Gender

Sep. 22nd, 2004 09:21 am
[identity profile] kahala.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] learn_russian
I know this will make Russian speakers laugh; it's a very silly question. Also, apologies - I'm on a work computer, and it doesn't seem to do Cyrillic fonts.

If I refer to Papa, or Vanya, or any other definitively masculine object with a feminine-sounding diminutive, would I say 'moy papa' or 'moya papa'? ie, does the gender flip according to the word, or not?

Thankyou...

Date: 2004-09-22 01:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shellesie.livejournal.com
if the object is masculine one, it needs a masculine form of pronoun anyway. "Moy papa, moy dyadya (uncle)".

Date: 2004-09-22 02:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] starkie.livejournal.com
My mother just told me that when I was about 4 years old, I've also used to say "moya papa" :)

In addition of all previous comments - yes, just determine the gender of the object and then choose the correct variant:
If "male" - "moy", "tvoy", "moego", "tvoego", etc.
If "femail" - "moya", "tvoya", "moyu", "tvoy", etc.

Date: 2004-09-22 03:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] starkie.livejournal.com
Masculine nouns with feminine endings?.. Give me an example, please - I can't understand the question :)

Date: 2004-09-22 03:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kalaus.livejournal.com
They decline according to the grammatical gender (i. e. papa, dyadya, Luka, Foma, Yerema, neznaika, neryakha are declined as feminine nouns). The attributes decline according to sex -- or physical gender, if you will:

Moy papa
Moyego papy
Moyemu pape
Moyego papu
Moim papoy
Moyom pape

Date: 2004-09-22 04:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-evengar540.livejournal.com
"Papa" - "Папа" — masculine (look in the dictionary).
Names, s.a. Vanya (Ваня), Znehya (Женя), Sasha (Саша), Vasya (Вася) etc can be both masculine and feminine. Vanya in Russia is a name for males, but in Bosnia, for example, it may be a name for women. If you talk about a female, you say,

Ваня была грустна, потому что она проиграла игру.
Vanya was sad, because she has lost the game.

Ваня был зол, потому что он не любил овощи.
Vanya was mad, because he didn't like vegetables.

Zhenya = Yevgeniy (Eugene) for a male or Yevgeniya for a female (Евгений/Евгения).
Sasha = Aleksandr (Alexander) for a male or Aleksandra (Alexandrea) for a female (Александр/Александра).
etc

So, when you talk about personal names, you always look who the person was - male or female. Sometimes, the last name could help you: for example, if somebody says Sasha Polyakova (Саша Полякова), then you know, it's she. If Sasha Polyakov (Саша Поляков) - it's he.

Drives you nuts, doesn't it? :)

Падежи (cases) с вопросами для одушевленных существительных мужского и женского рода на примере слов "папа"/"мама":

ПАПА
Именительный (nominative) — [кто?] мой папа
Родительный (genitive) — [кого?] моего папы
Дательный (dative) — [(даю) кому?] моему папе
Винительный (accusative) — [(виню) кого?] моего папу
Творительный (instrumental) — [(творю) кем?] моим папой
Предложный (prepositional) — [(говорю) о ком?] о моём папе

МАМА
Именительный (nominative) — [кто?] моя мама
Родительный (genitive) — [кого?] моей мамы
Дательный (dative) — [(даю) кому?] моей маме
Винительный (accusative) — [(виню) кого?] мою маму
Творительный (instrumental) — [(творю) кем?] моей мамой
Предложный (prepositional) — [(говорю) о ком?] о моей маме

Date: 2004-09-22 04:13 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-evengar540.livejournal.com
Forgot to say:

Ваня был зол, потому что он не любил овощи.
Vanya was mad, because he didn't like vegetables.
This is for the case where Vanya is a male.

Date: 2004-09-22 04:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-evengar540.livejournal.com
About last names: it's not the rule. Sometimes, there are surnames that are always the same for both male and female:

Станислав Сухина
Ирина Сухина

But:

Станислав Сухин
Ирина Сухина

You could never know for sure before you hear that name from its owner. Many times I stressed a last name in a wrong way, if read it from a book or an article.

* bold means make stress

Date: 2004-09-22 06:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wolk-off.livejournal.com
>Ваня был зол, потому что он не любил овощи

The surrealistic beauty of this phrase drives me crazy:))))
You just made my day, thanks :))))

Date: 2004-09-22 07:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-evengar540.livejournal.com
Oh, you're welcome!
I was thinking, why could Vanya be mad, and the word vegetables first came to my mind. :)

Date: 2004-09-22 08:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-evengar540.livejournal.com
The thing is that it's not the ending of the word that makes the word being masculine or feminine, it's the word that makes the ending.

You're wrong, it's not an utterly stupid stuff: many native people do not know what to say in this case, for example:

"Мой врач приказал долго жить" or "Моя врач приказала долго жить" (if talking about a woman-doctor).

