(no subject)

[diello.livejournal.com]

What is the rule for pronouncing г as a V-sound?
Example: что нового?

Comments

[kasak.livejournal.com]

Only when the -g- is found in a genitive adjectival construction or what used to be a genitive adjectival construction.

i.e.: any genitive adjectival masculine/neuter singular ending (-ого/-его)

And the most obvious, well, non-obvious expample would be "сегодня," which is a combination of "сей день" (this day) in the genitive.

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

Сей? I've never seen that word before. I thought the word for "This" is это.

[e-v-ches.livejournal.com]

муж. "сей", жен. "сия", множ. "сии"
This word is a little bit old nowadays, still I can't call it an archaism. It's just slightly stylish, not used in formal, official speech. But still used sometimes, solely ("сей доблестный муж" :)) and in conjuction with other words. See the example above: "сегодня" - "сего дня", literally translated as "this day", means that very thing - "today". Another example is "сейчас" - "сей час", literally translated as "this hour", but it usually means just "now".

[temcat.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure, but I think "час" could mean "time" in old Russian, as it does currently in Ukrainian.

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't сего дня technically of this day?

[thespinningone.livejournal.com]

absolutely so.

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

I love how they use the genitive case a lot. My book said the dative was used more often, but I thought it was the genitive. Hmm.

[thespinningone.livejournal.com]

i'm sorry but i didn't quite get you. what was your post an answer to?..))
is it that you just really like the genitive case being used? =))

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

I enjoy the genitive case being used. :-)

[thespinningone.livejournal.com]

got your point))
anyway, that's funny))
why do you like it? =))

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

Because it's the hardest case I've ever dealt with in any language (The plural, that is). It makes the language more of a challenge, and that's what I look for. :-D

[thespinningone.livejournal.com]

haha, probably you're right about the difficulty of this case.. i just never thought about it - being a native speaker))
anyway, Russian is a big challenge itself))

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

I enjoy Russian though. Speaking it and being understood is rewarding, though my grammar isn't always right. I speak worse than I write. I find vocabular very intimidating though...I always forget words I learned beforehand.

And how'd you learn English?

[thespinningone.livejournal.com]

i enjoy speaking foreign languages too ;)
and it's the same with my vocabulary - unfortunately, if you don't have enough practice, it's too easy to forget words. i do it all the time when i'm starting a new language =(

hm.. that's a difficult question because honestly - i don't learn English any more - i already speak it. =) i started when i was about four or five - and by the end of the school, i was pretty good at it already. now, to keep the level and to improve it, i just read books, watch movies, etc... go abroad... and i have a lot English native-speaking friends in Moscow - that's the best practice. so, i'd say, communication is the way i learn English now... =)

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

Wicked. How did you go about words? I try to read, but seeing all the words I don't know and having to pull out a dictionary discourages me. Everytime I use a dictionary, I pay attention to the other words rather than the ones I need to look up.

How hard was english?

[thespinningone.livejournal.com]

when i was a beginner, there was a really big temptation to read books sitting with a dictionary and translating every new word, even if it was an abridged book. you should resist it.)) because it really won't bring any result - you get very much distracted from the book itself. so i just passed those words - guessing the meaning from the context. and that's what i still do now - though of course there're much less new words now. can you imagine me sitting in a Metro train - with a new book by Nick Horby - and a dictionary? that's ridiculuos))

i can't say it was hard. better - it was very interesting, thanks to my teachers and school and my parents. it really isn't a difficult language. surely there were (and probably still are) pitfalls unknown to me - but it's always interesting to learn about them.

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

I don't think English is hard either.I think it's an ugly language, truthfully. I'm glad your experience was joyful though. :-D

I'll try your method. There are words in English I don't know, but I guess on context too.

[thespinningone.livejournal.com]

why do you think it's ugly? i like English. it's nice. it sounds nice. it's flexible. it's interesting.. though of course Russian is better ;P

ok))
you just stop yourself from looking in the dictionary all the time))

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

Thing is, I don't know enough vocab to guess from context all the time. If ever I need that bad to use a dictionary, to speeden things up, I use Yandeks or Rambler. :-)

Russian IS better. I love the accent and the soft, slavic sexyness that surrounds it.

[thespinningone.livejournal.com]

haha, surely i can't now imagine a person sitting with a paper dictionary anymore when they have constant internet acсess)) i myself always use either Lingvo.Yandex or multitran.ru.

wow, never looked at Russian from such a point of view)) probably you're right but i can't judge))

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

English doesn't have a "sound" to me. Being a native speaker I hardly notice what "accent" I have.

[thespinningone.livejournal.com]

same with me and Russian, surely..))

it's been a nice discussion! thanks! =)
hope you don't mind if i friend you.)

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

No problemo! I mind not. :-D

[katiroma.livejournal.com]

Sometimes in official writing one can find an abbreviation "с.г.", which follows a date (day and month). This abbreviation stands for "сего года" - "of this year".
Some more examples of stable usage of "сей/сия":
и по сей день - up till now
сию минуту - right now

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

That's really awesome. :-)

[colo-ri.livejournal.com]

:-) there are no rule, just on the end of the words with "ogo" itˇs sounds like "ovo"

[nemica.livejournal.com]

Good thing is if you pronounce 'ogo' like 'ogo' instead of 'ovo' it'll sound a little strange and funny but you'll be understood anyway.

[crculver.livejournal.com]

One really people still understand you is because Church Slavonic retains the original pronounciation as /g/, and Russians hear -ogo all the time at the liturgy.

[ekeme-ndiba.livejournal.com]

Church Slavonic retains the original pronounciation as /g/

In standard Church Slavonic it's even [γ], but nowadays it's often substituted with [g].

[diello.livejournal.com]

Спасибо большое! These were all very helpful. It doesn't explain it in my books.