{"id":222,"date":"2008-12-24T10:09:15","date_gmt":"2008-12-24T14:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=215"},"modified":"2014-07-16T18:55:55","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T18:55:55","slug":"%d1%81-%d1%80%d0%be%d0%b6%d0%b4%d0%b5%d1%81%d1%82%d0%b2%d0%be%d0%bc-%d1%81-%d1%83%d1%80%d0%b0%d0%bb%d0%b0-merry-christmas-from-the-urals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/%d1%81-%d1%80%d0%be%d0%b6%d0%b4%d0%b5%d1%81%d1%82%d0%b2%d0%be%d0%bc-%d1%81-%d1%83%d1%80%d0%b0%d0%bb%d0%b0-merry-christmas-from-the-urals\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00ab\u0421 \u0420\u043e\u0436\u0434\u0435\u0441\u0442\u0432\u043e\u043c \u0441 \u0423\u0440\u0430\u043b\u0430!\u00bb [Merry Christmas from the Urals!]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00ab\u0421 \u0420\u043e\u0436\u0434\u0435\u0441\u0442\u0432\u043e<\/span>\u043c \u0441 \u0423\u0440\u0430<\/span>\u043b\u0430!\u00bb<\/em><\/strong> This Christmas card is old – from 2006, when I had just moved to Yekaterinburg, and there’s a mistake in it (guess where?). When I sent it out to friends and family that year it caused a sensation because of its… well, partly because of its portrait of Russian contemporary society, and its use of prepositions. One \u00ab\u0441\u00bb <\/strong>but after it two different cases – how come?<\/em><\/p>\n

As much as I today just want to wish all of you readers a wonderful, beautiful, cozy, warm, tender, loving Christmas together with family and friends,\u00a0I feel that I\u00a0should take a moment to explain the situation with the prepositions above. First of all, most I think are familiar with the preposition \u00abc\u00bb<\/strong> in the context of \u00ab\u0441 \u0447\u0435\u043c, \u0441 \u043a\u0435\u043c?\u00bb<\/strong> [with what, with whom?], meaning it is followed by instrumental case. The original way of congratulating someone with some holiday of sort was \u00ab\u043f\u043e\u0437\u0434\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043b\u044f<\/span>\u044e \u0442\u0435\u0431\u044f<\/span> \u0441 \u043f\u0440\u0430<\/span>\u0437\u0434\u043d\u0438\u043a\u043e\u043c\u00bb<\/strong> but soon half of the sentence was shortened, and that’s why we’re in Russian language today only left with \u00ab\u0421 \u0420\u043e\u0436\u0434\u0435\u0441\u0442\u0432\u043e<\/span>\u043c \u0425\u0440\u0438\u0441\u0442\u043e<\/span>\u0432\u044b\u043c!\u00bb<\/strong> [Merry Christmas! lit.<\/em> ‘with Christ’s birth’], but everyone knows that it’s all about congratulations anyway. But \u00ab<\/strong>\u0441<\/strong>\u00bb<\/strong> can also mean ‘from’<\/em>, if it is paired with a noun that needs \u00ab<\/strong>\u043d\u0430<\/strong>\u00bb<\/strong> to mean ‘on’<\/em>. Okay, so that may not help anyone. Let’s take a look at an example instead – \u00ab<\/strong>\u043d\u0430<\/strong>\u0437\u0430\u0432\u043e\u0434<\/strong>\u00bb<\/strong> is in this case accusative, meaning ‘to the factory’<\/em>, and that makes \u00ab<\/strong>\u043d\u0430<\/strong>\u0423\u0440\u0430\u043b<\/strong>\u00bb<\/strong> mean ‘to the Urals’<\/em>. But in a sentence like \u00ab<\/strong>\u043e\u043d<\/strong>\u0440\u0430\u0431\u043e<\/span>\u0442\u0430\u0435\u0442<\/strong>\u043d\u0430<\/strong>\u0437\u0430\u0432\u043e<\/span>\u0434\u0435<\/strong>\u00bb <\/strong>[he works at the factory] the same preposition needs to be followed by the locative case. The very same happens in \u00ab<\/strong>\u043e\u043d\u0430<\/strong>\u0436\u0438\u0432\u0451<\/span>\u0442<\/strong>\u043d\u0430<\/strong>\u0423\u0440\u0430<\/span>\u043b\u0435<\/strong>\u00bb<\/strong> [she lives in the Urals]. But when you want to leave the factory or the Urals, you have to use \u00ab<\/strong>\u0441<\/strong>\u00bb<\/strong> like you would normally use \u00ab<\/strong>\u0438\u0437<\/strong>\u00bb<\/strong> [for nouns that need \u00ab<\/strong>\u0432<\/strong>\u00bb<\/strong> in locative and accusative] with genitive – \u00ab<\/strong>\u043e\u043d<\/strong>\u0443\u0448\u0451<\/span>\u043b<\/strong>\u0434\u043e\u043c\u043e<\/span>\u0439<\/strong>\u0441<\/strong>\u0437\u0430\u0432\u043e<\/span>\u0434\u0430<\/strong>\u00bb<\/strong> [he went home from the factory] and \u00ab<\/strong>\u043e\u043d\u0430<\/strong>\u0443\u0435<\/span>\u0445\u0430\u043b\u0430<\/strong>\u0432<\/strong>\u041c\u043e\u0441\u043a\u0432\u0443<\/span><\/strong>\u0441<\/strong>\u0423\u0440\u0430<\/span>\u043b\u0430<\/strong>\u00bb<\/strong> [she went to Moscow from the Urals]. I hope that makes at least a little bit sense!<\/p>\n

