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[surfdiva.livejournal.com]

hey! My name is Megan and Im new to the community! Iam trying to learn russian. Does anyone know hoe to spell my name Megan. I just want to make sure that I got it right! Thankx!<3

Comments

[corriel.livejournal.com]

Welcome. I'd spell it like Меган.

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Why not Мэган, instead?

[surfdiva.livejournal.com]

ooh! Thankx :D

[corriel.livejournal.com]

Because I'd spell it Меган, but Мэган is fine as well. Just a question of personal preferences (with English I like to use "э" mostly to transcript the "a" as in "cat").

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

I know that it's almost impossible to represent the sounds perfectly, but Мэган is as close as you can get - it's nearly perfect. Меган introduces a soft consonant into the mix, so it would be pronounced more like "MYEH-gan," since the first syllable of the name is stressed.

I think that the Russian "а" and "э" fit the "a" in cat equally well (which is to say, badly), so I would choose "а" just because it's more intuitive. :)

[corriel.livejournal.com]

It's just up to people. For me it's intuitive to use "е" and not "э" (though phonetically "е" is closer, as u wrote). I have an old Russian book, somewhere in the house, about how to transcript first and last names coming from other languages, I should try to find it, it's pretty interesting.

[yers.livejournal.com]

Modern conventions seem to require it to be Меган, and the "a" in cat to be э.
I agree with you that э is closer, and as for the a in cat sound, I think the closest match is neither а nor е, but я.
But... the trouble I've had with foreign authorities because my name was Romanised differently in different documents, made me firmly believe that transcription conventions are a good thing and should always be followed. :)

Here's a great link I've just found: Транскрипция английских собственных имен (http://www.philosoft.ru/perevod/tr01_4.htm#I-41)

[corriel.livejournal.com]

I usually always prefer to stick to transcription conventions too. Thanks for this very good link!

[avva.livejournal.com]

In general, the Russian language shuns э after hard consonants. It can be used and is often used on foreign words and names, but still, the language "prefers" to change that э into an е as soon as possible, and to change the preceding hard consonant into a soft one. In the 19th century, this was a universal rule, i.e. hard consonants+э never survived and eventually transformed into soft consonants+е. In Modern Russian, there're many words where the э is firmly entrenched, but still, the general tendency towards softening the э into е remains.

[corriel.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this precision, that's what I kinda knew but didn't know how to explain it at all! :o)

[surfdiva.livejournal.com]

thanks! Oh yay I was right! :D