{"id":7546,"date":"2015-03-16T07:03:09","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T07:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=7546"},"modified":"2018-08-15T18:42:54","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T18:42:54","slug":"loanwords-frequently-mispronounced-in-russian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/loanwords-frequently-mispronounced-in-russian\/","title":{"rendered":"Loanwords Frequently Mispronounced in Russian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Once Russian learners whose first language is a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Romance_languages\">Romance<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Germanic_languages\">Germanic<\/a> one get past the &#8220;this language is like nothing I know&#8221; stage, they may start noticing that Russian has acquired and assimilated scores of loanwords. Many navigation terms come from Dutch (<strong>\u043a\u0438\u043b\u044c<\/strong> &#8212; keel); art, from French (<strong>\u0431\u0430\u043b\u0435\u0301\u0442<\/strong> &#8212; ballet) and Italian (<strong>\u043f\u0438\u0430\u043d\u0438\u0301\u043d\u043e<\/strong> &#8212; piano); technology, from English (<strong>\u0444\u0430\u0439\u043b<\/strong> &#8212; a computer file); engineering, from German (<strong>\u0432\u0438\u043d\u0442<\/strong> &#8212; screw); science, from Greek and Latin (<strong>\u043c\u0430\u0442\u0435\u043c\u0430\u0301\u0442\u0438\u043a\u0430<\/strong> &#8212; mathematics; <strong>\u043c\u0435\u0434\u0438\u0446\u0438\u0301\u043d\u0430<\/strong> &#8212; medicine); and <a href=\"https:\/\/ru.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/%D0%A2%D1%8E%D1%80%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%BC%D1%8B_%D0%B2_%D1%80%D1%83%D1%81%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BC_%D1%8F%D0%B7%D1%8B%D0%BA%D0%B5\">multiple borrowings from Turkic languages<\/a>\u00a0(<strong>\u0430\u0440\u0431\u0443\u0301\u0437<\/strong> &#8212; watermelon). However, these borrowings were often pronounced differently from the original language or from similar borrowings into English. I will go over some features of loanwords that tend to cause the most confusion.<\/p>\n<h2>Greek<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #993366\"><b>words with \u03a7 (chi)<\/b><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Many loanwords from Greek have the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chi_(letter)\">letter\u00a0\u03a7<\/a>, which is normally transliterated into English as &#8220;ch.&#8221; Words with that combination tends to be pronounced with a &#8220;k&#8221; sound in English, like &#8220;technology&#8221; or &#8220;mechanism.&#8221; As I wrote in an <a title=\"Take Your Pronunciation to the Next Level \u2013 Part I\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/take-your-pronunciation-to-the-next-level-part-i\/\">earlier post<\/a>, the Russian pronunciation of these words tends to be closer to the Greek, with &#8220;ch&#8221; rendered as a &#8220;\u0445&#8221; &#8212; <strong>\u0442\u0435\u0445\u043d\u043e\u043b\u043e\u0301\u0433\u0438\u044f<\/strong>, <strong>\u043c\u0435\u0445\u0430\u043d\u0438\u0301\u0437\u043c<\/strong>, <strong>\u043c\u0435\u043b\u0430\u043d\u0445\u043e\u0301\u043b\u0438\u044f<\/strong>, etc. English speakers tend to substitute the \u0445 with a \u043a and say things like <del>\u043c\u0435\u043a\u0430\u043d\u0438\u0437\u043c<\/del>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #993366\"><strong>words with \u04e8 (theta)<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Another common letter in Greek borrowings in the theta, which is usually rendered into European languages as a &#8220;th&#8221;or &#8220;t,&#8221; depending on the language.\u00a0Russian used to have a letter corresponding to the theta &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fita\">fita<\/a>. It was pronounced the same as an &#8220;\u0444&#8221; and was reserved for words of Greek origin. The spelling reform of 1918 replaced all these instances with an \u0424 &#8211; cf. <strong>\u0424\u0451\u0434\u043e\u0440<\/strong> (<strong>\u0424\u0435\u043e\u0434\u043e\u0301\u0440<\/strong>). However, words borrowed via Latin were often transliterated using the &#8220;\u0442&#8221; &#8212; <strong>\u0442\u0435\u0430\u0301\u0442\u0440<\/strong>, <strong>\u0442\u0435\u043e\u0440\u0435\u0301\u043c\u0430<\/strong>. That means that there is no easy way to tell what a Russian equivalent of a Greek word with a theta will look like &#8212; for example, you have <strong>\u0440\u0438\u0442\u043c<\/strong> (rhythm)\u00a0but <strong>\u0440\u0438\u0301\u0444\u043c\u0430<\/strong> (rhyme).<\/p>\n<h2>Latin<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #993366\"><strong>&#8220;c&#8221; before &#8220;i&#8221; or &#8220;e&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Russian follows <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/New_Latin#Pronunciation\">Eastern New\u00a0Latin pronunciation<\/a> when &#8220;c&#8221; before i\/e was pronounced as &#8220;ts,&#8221; as opposed to the classical pronunciation &#8220;k.