(no subject)

[pittoresque.livejournal.com]

Does anyone here know (where I can find) the etymology of the Russian чуть-чуть? I'm wondering because I speak Vietnamese and there we have chút-chút, which means and is pronounced the same. 

Thanks.

Сам; СамИ; СамЫЕ; СамЫ

[freiburg234.livejournal.com]

Dear Community,

I would be grateful if you could clarify an issue for me.

1. СамЫ дорогие вещи мира

2.  СамЫЕ дорогие вещи мира

Which one of the above is correct?

Google lists at least 292 000 instances of  "самЫ" and 53 800 000 instances of самЫЕ, so I'm inclined to view the former as non-standard.

Also, multitran lists "самЫ" as the short plural form of "сам" (Краткая форма множественного числа).

However, I think this should be "самИ". Is that correct?

Lastly, does "самЫ"  have any right to an independent existence, or is it just an error that keeps getting repeated?

Thank you for your input.

ФБ 

UPDATE: 1. "СамЫ" is not standard Russian and its use is not recommended in Russian. 2. multitran.ru has been advised of their error.

Using search engines to check spelling: a caveat

[oryx_and_crake]

(inspired by this discussion)

Using a web search engine to determine the right spelling of some word is a good idea, if you use it wisely. Even the spelling that generates 40 000 hits may still be a wrong one. And here's why.

1. The bulk of web-pages returned by the search engine may be not in Russian at all, but in Byelorussian or Ukrainian, and you may not be able to tell the difference. (Try to yandex "карова".)

2. You'd be amazed but a lot of native speakers cannot spell correctly in their own language. That's why "база даных" will return about 40 000 hits which does not make this spelling legitimate, not a one little bit. Think native English speakers and words like "there/they're/their".

3. The misspelling may be deliberate, see here, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udaff. Widespread Runet (Russian Internet) slang uses deliberate misspelling in a certain way (e.g. words like зайчик and котик become зайчег and котег, привет becomes превед etc.)

4. Typos happen. There are about 140 million people in Russia; if a few million people type the same relatively short and very commonly used word (like самый/самых that was discussed recently) there is a good probability that a few thousands of them will make the same typo. Think "teh" or "pwned".

Всё все

[zarxos.livejournal.com]

Is there a difference between всё and все?

I know ё sometimes is written as e, so that's why I'm slightly confused.

Спасибо!