There's no such thing as a feminine or a masculine ending in Russian language, at least in my humble opinion. There are endings that appear in feminine words some more often, than in masculine, and vice versa. When you're looking for a word in the dictionary, you look at whether it is masculine (мужской род), feminine (женский род) or neuter (средний род).

As you know, in Russian language there are three declensions of nouns: первое, второе и третье склонение. I suppose you've forgotten that -а (as well, as -я) isn't only feminine ending, it is one of the endings for masculine words in both first and second declensions (в первом и втором склонениях):

"К первому склонению относятся имена существительные мужского рода (кроме небольшого количества существительных на -а, -я: дедушка, сынишка, дядя, Ваня), например: стул, конь, герой, гараж, делец, подмастерье, домишко и др., и имена существительные среднего рода, например: окно, горе, копье, сукно и др.

Ко второму склонению относятся все имена существительные женского, мужского и общего рода на -а, -я, например: вода, сакля, струя, юноша, Боря, сирота и др.

К третьему склонению относятся все имена существительные женского рода на мягкий согласный и на ж, ш, например: дань, мякоть, пустошь, рожь и др."


Just in the case you don't know much about declensions, here's a useful link about them (the quotation comes from there):
http://www.hi-edu.ru/x-books-free/xbook107/01/index.html?part-063.htm#i4305

Первое склонение:
http://www.hi-edu.ru/x-books-free/xbook107/01/index.html?part-064.htm

Второе склонение:
http://www.hi-edu.ru/x-books-free/xbook107/01/part-065.htm#i4587

Третье склонение:
http://www.hi-edu.ru/x-books-free/xbook107/01/part-065.htm#i4638

There's no shame in asking questions about foreign language you study, noone will laugh (at you). Questions about the language—that's what this community's for. When I studied English, I had asked people around a lot of questions, even the silly ones (I thought they were stupid), but nobody laughed; and definitely not everybody were able to answer all the questions I had. Stupid would be not asking, if you don't know, when you've an opportunity to ask.

Not everybody in Russia knows about the language. Yes, there's 99% of literacy, and every native (well, we're not talking about immigrants) knows Russian (knows well or not well, that's not the case). But there's not as many people, who know about Russian language, as people, who know Russian. If you could speak Russian, you know Russian. It doesn't mean that you can explain whatcha know. Questions are good for both learners and native speakers. Questions about what you've always been thinking, as something obvious, make you THINK.

You don't need to apologise, even if you really are sorry :)

Date: 2004-09-22 08:30 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-evengar540.livejournal.com
Oh, I made a mistake in this sentence (if you paid attention to the quotation I gave, you could've seen it):

"I suppose you've forgotten that -а (as well, as -я) isn't only feminine ending, it is one of the endings for masculine words in both first and second declensions (в первом и втором склонениях)"

Correct would be: "...-а (as well, as -я) isn't only feminine ending, it is one of the endings for masculine words in second declension (во втором склонении)."

Date: 2004-09-22 09:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] apollotiger.livejournal.com
One of the most awesome things about this community is the bizarre examples everyone gives for grammar... I mean, sure, you could give a really boring example for something like,
Мир зелёный и синий
(The world is green and blue)
for colors... but our community seems to tend more along the lines of,
Мама, я боетсь кошки зелёной!
(Mama, I'm afraid of the green cat!)

And on a side note... I actually understood that sentence you had, except for the words vegetables and mad. ;)

Date: 2004-09-22 09:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gdt.livejournal.com
>There's no such thing as a feminine or a
>masculine ending in Russian language, at least
>in my humble opinion.

Всё-таки в русском, в отличие, например, от немецкого, по окончанию слова практически всегда можно определить его род. Исключения составляют уже вышеупомянутые папа с дядей и co., и ещё слова, заканчивающиеся на мягкую согласную, напр. "день", м. vs. "тень", ж. И то при этом "-ость", "-есть" --- женские окончания.

Date: 2004-09-22 09:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gdt.livejournal.com
Мама, я боюсь зелёную кошку (в.п.), кажется, правильнее. Я боюсь зелёной кошки (р.п.) скорее разговорный вариант.

Date: 2004-09-22 10:23 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] apollotiger.livejournal.com
боюсь! Right... I knew I'd get it wrong somehow.

Date: 2004-09-22 11:38 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-evengar540.livejournal.com
Я боюсь зелёной кошки seems more right to me.

What you said doesn't sound right to me. I can prove it with this example:
Я боюсь острую вилку. It isn't right.
Я боюсь острой вилки — and that's correct! :))

Date: 2004-09-22 11:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-evengar540.livejournal.com
actually understood that sentence you had, except for the words vegetables and mad. ;)

Congratulations then! And now you know two more words: "зол" & "овощи"!

Зол (masculine), зла (feminine):

Он зол на неё. Она зла на него.
He is mad at her. She is mad at him.

Злы (pl.):

Они были злы на них обоих.
They were mad at both of them.



