(no subject)

[serialcondition.livejournal.com]

I'm reading a novel and came across

ковало "чего-то железного"

is the phrase a reference to something? lots of variations when I search for it online

thanks,
t.

vocabulary expansion through mastery of Russian root words: кислород

[faustin.livejournal.com]

Today I noticed an interesting word on a box of laundry soap (bearing the non-Russian name "Dosia"): кислород. (This soap features "aktivniy oxygen"... some fancy soap!)

I understood almost immediately: кисло-, I already knew, means "sour", as in кисломолочний продукты, "sour milk" products.

And I've seen род hundreds of times on forms I fill out. It means sex (I always answer, "mushy").

My momma didn't raise no slow-herbert, you keep in mind. I figured out the same day that кислород clearly means, "sour sex".

(I'm still working on how this serves to endorse the product as a laundry soap.)

And I'll help you with some further vocabulary expansion, building on these same roots. There's водарод --- "water sex", and углерод --- I'm pretty sure an угле is derived from "corner", so this very likely means "corner sex". Since there are many kinds of corner ("I was backed into a corner"; "on the corner of the coffee table"; "hanging out on the street corner"; "the county corner taking care of their dead bodies") you can see that this "corner sex" word is rich with possible connotative flexibility.

* * * * * * * *

Since we're obviously in scholarly mode here, I'll submit this linguistic work from MGU:( smoking image behind cut )

* * * * * * * *

Happy ...er, добрий... April Fool's Day, horoshee ludee. It may be the 2nd where I'm posting from in siberia, but it's still April 1 in Moscow and the other places who are behind us. If you can teach me a greeting for April 1st, that would be nice. And otherwise correct my mistakes, of course. :-)

(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!

Г pronounced В - is there a rule, or do I just memorize?

[rjray.livejournal.com]

(A brief background/intro: I'm studying Russian though weekly tutoring from a local person who is a former professor of languages, and a native Russian speaker. So my learning is probably slower on a week-by-week basis than those of you who are taking college courses or otherwise having class-time more than just two hours per week.)

I was wondering if there is a grammatical rule that governs when Г is pronounced as if it were В. For example, the word "его", or in the phrase, "Что нового". I have run into a few other words in lessons, but these are the only two I can recall at the moment. Is there a rule (akin to choosing when certain letters are silent in English), or is this just a case of "memorize these special cases"?

Спасибо,
Randy

(no subject)

[marta-mb.livejournal.com]

Dear lovers and learners of Russian, here is such an surprisingly wonderful poem that I would like you to take a look at it. It's by Aleksandr Blok. Enjoy:

( Read more... )

(no subject)

[shereshe.livejournal.com]

I am doing a brief talk on Baba Yaga, comments would be helpful, thanks! I know there is a lot more to be said about her, if anyone has any ideas I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Сегодя Я буду с вами разговаривать о Бабе Яге. Она один из самых важных персонажей в русской литературе, точнее в сказках. Она живёт в глубоком, тёмном лесу в избушке на курых ножках. Вокруг избы стоят колья на которые наколоты человеческие черепа. В отличие от американских ведьм, Баба Яга летает в ступе, ворует маленьких детей для своей похлёбки. Поэтому детей в России часто пугают "Если ты будешь не послушной, то тебя украдёт Баба Яга." Я попытаюсь вам обьяснить как она выглядить. Но если вы можете представить себе ведьму-это она, только очень старая. У неё белые волосы, она горбатая и всегда одета в длинное платье с странными узорами. Если подумать, то она не всегда негативный персонаж. Иногда она делает хорошие дела, но это очень редко. В основном она пытается сделать что-нибудь каверзное.