(no subject)

[miconazole.livejournal.com]

Hi :)

A linguistic question - do you think the meaning of это is drifting toward "is" rather than "it" in colloquial speech? I'm not asking whether it's correct since it's clearly non-standard, but I'd find it interesting if that were the case because a similar thing happened with Chinese - Classical Chinese had no word for "is" and the word that currently means "is" formerly meant "this".

Also, a Russian friend told me yesterday that there is no native Russian word for sex, секс being a loanword from English. Haha, yes, happy April Fool's to you too, I said, but he swears it's true. So

1. Is секс really a loanword, or just a cognate?
2. If so, what is the native Russian word for sex... assuming there is one (doesn't matter if it's obsolete)

Thanks!

Comments

[berillii.livejournal.com]

Yes, секс is loanword. Native Russian word for sex? Ммм... Good question. Our term for it is "ебля", but this word means "fuck", and "трахаться" (means only "to have sex"). So, I don't know=)

[joliecanard.livejournal.com]

There's половой акт, but to my knowledge no one single native slavic word meaning sex.

Russian does still have a word for is - есть - so I don't think there's a need for это to come to mean is.

[lady-spring.livejournal.com]

Oh really good question.. :-D
It's very hard to answer. Maybe, "заниматься любовью". Or there is another variant, but it's old-fashioned and churh: прелюбодействовать, блудить (noun прелюбодействие, блуд)
I believe, in the past russian people never talked about sex, except when they were at a confession (is it "исповедь" in English?). So прелюбодействие and блуд have a negative shade, they mean sins.

PS Please correct me if I'm wrong with my poor English :)

[oryx_and_crake]

About это drifting toward "is" - that's clearly wrong. The mix-up evidently occurs because of sentences like Корова - это животное. Here it is actually a dash that replaces the missing verb "есть". You could rephrase this sentence completely omitting the word это: Корова - животное. The dash is still there and still substitutes for the missing "is" verb.

[oryx_and_crake]

About your other questions

1. Sex is really a loanword
2. I don't know of any native Russian words for sex except заниматься любовью which someone already mentioned, and a few obscene words.

[ilia-yasny.livejournal.com]

Everyone who commented before tryed to translate only one meaning of the word "sex" (sexual life, sexual intercourse). The other one ("gender") has Russian equivalent - "пол". But the word "секс" is never used in this meaning .

[padruka1988.livejournal.com]

Yeah, это has always meant "this" or... if you want to think about it that way... "this is". Это - ужасно. Это - такое искушение. So on, so on. That's an interesting question about секс, I wonder when it was introduced to Russian. Does anyone know?

[oryx_and_crake]

это has always meant "this" or... if you want to think about it that way... "this is". Это - ужасно. Это - такое искушение.
---
It does not. The verb "is" (есть) in modern Russian is omitted in most cases. E.g. you will not say "Моя мама есть врач" (my mother is a doctor), you will say "Моя мама врач". In both your examples "это" us not a substitute for "this is", it only means "this", and "is" is omitted. (By the way, you definitely don't need a dash in your first example and can do without it in the second one, too.)

[ceiteach.livejournal.com]

I think заниматься любовью is more modern and before we got секс it was just любить as in мы любили друг друга всю ночь. Am I wrong?

[aciel.livejournal.com]

Umm. answers.com says sex is Middle English from Latin sexus, but that just makes it a borrow-word from Latin. I mean, I suppose most words are ultimately borrow words, but you can't really credit "sex" to the Brits when they stole it from someone else. And it was hardly colloquial until the last hundred or so years, right?

[wire-shock.livejournal.com]

Это means "this" but the verb "be" is usually omitted in present tense.

[la-dy-ashley.livejournal.com]

+1
to begin with, English really doesn't have its own wird for sex, and neither do any other European languages, I believe. Al the variants have shades of meaning, like to make love, to fuck, to fornicate etc.

and concerning the other question, it's not true at all. In sentences like Thus is a cow (Это корова) the link-verb is omitted only in the present tense. Look at the future and past: Это будет/была корова. Nhe verb is here, and no pronoun drifting towards vers.

And besides, I wouldn't draw any parallels between Russian and Chinese, you know...

[vakhitov.livejournal.com]

I think this is a misuse of the verb любить and an euphemism.

[miconazole.livejournal.com]

Ha, not drawing parallels, just wondering if there is a natural tendency to use "is", as in, now that ест has fallen into disuse, if another word has become a substitute. Guess not :)

[miconazole.livejournal.com]

*есть. Sigh.

[la-dy-ashley.livejournal.com]

you guess right:) NOT:)

[ashalynd.livejournal.com]

As it has been said, there is no Russian word for "sex" in the meaning "sexual intercourse" that would not have been either obscene or medical. But there is a word for "sex" in the meaning "gender" (пол) and it is perfectly normal.

There is also a term for "sexual relationship"(половые сношения) but it is an official one. In everyday speech, you either use one of the euphemisms (спать вместе, заниматься кое-чем, жить как муж и жена и т.д.) or one of the obscenities (трахаться, ебаться) depending on who to and about whom you are speaking :)

[salexey.livejournal.com]

"Заниматься любовью" is a loan translation of "to make love".

[lady-spring.livejournal.com]

Догадываюсь.. ))) Есть лучше предложения? :)

[oryx_and_crake]

I have to remind that the working language of this community is English.

[lady-spring.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sorry.. I didn't know.

[towarysc.livejournal.com]

прелюбодействие is only for unfaithfulness, and блуд is for both unfaithfulness and antenuptial (is this a right word?) sex.

[lovimoment.livejournal.com]

Pre-marital. "Antenuptial" is not wrong but sounds very academic. "Pre-marital" is used more in discussions of religion/morality.

[salexey.livejournal.com]

The question was "2. If so, what is the native Russian word for sex.." :)

[towarysc.livejournal.com]

I thought we're talking just about religion/morality)) Thank you anyway.
At least прелюбодеяние and блуд have a similiar shade.

[lovimoment.livejournal.com]

Yes, I suppose I was not clear.

The thing is, "antenuptial" is a real English word (you can find it in dictionaries), and it's clear what it means, but I've never heard it before. In context you generally hear "pre-marital sex" and "prenuptial agreement."

[towarysc.livejournal.com]

"you can find it in dictionaries"
that was exactly what i did :)

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

Pre-marital very simply means "before marriage." It is used in the context of religious and moral discussions because whether it is immoral to have sex before marriage is a frequently-debated moral issue.