A few myths concerning Russian language...

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

...were discussed here or in our sister-city community russian_wotd recently, so I decided to put them together.

1. When Russians drink their vodka, they lift their glasses and say "На здоровье".

In fact, "на здоровье" is how you reply to "спасибо" (thank you,) especially if you, say, feed your guests or members of your family and they say "thank you" when they finish their meals. Literally it means "for [your] health," Russians say it when English speakers say "you're welcome."
"На здоровье" is NOT a toast. The poplular Russian toasts closest to it are "будем здоровы" (let's be healthy) or "за ваше здоровье" (for your health.)

Discussed here, thanks noser for mentioning that.

2. There is a Russian proverb that says "In the kingdom of hope, there is no winter".

In fact, there is no such proverb. Russian proverbs are numerous, and some can be really funny or wise, but this one does not exist.

Discussed here, thanks ericschnabel for mentioning that.

3. Russians have the word "razbliuto" (разблюто,) which means something along the lines of "a feeling a person has for someone he or she once loved but no longer feels the same way about."

In fact, there is no such word, and not even a hint where the one who made it up has got it

Discussed here, thanks ladybirdsleeps for mentioning that.

4. Russians have no word for freedom.

In fact, there are at least two words for freedom in Russian - свобода and воля (the adjectives are свободный / F. свободная, N. свободное and вольный / F. вольная, N. вольное.)

Again, thanks ladybirdsleeps for mentioning that here - I haven't heard this myth before.

UPDATE:
5. Russians call each other "comrade".

In fact, there is no such word in Russian language. It is an English word, which is a nice translation for Russian товарищ. As such, it is widely used in Hollywood movies (with no explanation that this is the translation of the actual Russian word.) And yes, during the Soviet era (approx. 1918-1991) most Russians would use this salutation (товарищ), especially in formal, official settings.

Discussed here, mentioned by gera.

6. Russian women wear kerciefs or shawls on their heards, and the word for those shawls is "babushka".

Actually, Russian word бабушка (NOT babushka!) means "granny", "grandma." It has nothing to do with head-covering kerchiefs which Russian women used to wear hundreds of years ago - in remote villages, until almost recently. The Russian word for a kerchief is платок, for a shawl - шаль. Most of women in Russian cities don't wear those kerchiefs anymore; the only chance to see it is on very, very old women -- grandmas, that is -- probably that's why Americans call those kerchiefs "grannies," or "babushkas."
UPD:
the babushkas (accent on the first syllable means the women; on the second, the scarf)

(Psychology Today, May-June, 1992)

In fact, neither of those meanings is true: there is no word "babUshka" meaning "the scarf" in Russian language; "the women" in Russian is "женщины"; бабушка (accent on the first syllable) means "grandma" or "granny," with the secondary, colloquial meaning "any old woman."

7. "У нас нет спиртного" (we don't serve alcohol, or, more literally, we have no alcohol; спиртное - a word for alcohol as a type of consumable goods) can be interpreted as a word-play on "spirits - spiritual"; "we have no alcohol" or "we have nothing spiritual".

Actually, since "spiritual" in Russian is "духовный m. / духовная f. / духовное n.," this word-play is impossible in Russian (unlike English.)

Discussed here, mentioned by serialcondition.

Any more myths? ;-)

Comments

[oscar-6.livejournal.com]

This post should be added to community's memories.

[uncle-becher.livejournal.com]

i.3 may be a grand-(step)-child of "разлюбил", but that is just the most wise thing I can come up with :)

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

I've also heard that Russian has no word for "fun". It doesn't seem to be as common as the "no word for freedom" myth, but that might be because it's more recent.

Also, a few times I've seen people make a big deal out of the fact that "mir" can mean either "world" or "peasant commune", as if this reveals something deeply interesting about the Russian psyche. (I'm actually not sure if it CAN mean "peasant commune", because I've never come across it used that way. Lingvo lists it as a peasants community's meeting.)

Strangely, they didn't mention that "mir" can also mean "peace", which makes me think they're parroting something that they read in a book. Who wouldn't know about the "peace" meaning before the "peasant commune" one? It's not as if peasant communes come up often in Russian textbooks or grammars.

One of the sillier notions I've come across is that Russian is a Germanic language. I thought this was limited to my mom, but I've heard it more than once. ("No, Mom." "Well, what's a Germanic language then?" "Umm ... GERMAN, FOR STARTERS.") I'm not sure that this counts as a myth, though, since it seems more like a really bad guess.

