Russian short names

[mixturaverborum.livejournal.com]

Why the short name of Vladimir is Vova/Volodia?
What is derivation rule?

10x
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Comments

[khathi.livejournal.com]

IIRC this is due to fact that diminutives are as old as name itself, and were derived not from the modern form, but from older one -- "Володимир".

[mixturaverborum.livejournal.com]

>from older one -- "Володимир".

What about Vova?

[whoozle.livejournal.com]

there are other short names, such as vovka or vovochka.

[hellga.livejournal.com]

And also Shurik. And Sanya. You just need to remember which pet names correspond to which name.

[must-die.livejournal.com]

+ "Vovan"

[khathi.livejournal.com]

It's the same but shorter. Just like in the stabdard model for diminutives: Alexander -- Sasha, Mikhail -- Misha, Ivan -- Vanya, Evgeniy -- Zhenya and so on...

[alon_68]

There are no common rules. You should simply remember the most popular forms. Vova is relatively new (beginning of the 20th century), while Volodya is more traditional form. There is even newer form - Vladik.

Compare Alexander -> Aleksasha -> Sasha -> Sashura -> Shura.
or Anna -> Anya -> Anyura -> Nyura
Forms in italic are obsolete now, so the sequence without them may look quite illogical

[oblomov-jerusal.livejournal.com]

Judging by xлаy vs. xолоy, extinct Володимир is native Russian form, and Владимир is Church Slavonic.

[steppinrazor.livejournal.com]

Is there any other diminutive for Mikhail aside from Misha and Mishka?

[alon_68]

Actually, no.

[moon-aka-sun.livejournal.com]

Not exactly diminutive (I'm not sure) but there's also Миха (Mikha).
The same may exsist for other names:
Алексей - Лёша - Лёха (Alexey - Lesha - Lekha)
Сергей - Серёжа - Серёга (Sergey - Serezha - Serega)
etc.

[definite.livejournal.com]

In fact, there is Миха, which rather slangish.

[viata.livejournal.com]

+ Вовчик (Vovchik). There're a lot of them, actually. And you are welcome to invent your own variants, though you have to feel the language to do that.

[khathi.livejournal.com]

Couldn't agree. I believe, here is the sign of one major phonetical change called "the falling of yers", when indifferent sonants fell silent, and "yers" -- hard and soft signs as they're called now-- lost their sound value.

[khathi.livejournal.com]

That are basic ones. You can apply various suffixes and get tons of others. ^_^ Mishka, for example, is already standard diminutive "Misha" with "-k-" suffix added.

[sourisson.livejournal.com]

Eh, actually, "the falling of yers" has nothing to do with this, and the previous commenter is right.

[platonicus.livejournal.com]

Alexandra -> Alexasha -> Sasha

[platonicus.livejournal.com]

This is not "the falling of yers", it's "polnoglasiye" vs "nepolnoglasiye"

[platonicus.livejournal.com]

Vladik usually stands for Vladislav, not Vladimir

[alon_68]

Maybe both. And considering that Vladimir is much more popular name, I guess 10% of Vladimirs are more in absolute numbers than 70% of Vladislavs :)

[temcat.livejournal.com]

Hey, don't forget about Волька!

[avysk]

My father calls his brother "Vovik".

[inuliss.livejournal.com]

Вольдемарчик
или Воланд в детстве
:)

[oryx_and_crake]

Please keep in mind that the working language of this community is English. If you post in Russian, you are expected to provide a translation. There are people here who has just started learning the language and they will be unable to benefit from your comments unless you make them in English.

[inuliss.livejournal.com]

ах, астаффьте, Тень Матушки Ориксиньи
Translation with detailed explanation: Please keep in mind that you won't learn russian without using it. However, people here who has just started learning language will motivated by real conversation rather than dull word-to-word translation.

[b0bb.livejournal.com]

Подписываюсь под каждым словом.
Put my signature under every word.

Oh, what the heck, let me repeat:

"Please keep in mind that you won't learn Russian without using it. However, people here who have just started learning Russian will be motivated by real conversation rather than dull word-to-word translation"

[inuliss.livejournal.com]

:)

PS.конечно, "will be" and capital RRR:)

[n-a-m-e.livejournal.com]

Volodia Putin, davay namutim...gi gi gi )
By the way, why speaks Bill Clinton, not William?