{"id":7077,"date":"2014-11-10T07:44:09","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T07:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=7077"},"modified":"2018-08-16T13:53:03","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T13:53:03","slug":"why-you-shouldnt-rely-on-other-slavic-languages-to-understand-russian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/why-you-shouldnt-rely-on-other-slavic-languages-to-understand-russian\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Shouldn’t Rely On Other Slavic Languages to Understand Russian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russian is a Slavic language, so it shares some of its grammar and vocabulary with other languages from that family. Much as we like to rely on similarities among languages to expand our knowledge, I would like to warn you against using your knowledge of Russian to communicate with speakers of other Slavic languages — and vice versa!<\/p>\n

I do not actually speak any other Slavic languages, so I will rely on other sources. Feel free to add\/correct any examples.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian<\/h2>\n

Ukrainian (\u0443\u043a\u0440\u0430\u0438<\/span>\u043d\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u044f\u0437\u044b<\/span>\u043a<\/strong> — mind the word stress) is an East Slavic language<\/a> just like Russian, meaning its latest shared ancestor<\/a> with Russian is relatively recent. As a result, there is a lot of shared vocabulary and grammar. However, many words have taken on completely different meanings, so you should not rely on the one to converse in the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Russian<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nUkrainian<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u0434\u0440\u0443\u0433\u043e\u0439 – other<\/td>\n\u0434\u0440\u0443\u0433\u0438\u0439 – second<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u043c\u0435\u0441\u0442\u043e – place<\/td>\n\u043c\u0456\u0441\u0442\u043e – city<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u043d\u0435\u0434\u0435\u043b\u044f – week<\/td>\n\u043d\u0435\u0434\u0456\u043b\u044f – Sunday<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u0440\u043e\u0434\u0438\u043d\u0430 – homeland<\/td>\n\u0440\u043e\u0434\u0438\u043d\u0430 – family<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u0447\u0430\u0441 – hour<\/td>\n\u0447\u0430\u0441 – time<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

(source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Polish<\/h2>\n

Polish (\u043f\u043e\u043b\u044c\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u044f\u0437\u044b\u043a<\/strong>) is a West Slavic<\/a> language, so it is not as closely related to Russian as Ukrainian. A few\u00a0German loan words came to Russian via Polish. For example, the word for a market<\/a>, \u0440\u044b\u043d\u043e\u043a, comes from the Polish rynek, which comes from the German Ring.<\/p>\n

The two\u00a0languages have diverged considerably from their shared roots.\u00a0If you are an English speaker, you may also want to be mindful of Polish loan words in English — do not use them to decipher Russian words. For instance, if you want some pierogi<\/a> in Russia, you should ask for \u043f\u0435\u043b\u044c\u043c\u0435\u043d\u0438<\/strong> for the meat kind or \u0432\u0430\u0440\u0435\u043d\u0438\u043a\u0438<\/strong> for the cheese\/vegetable\/fruit kind. Asking for \u043f\u0438\u0440\u043e\u0433<\/strong> will get you a piece of pie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Russian<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nPolish<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u043c\u0438\u043b\u043e\u0441\u0442\u044c – mercy<\/td>\nmi\u0142o\u015b\u0107 – love<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u043d\u0430\u0433\u043b\u044b\u0439- fresh, disrespectful<\/td>\nnag\u0142y \u2013 sudden<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u043f\u0438\u0440\u043e\u0433\u0438 – pies<\/td>\npierogi – dumplings<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u0443\u0440\u043e\u0434 \u2013 freak, ugly person<\/td>\nuroda – beauty<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u0432\u043e\u043d\u044c – stench<\/td>\nwo\u0144 \u2013 smell, aroma<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

(source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Bulgarian<\/h2>\n

Bulgarian (\u0431\u043e\u043b\u0433\u0430\u0440\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u044f\u0437\u044b\u043a<\/strong>) is a South Slavic language<\/a>. It is relatively accessible for speakers of Russian as it uses the same Cyrillic alphabet. However, this seeming similarity may trick you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Russian<\/strong><\/td>\nBulgarian<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u0433\u043e\u0440\u0430 – mountain<\/td>\n\u0433\u043e\u0440\u0430 – forest<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u043d\u0430\u043f\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043e \u2013 to the right<\/td>\n\u043d\u0430\u043f\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043e \u2013 straight ahead<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u0434\u044b\u043d\u044f – melon<\/td>\n\u0434\u0438\u043d\u044f – watermelon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u044f\u0433\u043e\u0434\u0430 \u2013 berry<\/td>\n\u044f\u0433\u043e\u0434\u0430 – strawberry<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u043c\u0430\u0439\u043a\u0430 \u2013 tank top, cami<\/td>\n\u043c\u0430\u0439\u043a\u0430 – mother<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

(Source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Czech<\/h2>\n

Czech is another West Slavic<\/a> language, and some of the words mean the opposite of their Russian cognates!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Russian<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nCzech<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u0433\u0440\u0430\u0434, \u0433\u043e\u0440\u043e\u0434 \u2013 city<\/td>\nhrad – castle<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u043e\u0432\u043e\u0449\u0438 \u2013 vegetables<\/td>\novoce – fruit<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u043f\u043e\u0437\u043e\u0440 \u2013 shame<\/td>\npozor – attention<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u0445\u0438\u0442\u0440\u044b\u0439 \u2013 cunning<\/td>\nchytr\u00fd – intelligent<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u0437\u043b\u043e\u0434\u0435\u0439 – villain<\/td>\nzlod\u011bj – thief<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

(Source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Have you had any confusing experiences with Slavic languages? Do you know any other Slavic languages?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russian is a Slavic language, so it shares some of its grammar and vocabulary with other languages from that family. Much as we like to rely on similarities among languages to expand our knowledge, I would like to warn you against using your knowledge of Russian to communicate with speakers of other Slavic languages —…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[60775],"class_list":["post-7077","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-language","tag-slavic-languages"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7077"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11128,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7077\/revisions\/11128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}