Category: Russian (Русский)

Babbling and motherese

By Simon

Over the past few days I’ve been observing, and to some extent participating, in my niece’s language acquisition. She is 8 months old and babbles a lot to herself and to others. Some of her babbling can sound like possible words, like dada, but they don’t seem to be associated with anything yet. She is also starting to direct her attention at various things, and especially at people, who she charms with her smiles.

From her mother (my sister-in-law) she is getting mainly Russian, and from her father (my brother) she is getting English. When I first heard her mother talking to her in Russian I didn’t understand much, but when I listened more closely I realised that the same phrases where coming up frequently – as with motherese or Child Directed Speech generally. Two phrases I understood where Что ты хочешь? (What do you want?) and Всё (all, everything). There are also a lot of terms of affection, which in Russian are often diminutives like котёнок (kitten).

I found more examples of Russian motherese on: http://www.russianforfree.com/adoptive-parents.php.

Всё seems to be quite a useful word which appears in various phrsaes:

– вот и всё, это всё = that’s all
– чаще всего = most often
– мне всё равно = it’s all the same to me
– всё там же = still there
– всё же = all the same
– всё ещё = still
– а всё-таки = all the same, nevertheless

Merry Christmas

By Simon

Zalig kerstfeest / Nadolig Llawen / С Рождеством / Nollaig chridheil / Joyeux Noël / Nollick Ghennal / Frohe Weihnachten / Nollaig shona daoibh / A Blithe Yule and a Multilingual Merry Christmas to you.

My Dutch studies a sort of on hold this week, but will continue after New Year – I was planning to learn it just for one month, but will continue as I’m enjoying it and finding it fairly easy, a lot easier than Russian, anyway.

How’s your language learning going?

Twitterizing

By Simon

Today I finally got round to signing up for Twitter, something I’d considered for a long time, but didn’t do anything about – this is often how I do things, or rather don’t do them. I’ll be tweeting as @Omniglossia as someone else is using @Omniglot. I plan to use to as a place to post sentences that I’ve put together in languages I’m learning. I try to make them memorable by adding unusual, silly and funny elements along with the ordinary words I want to remember. Your corrections, comments and suggestions are always welcome. I’ll also use it promote stuff going on elsewhere in the Omniglot realm.

Do you use Twitter as a tool for learning languages and/or for practising languages?

Russian

By Simon

I spoke a bit of Russian with the couch surfers yesterday and today, but we spoke mostly in English. They said that my Russian pronunciation is good and they could understand what I was saying, which is encouraging. I can talk about myself and my family in Russian now – those were the things I was focusing on yesterday morning, but can’t say much in Russian about other things. I also learned some Russian words and phrases from them, and quite a lot about Russia and Russian culture, which was very interesting.

I think that focusing on learning language for specific situations is a useful thing to do, and if you write down and/or record the things you learn, you’re more likely to remember them. However I like to talk about a wide range of subjects, so it would take quite a while to learn the relevant language. One subject/topic at a time might be the way to go.

Русский язык

By Simon

I have a couple of Russian couchsurfers coming to stay with me today, so this morning I am focusing on Russian. They both speak English, but I’d like to speak at least some Russian with them. I’m trying to think of things I might say – particularly about myself, my family and my work, and asking them about those kinds of things – and working out how to say them in Russian. I’m also listening to Голос России (The Voice of Russia) to get tuned in to the language.

Do you use this technique of focusing on learning the words and phrases you might need for particular situations? Does it work for you?

I haven’t studied much Russian recently as I’ve been focusing on other languages, and when I got to the test section at the end of lesson eight in my Russian textbook I realised that though I can understand most of the language used, I’m not so good at producing it as my grammatical knowledge is somewhat shaky. I need to go back and learn the noun declensions and verb conjugations.

Ресторанчики

By Simon

I came across the word ресторанчики (restoranchiki) in the Russian lesson I’m working on today. It is the plural of ресторанчики, a diminutive of ресторан (restaurant), which has no exact equivalent I can think of in English – maybe restaurantette. You could say a little restaurant and a tiny restaurant, but I’m not sure if that has the same meaning. Can you suggest any alternatives in English?

It appears in the phrase “На Мальте очень хорошие маленькие ресторанчики, совсем недорогие.” (Malta has many very good, small restaurants, which are all cheap.)

Russian and other Slavic languages seem to use lots of diminutives like this, and I think Portuguese does as well. Do other languages?

Tag questions, innit!

By Simon

Tag questions or question tags are interrogative fragments (tags) added to statements making them into sort of questions. They tend to be used more in colloquial speech and informal writing than in formal writing, and can indicate politeness, emphasis, irony, confidence or lack of it, and uncertainty. Some are rhetorical and an answer is not expected, others invite a response.

In English they come in various forms, for example:

– I like coconut, don’t I?
– You’re tall, aren’t you?
– He’s handsome, isn’t he?
– She said she’d be here, didn’t she?
– It’ll rain tomorrow, won’t it?
– We were away, weren’t we?
– You’d gone, hadn’t you?
– They’ll be there, won’t they?

A simpler tag question used is some varieties of English in innit, a contraction of isn’t it, which could be used for all the examples above. Other English tags include right? and eh? – do you use any others?

Tag questions in Celtic languages can also have quite complex forms which depend on the verb and the subject in the main clause, particularly in Welsh.

