in that story #albeit sad twisted feels in a few cases (my poor lost bothari) #but i also get jaime/brienne feels from another couple #so yeah #and everyone is so amazing even if you're not comparing them to asoiaf characters or ships #please read these books