[identity profile] tricours.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] learn_russian
I visited a church today with my class. It was a very nice church in a tiny village in the north of Sweden, and in front of the church, there was this thing. I don't recognize all the letters, is this an older version of Russian (I don't remember when they took away some letters) or is it just another kind of type?

The picture is kind of big so I've placed it behind a cut.


Date: 2007-05-28 04:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nyusha81.livejournal.com
i think it's Ukranian

Date: 2007-05-28 05:09 pm (UTC)
oryx_and_crake: (Default)
From: [personal profile] oryx_and_crake
Never mind, this text has nothing whatsoever to do with Ukrainian.

Date: 2007-05-28 05:00 pm (UTC)
oryx_and_crake: (Default)
From: [personal profile] oryx_and_crake
This is a pre-revolutionary Russian (before the orthography reform of 1918)

Date: 2007-05-28 05:13 pm (UTC)
oryx_and_crake: (Default)
From: [personal profile] oryx_and_crake
Yes, except for some fragments that the inscription-maker botched beyond recognition

Modern Russian:
Здесь лежит тело генерал-майора и кавалера Семена (? - not clear, his patronymic should be here but does not look like any name I know) Готовцова, который убит на поле сражения, бывшего против шведских войск 1809 года августа 7го числа при селении Цефер (?) Жития его было 40 лет 7 месяцев 7 (not clear but should be дней)

here lies the body of General Major Semyon (?) Gotovtsov, killed in battle against Swedish forces near the village of Zefer (?) His life was 40 years, 7 months and 7 days
(deleted comment)

Date: 2007-05-28 09:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scolar.livejournal.com
"Семёна Степанова сына Готовцева" should be translated as "Семёна Степановича Готовцева".

In modern Russian the middle name ("отчество") comes from the father'n first name by adding suffix "-ович" ("-евич") for males (there are some exceptions, though).

In old Russian the middle name also was coming from the father's first name, but the rules were diffirent: the possesive adjective had been formed from the father's name by adding suffix "-ов" ("-ев") and then word "сын" (son) had been used.

In our case: general's first name was "Семен", his hather's first name was "Степан", their last name was "Готовцев".

Date: 2007-05-29 09:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ruthus.livejournal.com
Простите, нашёл ошибку, отправил ещё один коммент... считайте, что это сообщение относится к моему посту ниже.

Date: 2007-05-29 09:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ruthus.livejournal.com
And to be just a bit more precise.

> "Семёна Степанова сына Готовцева" should be translated as "Семёна Степановича Готовцева".

I think the "Степанова сына" should be left as it is, because in 1809 the form Степанвич could only be the middle name of a noble person or a gentry member while Степанов сын was a form for a non-noble one. Thus we can say that Семен Готовцев was not a gentry member.

Date: 2007-05-29 10:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kehlen-crow.livejournal.com
wow, thanks for this, I'm Russian and till today I wasn't aware of this difference :)

Date: 2007-05-29 11:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ruthus.livejournal.com
Hmm... Here's a good example. In Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons" (1862) we can find:
— Душевно рад, - начал он, - и благодарен за доброе намерение посетить нас; надеюсь... позвольте узнать ваше имя и отчество?
Евгений Васильев, - отвечал Базаров ленивым, но мужественным голосом и, отвернув воротник балахона, показал Николаю Петровичу все свое лицо.
Длинное и худое, с широким лбом, кверху плоским, книзу заостренным носом, большими зеленоватыми глазами и висячими бакенбардами песочного цвету, оно оживлялось спокойной улыбкой и выражало самоуверенность и ум.
— Надеюсь, любезнейший Евгений Васильич, что вы не соскучитесь у нас, - продолжал Николай Петрович.

Here Bazarov, who later in the novel says "it's not proper to ought authority", emphasizes his non-noble social origin, and Nikolai Kirsanov addresses to him with a respective "-ич" form.

Date: 2007-05-29 05:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kehlen-crow.livejournal.com
Thank you indeed :D (I dimly remember this abstract puzzling me a little, when reading this book at school)

It is amazing actually how many things like this we miss when reading older books. Would they had editions with comments of stuff like that. Or may be there are?

Date: 2007-05-29 06:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ruthus.livejournal.com
I don't actually know, but I guess there should be books on literary criticism where that sort of aspects (and several translation difficulties, too) are explained.

Date: 2007-05-29 07:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kehlen-crow.livejournal.com
Yes, I think there are. Reading comments about such difficulties in one and the same book is a different matter though :)

Date: 2007-05-28 08:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ruthus.livejournal.com
Original picture:


Corrected:


Modern Russian:


Translation:


True that the text was copied from an unknown origin by a person who didn't know Russian. The translation is already given above but it has a minor mistake.

Date: 2007-05-29 08:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dumak.livejournal.com
Yes, you are absoulement sure...

Date: 2007-05-29 08:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] virado.livejournal.com
Yes, it's correct, I think.
I'm Russian (a little))) but it was a bit hard for me to undrstand. I think:

1. It was really before the реформа (pardon my English)))in 1918;
2. The very PHRASING is old-style too;
3. It seems that the encrypture was made by non-Russian - just to помянуть.

Date: 2007-05-29 09:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tir-sn.livejournal.com

He was a brave and risky man, according to

this record about a award:
http://george-orden.nm.ru/ordgrg4st16.html#4_759



Date: 2007-05-29 09:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] msado.livejournal.com
wow. my grand-grand-grand-grand-father

cool

Date: 2007-05-29 10:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kehlen-crow.livejournal.com
Really? Wow. what a small world :)

Date: 2007-05-29 10:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] msado.livejournal.com
yep, same surname definately

Date: 2007-05-28 05:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] basile.livejournal.com
There lies the body of general-major (two starred general), and cavalier Semion ... (?) (son of) Gotovtsev killed on battlefield against Swedish army 1809, 7 august nearby village Cefer (?!) at the age of 40 years 7 months 7 days

Sorry for my absent english. ;(

Date: 2007-05-28 05:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] basile.livejournal.com
"Here lies" of course.

Date: 2007-05-28 05:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kazak-ixbt.livejournal.com
...it is a lot of mistakes in an inscription

Date: 2007-05-28 05:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] basile.livejournal.com
It's very illiterate text in "russian orthography before 1918". But readable.

Date: 2007-05-28 05:07 pm (UTC)
oryx_and_crake: (Default)
From: [personal profile] oryx_and_crake
Yes... it looks like someone who did not know any Russian copied Russian writing and made some mistakes in process. That's probably how it happened: this man died and one of his relatives wrote the text but the man who made the inscription on the stone knew no Russian at all.

Date: 2007-05-28 07:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nadyezhda.livejournal.com
but beautiful calligraphy :) i could make out most of it if I let my eyes kind of glaze over a bit...

Date: 2007-05-28 05:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] basile.livejournal.com
May be regenerated from the old not-extanted tombstone. Or from photo. By the man never learned Russian.

Date: 2007-05-28 05:38 pm (UTC)

Date: 2007-05-28 05:16 pm (UTC)
alon_68: (Default)
From: [personal profile] alon_68
It's Russian script letters with some errors (possibly pointing that it was not native speaker who had curved the text) and of course containing the old letters abolished after the Communist revolution.

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