Manx
– T’eh braew jiu, nagh vel? (It’s fine today, isn’t it?)
– Hie ad dys y thie oast riyr, nagh jagh? (They went to the pub last night, didn’t they?)
– Bee oo goll magh mairagh, nagh bee? (You’ll go out tomorrow, won’t you?)

Irish
– Tá sé go breá inniu, nach bhfuil? (It’s fine today, isn’t it?)
– Chuaigh siad go dtí an teach tábhairne aréir, nagh ndeachaigh? (They went to the pub last night, didn’t they?)
– Beidh tú ag dul amach amárach, nach bheidh? (You’ll go out tomorrow, won’t you?)

Scottish Gaelic
– Tha i brèagha an diugh, nach eil? (It’s fine today, isn’t it?)
– Chaidh iad dhan taigh-òsta an-raoir, nagh deach? (They went to the pub last night, didn’t they?)
– Bidh thu a’ dol a-mach a-màireach, nach bi? (You’ll go out tomorrow, won’t you?)

Welsh
– Mae’n braf heddiw, on’d ydy? (It’s fine today, isn’t it?)
– Mi aethon nhw nhw’n mynd i’r dafarn neithiwr, on’d wnaethon? (They went to the pub last night, didn’t they?)
– Fyddet ti’n mynd allan yfory, on’ fyddet? (You’ll go out tomorrow, won’t you?)

I’m not sure about how tag questions work in Breton and Cornish.

In other languages things can be simpler:

– Czech: že?
– French: n’est-ce pas? non?
– German: nicht wahr? nicht? oder?
– Italian: no? vero? (positive), non è vero? (negative)
– Polish: prawda? (positive), nieprawdaż? (negative)
– Russian: да? (da?)
– Spanish: ¿no? ¿verdad?

Can you provide other examples?

New video

By Simon

Here’s the script for a new video I’m making in Russian. I got the Russian from my textbooks and phrase books and from Google Translate, so there may be some errors. If you speak Russian could you check it and let me know anything that needs correcting? Большое спасибо!

Здравствуйте.
Hello

Здравствуйте. Как дела?
Hello. How are you?

Спасибо, хорошо. А вы?
Fine thanks, and you?

Хорошо. Как вас зовут?
Fine. What’s your name?

Меня зовут Галина Михаиловна. А вы?
I’m Galina Mikhailovna, and you?

Меня зовут Игорь Максимович. Очень приятно.
I’m Ivan Maksimovich. Nice to meet you.

Очень приятно.
Nice to meet you.

Oткуда вы?
Where are you from?

Я из Алматы в Казахстан, но я живу в Международной космической станции полгода. А вы?
I’m from Almaty in Kazakhstan, but live half the year in the International Space Station. And you?

Я из Москвы, но я живу в Новосибирске. Вы космонавтом?
I’m from Moskow but live in Novosibirsk. Are you a cosmonaut?

Да. А вы? Какова ваша работа?
Yes. And you? What do you do?

Я ки́пер в Новосибирском зоопарке.
I’m a zookeeper in Novosibirsk Zoo.

Вау, это круто!
Wow, that’s cool!

Что? Даже круче, чем быть космонавтом?
What? Even cooler than being a cosmonaut?

Да, абсолютно. Я всегда хотел работать с животными, но отец настоял, чтобы я стал космонавтом.
Yes, absolutely. I always wanted to work with animals, but my father insisted that I become a cosmonaut.

Не будучи в пространстве захватывающим?
Isn’t being in space exciting?

Ну, это было в первый, и виды невероятным, но это может быть довольно скучной застряли в маленькой космической станции с теми же людьми все время.
Well it was at first, and the views are incredible, but it can be rather boring stuck in a small space station with the same people all the time.

О, я никогда не думал об этом так. Что вы делаете в Международной космической станции?
Oh, I never thought about it like that. What do you do on the International Space Station?

Мы делаем эксперименты, петь песни, писать стихи и смотреть на вид.
We do experiments, sing songs, write poetry and look at the view.

Каково это быть невесомым?
What’s it like being weightless?

Сначала это было странно и я заболела, но я привык к его сейчас.
At first it was weird and I was sick, but I’m used to it now.

Ну, я должен идти. До свидания.
Well, I have to go now. Goodbye.

До свидания.
Goodbye.

Штурмовщина

By Simon

Штурмовщина (Šturmovščina / Shturmovshchina) is a useful Russian word I came across in Mark Forsyth’s The Horologicon – A Day’s Jaunt Through the Lost Word of the English Language, which I got for Christmas. It means last-minute rush and refers to the practice of working frantically to fulfill production targets in factories at the end of each month when materials finally arrived, or if they didn’t arrive people used whatever was to hand to produce the required goods. This often resulted in shoddy products and was apparently a common practice in the Soviet Union. Similar practises were common in construction.

The word штурм (šturm) means storm or conquest, and штурмовать (šturmovat’) means to storm or conquer, so штурмовщина is all about storming and conquering those deadlines. It is also defined as “short bursts of extremely intense work after procrastination”, and possibly results from the relatively short growing season in Russia, which meant that most of the agricultural work had to be done quickly and intensively over the summer. The rest of the time the peasants could idle, contemplate and philosophise [source].

More interesting words are discussed in the book, and on the blog Inky Fool.

Do you leave everything to the last minute and then attack it in a fit of shturmovshchina, or are you more organised?

I have been known to leave things until the last minute, though try not to do it too often.