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learn_russianAll about Tatu
If you're reading this entry you probably already know that Tatu is a popular Russian pop duo who have caught on with both English and Russian versions of their songs. You've probably come to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
learn_russian hoping to answer some basic Russian-related questions about Tatu. Since this is not a Tatu community and Tatu has very little to do with the Russian language (not to mention there were five Tatu communities last time I checked...) I've offered to create this Tatu FAQ. I will not answer non-language related questions—Are they splitting up? Where can I find Tatu lyrics?—and would refer you to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
codetatu and true_to_tatu for such posts.
What is Tatu's really name? What's the difference between Tatu, t.A.T.u., and Taty? How do you pronounce Taty?
As you may already know, Russian uses a different alphabet than English, though many letters look very similar, which can be deceptive. The Russian letter "у" looks exactly like our letter "y" in most fonts (but you can see the difference in Courier New: y and у). The Russian letter у is pronounced like the vowel in school or cool and is usually written as simply u. Thus the natural way to write the Russian name Тату (note also the difference between Russian lowercase т and our t) is Tatu (or even Tattoo since that is the Russian word for Tatus).
Most people agree that it's hard to trademark the word "tattoo" since it's a common noun in English, so Tatu was chosen. However, this is also the name of an Australian pop group (if I'm not mistaken) so the Western version of the name is t.A.T.u though many people write "Tatu" and some write "Taty" though they usually don't know why others write it that way.
The Russian pronuncation is [tatu] (a=father) and the acceptable English pronuncation is [tætu] (æ=dad) but never [tæti:].
What does Tatu mean? Is it true that it means ________?
The short answer is: No, Tatu doesn't mean _______, it's not really a word.
The sarcastic answer is: It means "tattoo" you moron.
The real answer requires an understanding of Russian grammar (boring, I know, that's not what you came for, but I'll make it brief). In Russian та [ta] means "this [one]" and is femine and ту [tu] means "that [one]" and is also feminine. In modern spoken Russian you can leave out the verb—in fact the verb to be is almost always left out of the present tense.
Thus, any verb could be plugged into their name as such:
*It should be noted that the "girl" is implied because it is feminine. A more accurate translation would be "this one" and "that one." In fact, they're essentially the same word in a different case.
To capitalize on the supposed lesbianism of the duo, it's often translated as "this girl loves that girl" or "this girl f*cks that girl" but could just as easily mean "this girl stabs that girl" or "this girl hates that girl." Also, Russian verbs are only left out when it's obvious. Saying "tatu" would not obviously mean "This girl loves that girl" or anything else for that matter, so it's not a very likely construction.
What's the difference between "Julia" and "Yoolia" etc.? Why is Julia's name pronounced yoo-lee-uh? Is it Ja soshla s uma or Ya...?
As I mentioned, Russian uses a different alphabet. The letter й is pronounced like the 'y' in yes, but in many languages (German, Swedish, Italian, and the Jyutping romanization of Cantonese to name a few) write this sound with "j" while the letter "y" can represent a number of sounds in different languages (it represents the sound made by ü in German and Mandarin, the sound made by u in French). The letter ю is pronounced yoo but is often written simply ju. Thus Yoolia or Yuliya is a more phonetic way of writing her name for English speakers, but Julia or Julija is more recongized. Using the "j" to represent the "y" sound is considered by many to be more authentic. Besides "y" is reserved for the letter ы whose sound does not exist in English.
You may think you've learned enough to write the first part of Julia's name in Russian: Йу... but that's not actually correct. Russian has a special letter for the sound "yoo/ju" which is ю.
What does ______ mean from the song _______?
I've posted very similar questions oncodetatu and received good answers. There are a number of Russians on the Tatu communities who speak English fluently.
Where can I find Tatu lyrics [with translations?]
ТаТу: Музыка ru
Tatu.us en
Where can I learn the Russian alphabet?
Learn Russian
Also check the memories section of thelearn_languages community under Russian.
Where can I learn Russian?
This is a great place to get help with Russian, though if you want to learn it you might do a search on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk for "Russian" and "Learn Russian." Check out the reader reviews and ratings section.
PLEASE ALSO SEE THE COMMENTS ON THIS ENTRY AS I MAY HAVE MISSED SOMETHING. I'll try to update this periodically with new information, but the comments will be hte best place.
If you're reading this entry you probably already know that Tatu is a popular Russian pop duo who have caught on with both English and Russian versions of their songs. You've probably come to
learn_russian hoping to answer some basic Russian-related questions about Tatu. Since this is not a Tatu community and Tatu has very little to do with the Russian language (not to mention there were five Tatu communities last time I checked...) I've offered to create this Tatu FAQ. I will not answer non-language related questions—Are they splitting up? Where can I find Tatu lyrics?—and would refer you to codetatu and true_to_tatu for such posts. What is Tatu's really name? What's the difference between Tatu, t.A.T.u., and Taty? How do you pronounce Taty?
As you may already know, Russian uses a different alphabet than English, though many letters look very similar, which can be deceptive. The Russian letter "у" looks exactly like our letter "y" in most fonts (but you can see the difference in Courier New: y and у). The Russian letter у is pronounced like the vowel in school or cool and is usually written as simply u. Thus the natural way to write the Russian name Тату (note also the difference between Russian lowercase т and our t) is Tatu (or even Tattoo since that is the Russian word for Tatus).
