Russianin?

[barbarisotschka.livejournal.com]

Hi everybody!

I just came across the word "russianin" in a newspaper text. Since my dictionary doesn't know this word either, I thought I should ask you. :) To me, it seems like a mix of the words "russkij" and "rossiianin". Does "russianin" exists as well, if so, which connotations has it?
Thank you so much in advance! Spasibo vam bolshoe!

Barbara

Comments

[firebottle.livejournal.com]

"Русский" is one of Eastern Slavonic nations, "россиянин" is the citizen of Russia.

[kzot.livejournal.com]

i've never heard of this word
there are "русский" which is for "the one who's nationality is russian" and "россиянин" which stands for the citizen of Russian Federation

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Note that for English speakers, "nationality" means exactly "citizenship" (American is a nationality, you see.) What you wanted to say they would call "ethnicity."

[kzot.livejournal.com]

u know, i've been to the states and all the americans i talked to used the russian definition of the word "nationality"

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

I've been to the States more than ten times, and each and every time I had troubles explaining the difference in Russian and American concepts of nationality until I found out that using the word "ethnicity" would solve the problem entirely. Being asked about "русский/россиянин" business, I could not properly explain why not every Russian is a Russian (sounds weird anyway, eh? ;-)) until I started to put it the following way: each citizen of Russia is a россиянин, but not every россиянин is an ethnic Russian (русский). This they would get.

[kzot.livejournal.com]

each citizen of Russia is a россиянин, but not every россиянин is an ethnic Russian (русский)

yep, that was the way I did it
exactly the same way

[zveriozha.livejournal.com]

in UK British is citizenship but English, Welsh etc - nationalities.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Yes, because Englishmen, Welsh etc. are nations inside the United Kingdom; what about British citizens of Pakistani, West Indian, or, say, Ukrainian origin?

[zveriozha.livejournal.com]

If British citizen of India will consider himself Scottish, he'll say - "I am Scottish" if asked about his nationality. I talked to Scotch guys, they are like that. ;)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Oh sheesh..... kebab :)

[sithoid.livejournal.com]

Россиянин means Russian citizen, Русский - a person who is Russian by nationality. Maybe "russianin" was invented by that newspaper to match the word "Russia".

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Note that for English speakers, "nationality" means exactly "citizenship" (American is a nationality, you see.) What you wanted to say they would call "ethnicity."

[sithoid.livejournal.com]

Oh. Thanks.

[kali-kali.livejournal.com]

Not always. I often hear people distinguish between "nationality" and "citizenship". Personally, I distinguish between "nationality", "citizenship" and "ethnicity" fairly clearly, because for me, "nationality" is where the two come together. I am Latvian-Canadian by nationality, Canadian by citizenship and Latvian by ethnicity.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

There you go. The concept of "something-Russian" is almost absent in Russian, if we don't count the slightly dated forms like "русские армяне" (which in modern Russia are largely out of use, anyway.) Thus, Russian can be citizenship, nationality, and ethnicity. There's a lot of really complex situations related to the usage of русский/россиянин those days, especially since the breakup of the Soviet Union, when large chunks of the Russian nation found themselves residents of some other countries, while the large communities of ethnically non-Russian citizens of Russia are now not советские граждане but россияне. All this situation is still largely unsettled, both mentally and in the terms of language. The Russian language is yet to evolve a proper set of words reflecting the new realities, like ethnically Russian residents of Latvia, or ethnically Chinese citizens of Russia, or, say, ethnically Bashkir citizens of Russia living and working in Thailand -- what would you call'em anyway? :))

[kali-kali.livejournal.com]

Really? That would seem odd. In English, Russians in the Baltics are simply "Baltic Russians", and while I can't think of any words for ethnic Chinese citizens of Russia, there is one for ethnic Koreans (in Russian as well - Корё сарам.

As to an ethnically Bashkir citizen of Russia living and working in Thailand - I'd call them just that ;)

[spiritrc.livejournal.com]

You may think whatever you want, but the words "корё сарам" are in no way Russian. They may well be Korean written in Cyrillics, but definitely NOT Russian. Those words have no single Russian part in them.

