I hate to ask why, but why not?

[zhirafov-nyet.livejournal.com]

I know what the Russian spelling rules are, and I know where and when to use them, but I don't know why they are and whence they came. Could someone please explain the reasoning behind them (if it's possible)?

Cross-posted to a couple of other places.

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

It might help if you understand the ethymology of a particular word. There is a certain logic in it. Try this: http://speakrus.ru/uspens/

[ex-roumor.livejournal.com]

yes i know what you feel. some rules are just stupid. thats why we learn grammar at school for 10-11 years

[zhp.livejournal.com]

Russian spelling is based on a combination of three main principles: phonetic, morphological and historical. The phonetic principle states that words are spelled the way they sound. this principle works in the case of prefixes ending in -с /-з: вос-питание/ воз-раст; рас-стояние/ раз-вод, etc. The morphological principle is the most important principle of the Russian orthography. It basically states that the same morpheme (root, prefix, suffix, ending) should be spelled the same way, even if it doesn't always sound quite the same: in the word вода, for example, the first vowel is unstressed and sounds like something in-between "а" and "о", but we write it this way because in words with the same root where this vowel is stressed we have "о": водный. The historical principle is the one that is most often works in English: a certan word is spelled the way it is spelled just because it was alway spelled that way. In Russian, unstressed vowels in such words as собака and ватрушка,for example, cannot be "checked" for the vowel sound by finding words in which this vowel is stressed because such words do not exist, the words are spelled this way by tradition.

Re. your icon

[vargtimmen.livejournal.com]

Thru is actually technically valid. There was this awesome dude named Noah Webster (you may have heard of his dictionary) who was all about the spelling reforms you're talking about now for Russian, and he thought they were important to differentiate the newly united states from their mother country, sort of a declaration of independence from the Queen's English. His proposal included:

1. "-our" to "-or"
2. "-re" to "-er"
3. dropping final "k" in "publick," etc.
4. changing "-ence" to "-ense" in "defence," etc.
5. Do not use a double consonant in an unstressed suffix:
6. Use a single l in inflected forms such as traveled (not travelled)
7. use "-or" for "-er" where done so in Latin, e.g. "instructor," "visitor"
7. drop final (useless) "e" to give: ax, determin, definit, infinit, envelop, medicin, opposit, famin
8. use single "f" at end of words like "pontif," "plaintif"
9. change "-ise" to "-ize" wherever this can be traced back to Latin and Greek (where a "z"/zeta *was* used)

Some of his alternate words stuck, some of them survive in mostly advertising (lite, nite, thru) as valid alternative spellings, and some were just laughed at. I'm all for making people pronounce and spell stuff correctly, but that's just getting too nitpicky.

[sylviabarrett.livejournal.com]

If you want to understand it it's a good idea to read some books on the history of the language. Many things become very clear if you know how everything started and evolved.

Russian Spelling Rules

[freiburg234.livejournal.com]

As far as I can discern, definitive rules of grammar (including spelling and punctuation) in Russian are regulated by the Government via the Institute of Russian Language, attached to the Russian Academy of Sciences.

http://www.ruslang.ru/

In this regard, D. E'. Rozental et. al. have produced the following, evidently, Government backed text that both lays out the rules and, to some extent, explains the logic behind them.

http://www.evartist.narod.ru/text1/20.htm

It seems that "Rozental" is *the* authoritative reference source for matters pertaining to Russian orthography. To my knowledge, there's also a schoolbook "Rozental" that is pretty much standard issue.

Concerning phonetics, syntax, morphology, etc. the Institute of Russian Language refers to this site:

http://www.rusgram.narod.ru/