My dictionary is no help with this :(

[24karrot.livejournal.com]

Puerto Rico - Пуэрто Рико or Пуерто Рико?
Mexico - Мехико or Мексико?

Google points towards the first for Puerto Rico, and is more or less split between Mexico. Russian Wikipedia says the last two, though.

What is it?

(спасибо :D)

Comments

[alexbogd.livejournal.com]

Пуэрто-Рико. with -.

[oblomov-jerusal.livejournal.com]

Пуэрто-Рико. Country - Мексика. City - Мехико.

[alexbogd.livejournal.com]

Мехико.

[merengue.livejournal.com]

1. Пуэрто-Рико
2. If you refer to the city, it's Мехико. If it's to the country, Мексика then.

[kart.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Maybe to clarify between city, country and district, one might say

ciudad: город Мехико
districto federal: мексиканское федеральное заречье
país: страна Мексика

that's it

[merengue.livejournal.com]

Ciudad de México = Mexico City = (город) Мехико
México, Distrito Federal = Мехико, Федеральный Округ
México = Estados Unidos Mexicanos = Mexico (country) = Мексика

but

New Mexico (US State) = Нью-Мексико

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

>федеральное заречье

?????????
"заречье" is a poetical word for "the land behind a river," and nothing else :)

[kart.livejournal.com]

oops! Babelfish strikes again. Sorry about that.

[24karrot.livejournal.com]

That seems so weird. I guess it came from english? Mexico, as said in Spanish, in cyrillic would be Мэхико. Now I understand switching э with е, but... it seems unnecessary to put in the кс. Hmm! Very interesting.

[merengue.livejournal.com]

Mexico, as said in Spanish, in cyrillic would be Мэхико
Why do you think so? There is no sound in Russian like the Spanish "e", but it's close to the Russian "е" more than to the Russian "э". However, the "transliteration" to Russian of the Spanish "e" depends on the position of this letter, so "Ernesto" in cyrillic would be "Эрнесто", but "México" is "Мехико".

It's weird, but "Мексика" (country) seems to come from English, and "Мехико" (city) from Spanish.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

"Мексика" (country) seems to come from English, and "Мехико" (city) from Spanish.

Nope, Мексика came to Russian from German as early as 18h century, while Мехико for Ciudad de Mexico in Russian dates not farther back than late 19th - early 20th century.

[24karrot.livejournal.com]

To me э sounds lots more like Spanish, because е affects the letter before it, right? Spanish e doesn't affect the consonant before it.

But I see as in Пуэрто Рико it's э... because it starts the syllable. Right? I guess that makes sense... don't really want to put э behind a consonant, because е will... mesh better? (can't think of a good way to say that). Is that it?

(sorry if I'm coming across as ignorant or something...)

[merengue.livejournal.com]

...because е affects the letter before it
Not exactly. It's difficult to me explain this in English, but I'll try. I would say the letter before will also affect the sound of Russian "e", so it can be [э], [е], [iе] or neutral. And the Russian "э" vocal is more palatal then the Spanish "e".

in Пуэрто Рико it's э... because it starts the syllable
Right! There are three syllables in Russian: Пу-эр-то, but in Spanish remain two: Pue-rto, because -ue- is a diphthong.

[merengue.livejournal.com]

Vowel, not vocal, sorry. Sometimes I think in Spanish :)

[24karrot.livejournal.com]

Pues, si quieres explicarlo en español, no me importa :D

Thanks for the clarification... I think I get it. :)

[ekeme-ndiba.livejournal.com]

In borrowings and transliterated foreign names, Russian «e» does not necessarily palatalize the preceeding consonant. Moreover, usage of «э» is deprecated nowadays. It's still reserved for the following cases:

1. "E" starts a word or follows a vowel (but not always in the latter case): Эрнесто (Ernesto), Коэльо (Coelho), but: проект (despite there's no [j] between «о» and «е»);
2. English "a": Бекхэм (Beckham);
3. Some entrenched trasliteration systems, such as Japanese kiriji and Chinese: Накасонэ, Цзэдун (no idea how it all is written in original ;-).

[kart.livejournal.com]

When it comes to foreign words, spelling doesn't always match the pronounciation. Sometimes if the letters look more appropriate, the more direct letter-for-letter equivalent gets used.

Texas is Техас, not Тэксыс.

[wildash.livejournal.com]

There're different ways to translate foreign names. This is "transliteration"

[colonelrabin.livejournal.com]

BTW, Russian Wikipedia cannot be considered a reliable source.

[24karrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was my guess and therefore why I didn't want to depend on it. :P

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

And neither can the English one :)

[colonelrabin.livejournal.com]

I use the German one. It is more or less OK. Germans are famous for their precision ;)

[silpol.livejournal.com]

even railway timetables? you have to try Finland ;)