(no subject)

[slashmel.livejournal.com]

Hi, I've been trying to study Russian for over a year now and joined the community a while ago, but I'm not very constant and tend to lurk a lot. So, there's just a handful of things I understand.

Anyway, recently I started reading a novel with Russian characters and I have some doubts about which vowel is stressed in their last names. Could any of you tell me how to stress them? Thanks in advance.

These are the last names:

1. Belov/Belova
2. Zaitsev/Zaitseva

Comments

[ystrek.livejournal.com]

1. Belov/Belova
2. Zaitsev/Zaitseva

[slashmel.livejournal.com]

I was right about Zaitsev/Zaitseva then, thanks for the clarification.

[a-sokolov1960.livejournal.com]

BTW Belov literally means 'white' and 'Zaitsev' means 'hare'. Writers sometimes give their characters 'speaking names', to express for example clean spirit of Belov or lack of courage in Zaitsev.

[shiro-ki.livejournal.com]

speaking names? - oh, it's no matter in realism, - may be, Alexander Ostrovsky's drama's only...
these family names are common, that's all, to my mind...

usually -OV, -OVA are stressed, -EV, -EVA are unstressed

[noser.livejournal.com]

Not exactly true, especially -OV[A] (e.g. Сидоров, Kарпов and tons of others).

[slashmel.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks about that. And I in this case, I think you're right. The author isn't Russian but evidently did some research...

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Good for him:) Usually Western authors just pick well-known Russian writers' names (like Pushkin, Chekhov, Gogol...) or the names from their books (like Dolokhov or Bazarov,) which normally makes a rather comical effect on Russian readers (because those names are very rare and similtaneously well-known.) It's the same as if a Russian writer would call his present-day British characters Shakespeare, Keats, Sherlock Holmes and Bilbo Baggins :)