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Done. =)

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think there IS no literal analogy for the word fun in Russian. The only one I can think about - "кайф" is a slang one.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Concerning "мир". The fact is that before 1918 (when the pre-revolutionary orthorgaphy has been reformed by the Bolshevik government, which probably was one of the thinggs we should be really thankful for :))) -- there was two different words which sounded like "mir" - "миръ" and "мiръ". The 1st meant "peace," while the 2nd meant "world" and "peasant commune."
The trick was that Tolstoy's book was entitled "Война и мiръ" - "The War And The World," not "War and Peace"! (The impact that the orthography reform made on this title, and on many other things, has been discussed on Gramota.ru (http://www.gramota.ru/diktant.html?id=25), though their article is for quite advanced learners.)
As for the word "мiръ" with the meaning "peasant commune," the Bolshevik reforms not only annihilated the difference between "мiръ" and "миръ" (both words became "мир"), they also disintegrated the peasant communes per se. And when there were no peasant communes any more, that meaning of the word "мир" disappeared pretty soon.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

There is a long, book-ish and old-fashioned word "удовольствие," which, to be precise, doesn't exactly cover the meaning of Englsih "fun", at least not completely.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

The guy who made разблюто from разлюбил should be very seriosly affected by some dangerous chemical substances :)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

And oh, I lllloved the "Russian being Germanic" part. Das ist doch fantastisch! :)))

[a-garvey.livejournal.com]

Indeed мир as a community didn't disappear. Example - proverb на миру и смерть красна. Sometimes mir is used in a meaning "space" or "universe". Another example is slogan "миру - мир"

[oblomov-jerusal.livejournal.com]

The trick was that Tolstoy's book was entitled "Война и мiръ" - "The War And The World," not "War and Peace"! AFAIK, that's a myth, the real title was "Война и миръ". OTOH, Mayakovski wrote poem "Война и мшръ" thus making a pun at Tolstoy's novel, which is perhaps the source of the myth.

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

What about веселье?

I remember reading some online discussion about this a while ago, and one of the speculations was that this myth started *because* the English word "fun" is so broad that it would be translated in various ways in Russian. But that certainly doesn't mean Russians don't grasp the concept.

(Myths about there being no such-and-such word in various languages always seem to imply that the speakers of that language don't grasp the concept or understand it in some fundamentally different way, completely ignoring that inexact correspondences are almost the rule.)

[a-garvey.livejournal.com]

As for me it isn't old-fashioned. Usually I translate "For fun" as "в удовольствие", "для удовольствия".

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Yes, you're right (http://nauka.relis.ru/27/0206/27206027.htm). Which only means that Russians themselves have plenty of myths on their language that they honestly believe, this poster included :))

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, it didn't disappear completely -- it just moved from actual everyday speech to the more historical, though not really outdated (or even dead), part of the lexicon.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Well, I've been a bit ironic here. Must have framed the whole comment with smileys, LOLs etc.

:)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Веселье would do, as well as удовольствие. The fact is that both of them not exactly translate English "fun" or German "Spaß" -- this being, the most probably, the evidence that Germanic concept of "fun" is a bit foreign for Eastern Slavs :))

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

Not exactly the same, isn't it? :)

[evaluna68.livejournal.com]

What about there being no Russian word for "efficiency"? I've heard that for years and have never found anything that hit the nail on the head, but I'd loove to hear ideas.

[quem98.livejournal.com]

веселье is more happy, jolly...
and удовольствие is more like pleasure, or something you get pleasure out of. Which I guess kind of works. Sort of.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

I normally translate this as производительность. My dictionary gives also действенность, продуктивность and - as a technical term - коэффициент полезного действия, which in any Russian technical text goes simply as "кпд" (pronounced: kahpehdeh' :)))))

Another myth

[nbuwe.livejournal.com]

Concerning the reform of orthography. It's a widespread myth that Bolsheviks did it. In a sense they did, but they have just continued to implement the reform that was planned before and was started by the transitionary government (or whatever is the correct English for временное правительство). The decrees were issued in May and June 1917.

E.g.: http://rus.1september.ru/2001/17/2_3.htm

Re: Another myth

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Do read the article you link to.

>Советское правительство в проведении реформы действительно оставило свой след: к уже имеющимся законодательным актам к проведению реформы Министерства народного просвещения при Временном правительстве были изданы декреты, которые меняли коренным образом ее тактику и стратегию: вместо знакомства с исключенными реформой буквами вооруженные матросы врывались в типографии и выбрасывали из наборных касс исключенные буквы. И так, ружьем и мечом, а не путем сознательного предпочтения, как было задумано, старое русское правописание [...] было исключено из культурной жизни народа, как и все события, связанные с подготовкой и досоветским периодом осуществления реформы.

That's why I call those reforms Bolshevik, as many others do.
Nuff said :)

[yms.livejournal.com]

#3 is obviously distorted "разлюбить".

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree, though I'm still curious how seriously was the guy who made the word разблюто up affected by some really dangerous chemical substances :)