Овощи (pl.) — vegetables.
Овощь (sing.) — a vegetable.

Картофель — это не овощь.
Potatoes is not a vegetable.

Гнилые овощи.
Rotten vegetables.

Now, when I'm thinking about the word овощи, I'm noticing a little bit of weirdness it has.

Date: 2004-09-22 11:56 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-evengar540.livejournal.com
When I say masculine and feminine, I mean the word's changing its form according to the род (мужской, женский, средний) of the subject, of course.

Зол is a short form for злой.

Date: 2004-09-22 12:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ekeme-ndiba.livejournal.com
Овощ is masculine and thus it DOES NOT HAVE "ь".

Date: 2004-09-22 12:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] missa-gorightry.livejournal.com
>many native people do not know what to say in this case, for example:
>
>"Мой врач приказал долго жить" or "Моя врач приказала долго жить" (if talking about a woman-doctor).

Thank you! I feel so much better, because this is a problem I have all the time! My professor always corrects me when I start talking about "моя собака" and then switch to using "он" or "его" in reference to him. It's just more natural to my mind, because he is a male dog. And in the case of women professionals, to me it seems better to indicate that the person in question is a woman, even if the grammar seems wrong. But perhaps that is my perspective coming from English language.

Date: 2004-09-22 01:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gdt.livejournal.com
Кошка одушевлена, вилка нет. /впрочем, стал сомневаться :)/
"Я боюсь этого дяди" не звучит. Я бы сказал: "Я боюсь этого дядю".
но однозначно: "Я боюсь смерти".

Date: 2004-09-22 01:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-evengar540.livejournal.com
Sorry, my bad. It really doesn't have "ь" in the singular case.

I looked in the dictionary and somehow mistaken myself.

There is word "овощь", but it means the same, as "овощи" (vernacular):

овощь ’ОВОЩЬ , овощи, нет, ·жен., (·прост. ). То же, что овощи .

And that is why I made the mistake.
Time to sleep, damn it.

Date: 2004-09-22 01:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-evengar540.livejournal.com
Я боюсь этого дяду — это значит, что я прилагаю действие к этому дяде. Это все равно, что "я брею этого дядю". Боюсь — это нечто пассивное, так как действие не оказывается НА объект, а объект является ПРИЧИНОЙ действия. Поэтому "я боюсь этого дяди" звучит правильно. По крайней мере, для меня.

ИМХО, то, о чём вы говорите — это диалектические различия. Вы откуда родом?

Date: 2004-09-22 01:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-evengar540.livejournal.com
дяду=дядю

Date: 2004-09-22 01:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gdt.livejournal.com
use "мой пёс" instead :)

Date: 2004-09-22 01:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-evengar540.livejournal.com
You're welcome!

You could say "мой пёс" instead of "моя собака," and the professor wouldn't have any reason to correct you.

Date: 2004-09-22 01:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gdt.livejournal.com
оттуда, где "питерский" язык распространен, но потом долго жил в Москве :)
я, на самом деле, сам не на 100% уверен. спрошу в "pishu_pravilno".

Date: 2004-09-22 11:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gdt.livejournal.com
вы правы (http://www.livejournal.com/community/pishu_pravilno/927254.html).
по нормам языка "боюсь кошки". "боюсь кошку" разговорный вариант.

Date: 2004-09-23 12:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wolk-off.livejournal.com
I kinda know why your professor was correcting you - "мой собака" is definitely Ukrainian, not Russian :) If the dog is male, then simply call him "пёс", this means exactly "he-dog."

Date: 2004-09-23 02:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-evengar540.livejournal.com
Меня просто это удивило.

Я человек с доминантной визуальной субмодальностью (ориентируюсь более не на слуховую, а на зрительную память), читаю много, и поэтому вариант "боюсь кошку" мне не то, что видится, но и слышится совершенно неправильно.

Date: 2004-09-28 04:18 pm (UTC)
avysk: (Default)
From: [personal profile] avysk
Another example is name "Петя", which is masculine in Russian but, if I remember correctly, is feminine in Bulgarian.

Вася in Russia is for males only.

Date: 2004-09-29 03:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-yandex-ru640.livejournal.com
masculine nouns with "feminine" endings diclinies absolute so, as feminine nouns with these endings.

only pronouns "my, your" and so on have different declination. For example:

moy papa, moya mama
moyego papy, moyey mamy
moyemu pape, moyey mame
moyego papu, moyu mamu
moim papoy, moyey mamoy
o moyem pape, o moyey mame

Date: 2004-09-29 03:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-yandex-ru640.livejournal.com
exactly. I do work with one Bulgarian, her name is Petya. It was a great surprise for me, when my chief told me "discuss it with Petya", and when I came to an office, where she (I didnt know it is SHE) were, it was a GREAT surprise for me, to see a woman, not a man.

Date: 2004-09-29 03:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-evengar540.livejournal.com
Вася = Васька = Василиса. Not very common, but very Slavic name.

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