&#8221; So words that may be pronounced with an &#8220;s&#8221; sound in other languages are spelled and pronounced with a \u0446 in Russian. Examples include <strong>\u043a\u043e\u043d\u0446\u0435\u0301\u0440\u0442\u00a0<\/strong>(concert), <strong>\u0440\u0435\u0446\u0435\u0301\u043f\u0442<\/strong> (recipe\/prescription), and <strong>\u0446\u0435\u043d\u0442\u0440<\/strong> (centre\/er).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #993366\">feminine nouns ending in -tio<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For the same reason, Russian pronunciation of Latin words ending in &#8220;tio\/tionis&#8221; may be different from that in other languages that borrowed these words. Again, Russian uses the \u0446 sound, resulting in words like <strong>\u043a\u043e\u043d\u0441\u0442\u0438\u0442\u0443\u0301\u0446\u0438\u044f <\/strong>(constitution), <strong>\u0430\u0301\u043a\u0446\u0438\u044f <\/strong>(promotion\/market share\/planned event), and <strong>\u0438\u043d\u0444\u043b\u044f\u0301\u0446\u0438\u044f\u00a0<\/strong>(inflation).<\/p>\n<h2>Japanese<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><strong><span style=\"color: #993366\">words with \u3057 (shi\/\u0441\u0438)<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The most common system of transcribing Japanese in Russian is the <a href=\"https:\/\/ru.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/%D0%A1%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%B0_%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0\">Polivanov system<\/a>. According to that system, the Japanese Kana character\u00a0shi (\u3057) should be transliterated into Russian as \u0441\u0438 (si). For example, the Russian equivalents of bushido and shintoism are <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ru.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%BE\">\u0431\u0443\u0441\u0438\u0434\u043e\u0301<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ru.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%BC\">\u0441\u0438\u043d\u0442\u043e\u0438\u0301\u0437\u043c<\/a><\/strong>, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>However, when Russians who\u00a0did not know any Japanese first encountered words of Japanese origin in English, they\u00a0conveyed them using the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hepburn_romanization\">Hepburn system<\/a>, which calls for &#8220;shi.&#8221; As a result, Russian ended up with certain words that violate the convention for transliterating Japanese &#8212;\u00a0<strong>\u0441\u0443\u0301\u0448\u0438<\/strong> (sushi), <strong>\u0441\u0430\u0448\u0438\u0301\u043c\u0438<\/strong> (sashimi), <strong>\u0422\u043e\u0448\u0438\u0301\u0431\u0430<\/strong> (Toshiba) instead of the more consistent transliterations <strong>\u0441\u0443\u0301\u0441\u0438<\/strong>, <strong>\u0441\u0430\u0441\u0438\u0301\u043c\u0438<\/strong>, <strong>\u0422\u043e\u0441\u0438\u0301\u0431\u0430<\/strong><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #993366\"><strong>words with \u3058 (ji\/\u0434\u0437\u0438)<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A\u00a0similar\u00a0discrepancy arises\u00a0for\u00a0Japanese borrowings with the\u00a0ji\/\u0434\u0437\u0438 sound. Traditionally, they would be transliterated using \u0434\u0437\u0438 in Russian, so Mount Fuji is <strong>\u0424\u0443\u0434\u0437\u0438\u044f\u0301\u043c\u0430<\/strong>. However, because many Russians first encounter\u00a0Japanese words via English, they erroneously adopt the English transliteration (<del>\u0424\u0443\u0434\u0436\u0438\u044f\u043c\u0430<\/del>).<\/p>\n<p>Are there any Russian words that you recognize but are never sure how to pronounce? Do you know of any trick that helps you remember their pronunciation?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once Russian learners whose first language is a Romance or Germanic one get past the &#8220;this language is like nothing I know&#8221; stage, they may start noticing that Russian has acquired and assimilated scores of loanwords. Many navigation terms come from Dutch (\u043a\u0438\u043b\u044c &#8212; keel); art, from French (\u0431\u0430\u043b\u0435\u0301\u0442 &#8212; ballet) and Italian (\u043f\u0438\u0430\u043d\u0438\u0301\u043d\u043e &#8212&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/loanwords-frequently-mispronounced-in-russian\/\">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":[7828],"tags":[269721,507356],"class_list":["post-7546","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-russian-for-beginners","tag-loanwords","tag-pronunciation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7546","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=7546"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11068,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7546\/revisions\/11068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}