Most people agree that it's hard to trademark the word "tattoo" since it's a common noun in English, so Tatu was chosen. However, this is also the name of an Australian pop group (if I'm not mistaken) so the Western version of the name is t.A.T.u though many people write "Tatu" and some write "Taty" though they usually don't know why others write it that way.
The Russian pronuncation is [tatu] (a=father) and the acceptable English pronuncation is [tætu] (æ=dad) but never [tæti:].
What does Tatu mean? Is it true that it means ________?
The short answer is: No, Tatu doesn't mean _______, it's not really a word.
The sarcastic answer is: It means "tattoo" you moron.
The real answer requires an understanding of Russian grammar (boring, I know, that's not what you came for, but I'll make it brief). In Russian та [ta] means "this [one]" and is femine and ту [tu] means "that [one]" and is also feminine. In modern spoken Russian you can leave out the verb—in fact the verb to be is almost always left out of the present tense.
Thus, any verb could be plugged into their name as such:
| та | verb | ту |
| this [girl]* | verb | that [girl]* |
*It should be noted that the "girl" is implied because it is feminine. A more accurate translation would be "this one" and "that one." In fact, they're essentially the same word in a different case.
To capitalize on the supposed lesbianism of the duo, it's often translated as "this girl loves that girl" or "this girl f*cks that girl" but could just as easily mean "this girl stabs that girl" or "this girl hates that girl." Also, Russian verbs are only left out when it's obvious. Saying "tatu" would not obviously mean "This girl loves that girl" or anything else for that matter, so it's not a very likely construction.
What's the difference between "Julia" and "Yoolia" etc.? Why is Julia's name pronounced yoo-lee-uh? Is it Ja soshla s uma or Ya...?
As I mentioned, Russian uses a different alphabet. The letter й is pronounced like the 'y' in yes, but in many languages (German, Swedish, Italian, and the Jyutping romanization of Cantonese to name a few) write this sound with "j" while the letter "y" can represent a number of sounds in different languages (it represents the sound made by ü in German and Mandarin, the sound made by u in French). The letter ю is pronounced yoo but is often written simply ju. Thus Yoolia or Yuliya is a more phonetic way of writing her name for English speakers, but Julia or Julija is more recongized. Using the "j" to represent the "y" sound is considered by many to be more authentic. Besides "y" is reserved for the letter ы whose sound does not exist in English.
You may think you've learned enough to write the first part of Julia's name in Russian: Йу... but that's not actually correct. Russian has a special letter for the sound "yoo/ju" which is ю.
What does ______ mean from the song _______?
I've posted very similar questions on
codetatu and received good answers. There are a number of Russians on the Tatu communities who speak English fluently.Where can I find Tatu lyrics [with translations?]
ТаТу: Музыка ru
Tatu.us en
Where can I learn the Russian alphabet?
Learn Russian
Also check the memories section of the
learn_languages community under Russian.Where can I learn Russian?
This is a great place to get help with Russian, though if you want to learn it you might do a search on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk for "Russian" and "Learn Russian." Check out the reader reviews and ratings section.
- If you have any more questions about Russian I'm sure I can speak for the moderators in saying that they'd be glad to have you post them here. The members are very very friendly and helpufl.
- If you have any more questions about Tatu I would try to answer them but your best bet is probably codetatu, true_to_tatu, Tatu's official website [English and Russian], or Tatu.us.
PLEASE ALSO SEE THE COMMENTS ON THIS ENTRY AS I MAY HAVE MISSED SOMETHING. I'll try to update this periodically with new information, but the comments will be hte best place.
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no subject
Date: 2003-07-28 06:31 pm (UTC)Just two things:
- You typoed "helpful".
- Romanizations of Tatu lyrics can be found at http://www.tatu.us - by clicking on "music" and then "lyrics". Good for English speakers who want to sing along but don't want to learn the alphabet.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-28 08:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-28 11:58 pm (UTC)Actually та means feminine "that [one]" and ту is the same pronoun but in accusative case (so it's sounds like an object). That's why it can imply "that girl loves that girl" or "that girl f*cks that girl" meaning but it can't mean "that girl is that girl".
ps: I wonder is Tatu that popular in US? :) That's funny :)
no subject
Date: 2003-07-29 03:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-14 10:58 am (UTC)no subject
no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 09:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-29 06:01 pm (UTC)it's fairly popular, but i still think that it's a MILLION times better in russian (konech'no zhe) :P.
*sighs* i ya tol'ko khotela nayti s kem-to po russkiy govorit'.. :P
rae
no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 09:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 01:47 pm (UTC)the latter part simply breaks down into "and i only wanted to find someone to talk to in russian" :)
xoxo
rae
trying to keep her russian svezhiy, yo :D
no subject
Date: 2003-07-31 04:49 am (UTC)We have better them they ....
no subject
Date: 2003-07-31 09:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-26 05:32 pm (UTC)Sounds very psychedelic for Russian ear...