[identity profile] wolfie-18.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] learn_russian
I'm partially bored, partially curious. And this isn't really a Russian question so much as it is in English. How do you pronounce "genetive?" My tutor says "geh-neh-tihv" but I had always thought it was "jeh-neh-tiv." Can someone tell me who's right?

Date: 2005-01-10 02:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] superslayer18.livejournal.com
It isn't just a Russian case, its also a case in many other langauges. I've encountered it also in Latin, and anyone that I've ever talked to has said jeh, not geh.

Date: 2005-01-10 03:06 am (UTC)
ext_3158: (Default)
From: [identity profile] kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com
Regardless of how you pronounce it, it's spelled "genitive" in English. As for pronunciation, that's one of the uses of a dictionary--they helpfully list standard pronunciations for you:

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=genitive

Date: 2005-01-10 03:12 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kasak.livejournal.com
If your instructor isn't a native speaker, there is no excuse to not know the proper pronunciation of the word "genitive." The root word is gen-, the same in geneology, genesis, and eugenics.

The /g/ in "genitive" is the same sound as the /j/ in "judge." Any dictionary will show that this is the only pronunciation of the word. Any others are simply incorrect.

Date: 2005-01-10 03:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] apollotiger.livejournal.com
DŽĔN-ə-tĭv is how I've always pronounced it.

Date: 2005-01-10 03:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nina-blomquist.livejournal.com
in german you pronounce it geh- not jeh- (as in jehrman), and i think that german is normally closer to the latin root. that doesn't say anything about how you should pronounce it in english though i guess.

Date: 2005-01-10 04:01 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thedevilishone.livejournal.com
Pronounce:

GENETIVE

The GEN part like as in GENTLE
The ET part like as in SET
The IVE part like as in GIVE

Date: 2005-01-10 07:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] constpd.livejournal.com
Генетив. Like in German.
But actually, родительный падеж.

Date: 2005-01-10 08:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wolk-off.livejournal.com
They were asking about English pronounciation, not Russian :)) Родительный падеж is correct in Russian. If you are an academic phylologist, you may also use генетив :)

And yes, in Latin it's генетив rather than дженитив (I use Cyrillics here to emphasize the difference.)

Date: 2005-01-10 10:01 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ekeme-ndiba.livejournal.com
By the way, the proper spelling is genitive, not genetive, and of course, it starts with [ʤ] affricate.

In Russian, it's родительный падеж or генитив.

Date: 2005-01-10 11:56 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nodarius.livejournal.com
Exactly, we pronounce [genitiv] owing to a long tradition of importance of Latin for grammarians. Which of course doesn't mean we can't pronounce it English way (so to speak), or even родительный падеж (i.e. Russian way :) )

Date: 2005-01-10 03:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rodmonga.livejournal.com
генИтив

Date: 2005-01-10 04:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wolk-off.livejournal.com
Right. Thanks for nUtpicking.
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