The mistake I made, by the way, back in 2006 was that I wrote \u00ab<\/strong>\u0420\u043e\u0436\u0434\u0435\u0441\u0442\u0432\u043e<\/span><\/strong>\u00bb<\/strong> with a small \u00ab<\/strong>\u0440<\/strong>\u00bb<\/strong>, which is as much against the rules in Russian as is saying \u2018Merry christmas’<\/em> in English or \u2018God jul’<\/em> in Swedish. Which makes sense, since He, our Lord, is always written with a big L or a big H.<\/p>\n

I wish you all a wonderful holiday!<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u041d\u0410\u0421\u0422\u041e\u042f<\/span>\u0429\u0415\u0413\u041e \u0421\u0427\u0410<\/span>\u0421\u0422\u042c\u042f, \u0417\u0410\u041c\u0415\u0427\u0410<\/span>\u0422\u0415\u041b\u042c\u041d\u042b\u0425 \u0423\u0421\u041f\u0415<\/span>\u0425\u041e\u0412, \u041a\u0420\u0415<\/span>\u041f\u041a\u041e\u0413\u041e \u0417\u0414\u041e\u0420\u041e<\/span>\u0412\u042c\u042f, \u0421\u0418<\/span>\u041b\u042c\u041d\u041e\u0419 \u041b\u042e\u0411\u0412\u0418<\/span> \u0418 \u0412\u0415<\/span>\u0427\u041d\u041e\u0419 \u0414\u0420\u0423<\/span>\u0416\u0411\u042b \u0412\u0410\u041c!<\/strong><\/p>\n

[I WISH YOU REAL HAPPINESS, WONDERFUL SUCCESSES, STURDY HEALTH, STRONG LOVE AND ETERNAL FRIENDSHIP!]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

\u00ab\u0421 \u0420\u043e\u0436\u0434\u0435\u0441\u0442\u0432\u043e\u043c \u0441 \u0423\u0440\u0430\u043b\u0430!\u00bb This Christmas card is old – from 2006, when I had just moved to Yekaterinburg, and there’s a mistake in it (guess where?). When I sent it out to friends and family that year it caused a sensation because of its… well, partly because of its portrait of Russian contemporary society…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,913],"tags":[1031,1152,1313,1704],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-traditions","tag-christmas-in-russia","tag-merry-christmas","tag-some-russian-prepositions","tag-1704"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t