[ojka.livejournal.com]

I don't know this word either.
Maybe they just made up this new word ;)

[salexey.livejournal.com]

I suppose it means "russian woman". I've seen this word recently.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Are you serious? :)

[salexey.livejournal.com]

Yes. The ending "-in" builds in German a female representative of a proffession, nationality etc. So it was borrowed. This was an explanation for the meaning of "russianin".

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Oh come on, are you kidding me? The original poster found this weird word, руссияне, in Sovyetskaya Rossiya newspaper. Are you seriously telling me it's a German word? :))))) Just FYI, a German would call a Russian woman "die Russe" or, if you want to use the -in suffix so very strongly, "die Russin" (which sounds more weird than "die Russe".)

[salexey.livejournal.com]

I'm not telling it is a German word and I#m not telling about die Russe/die Russin. I'm telling that Russianin could be Russian+in, therefore "Russian woman". Once I came across this word in this meaning. But if it was in a Russian newspaper I wash my hands :)

BTW, I live in Germany so i do know how Germans call Russians, men and women.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

But we obviously learn Russian here, not German, as the original poster points out (though after failing to emphasize that the word in question has been found in Russian press and, apparently, has been printed in Cyrillics, not in translit :)))

[salexey.livejournal.com]

Yup. But I thought - as almost everyone here - it was an English word %)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

So did I at first, to be honest :)

[voffk.livejournal.com]

can you tell us the context? what was the article about? How was the whole sentence built..

Russianin could be a very old (XV century) name for russian

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

>Russianin could be a very old (XV century) name for russian

May I ask, in what language? :)

[barbarisotschka.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your inputs, everybody! I appreciate it a lot! ITh actually had the same suspicion as voffk. That it could be some old name for russian. Or maybe the author wanted to hightlight his connection to the religious part of Russia, to "Holy Rus'" (and not to Rossiya).
The sentence in the mentioned newspaper (Sovetskaia Rossija from 1997): "Видимо, и нам, православным, не дождаться, зашиты от президента "всех руссиян" до тех пор, пока нас не изведут под корень и мы тоже не станем меньшинством в своей стране."
Again, I would be really grateful for any comments/ideas!
Barbara

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Oh, come on, in your initial post you've failed to mention that the text you came across this world in was in Russian :)
Said newspaper is a nationalist one, and strange usage of non-common words that sound "old" (even if they, in fact, do not exist per se) is quite common for them :)

[barbarisotschka.livejournal.com]

oh, sorry, I thought it would be clear that it was a russian text (this the "learn Russian community", after all). :)
So you think they made the word up? Interesting! :)

[vorobeika.livejournal.com]

I heard this word in some ironic context, pejorative form of "россиянин".

Excuse my English, hope I could explain the point.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

If you were answering to me, you'd better click the "reply" link on my comment, not on your original post -- it's only by chance I've seen this reply of yours.

It was not quite obvious that you were asking about a Russian word, as you did not write it in original Russian.

Yes, I am pretty sure they made it up.

[zveriozha.livejournal.com]

It's obvious THEY didn't make it up. Google it and you'll see. Guess it's some humorous ironic form of "россиянин". Tho of course it doesn't exist in normal Russian language.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

They, i.e. somebody. Or you still translate "oh my God, they killed Kenny" as "они убили Кенни"? :))) Of course I don't think that it was "Савраска" who made up the whole potsriotic lingo ;-)

[zveriozha.livejournal.com]

All words are made up by somebody, you know. ;)
Anyway this word isn't worth discussing, it didn't make its way into the common usage even as slang.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Obviously it didn't, and I hope it won't :)

[zveriozha.livejournal.com]

No, they didn't. Google it. It's just specially changed word to give it some ironic connotation. But I never heard it before. It isn't common at all even as slang.

[dekarmi.livejournal.com]

In the past there existed "Rusin", but never "Russianin".

[l-i-b.livejournal.com]

Oh, do not use it... lots of people in Russia hate this word.