A great article about some aspects of Russian culture

[oryx_and_crake]

It explains, among other things, why each character in a Russian novel has, like, eight different names, and also emphasizes the important fact that Russian tsars and their wives were NOT called "little mother" and "little father".

http://www.thinkaloud.ru/feature/zhar-russians.pdf

Comments

[mithrilian.livejournal.com]

Little mother! (fainting...)

[oryx_and_crake]

What, you've never heard that? It's a very widespread belief. (People just copy things from each other without bothering to check.)

[mithrilian.livejournal.com]

I was lucky, I guess...

[trurle.livejournal.com]

but, when given to girls' names (Natashka, Mashka, Matr'oshka /emph. mine - T./ ), they invariably convey disrespect.
Женское имя Матрешка.

[mithrilian.livejournal.com]

It's a legit form of a female name, yes. The name has fallen out of use, partly because of the dolls' popularity, I suppose. Western parents don't name their daughters Mercedes now, either.

Matron - Матрона - Матрёна - Матрешка.

[oryx_and_crake]

It is a perfectly good diminutive of Матрёна.

[surkova.livejournal.com]

Therefore, the old expression Gosudar'.babushka (sovereignfather)

You must be kidding me :))

[mithrilian.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. God. Could it be a Word replacement service at work, or something?

For our non-Russian friends here: it's really gosudar-baTUshka. (lit. master-father)

[claire-chan.livejournal.com]

Nice article, making it easier than just picking up a Russian novel and finding out halfway through Stiva is the same as Stepan Arkadyevitch [for example].

[alexzzzzz.livejournal.com]

‘Mother’ is used in a similar manner, with a similar twist to the word matushka; and, what is
very quaint indeed, men sometimes use it in addressing each other, when the tone of the argument gets
somewhat hot: ‘Well, matushka, that's a bit of that!’ which stands for, ‘Well, sir, that's a bit far-fetched!’

Matushka? addressing a man???

[mithrilian.livejournal.com]

I can easily imagine just that in some Gogol's work, I think. Not in the XXth century, of course.

[whitest-owl.livejournal.com]

Aside from a couple of typos already mentioned in other comments, I would say it would be nice to add in the article Cyrillic representation of words and names.

[zhp.livejournal.com]

Try contacting the author, who wrote it in 1916 :)

[wordchick.livejournal.com]

Is господа и дамы a modern (or post-revolutionary) construction, then? And does anyone say братцы anymore? If not, how old-fashioned does it sound? I'm always curious about terms that are out of date- for instance, it was interesting to see that her examples of nicknames for Дмитрий were all based on Митя, rather than Дима.

[oryx_and_crake]

I think господа became quite popular in the post-перестройка era when товарищи went out of fashion and one needed some way to politely address a multitude of people. And yes, I think братцы is quite outdated by now. I'd say it was more or less replaced by ребята.

[ohar.livejournal.com]

Господа is not suitable for women, but товарищи is.