Pronounciation

[TimM]

'Moving house' makes perfect sense to me

Of course it would.

Not legally, we don't!!! (Yes, I know what you meant; but I couldn't resist the temptation....)

I hear now they use human volunteers to be the "fox".  Of course, said human is not killed when the chase ends.

[Rodney_G.]

Rodney, Actually the quote was been attributed to George Bernard Shaw, but there is no proof in his writings.

"Sometimes the inquirer asks, 'Was it Wilde or Shaw?’ The answer appears to be: both. In The Canterville Ghost (1887), Wilde wrote: ‘We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language’.  However, the 1951 Treasury of Humorous Quotations (Esar & Bentley) quotes Shaw as saying: ‘England and America are two countries separated by the same language’, but without giving a source.  The quote had earlier been attributed to Shaw in Reader’s Digest (November 1942).

Much the same idea occurred to Bertrand Russell (Saturday Evening Post, 3 June 1944): ‘It is a misfortune for Anglo-American friendship that the two countries are supposed to have a common language’, and in a radio talk prepared by Dylan Thomas shortly before his death (and published after it in The Listener, April 1954) - European writers and scholars in America were, he said, ‘up against the barrier of a common language’.

Inevitably this sort of dubious attribution has also been seen: ‘Winston Churchill said our two countries were divided by a common language’ (The Times, 26 January 1987; The European, 22 November 1991.) "

Like a lot of quotes, this has passed into urban legend.

I believe I stand corrected, Alixz

[Kalafrana]

'I hear now they use human volunteers to be the "fox".'

This is called drag hunting. A fit young man drags a blanket soaked in fox urine round a route which the hounds then follow. But if the hounds starty pursuing a genuine fox it is quite legal to hunt it.

Ann

[historyfan]

And people *volunteer* for that "privilege"? Hm.

Sorry...way, way off topic, but I'm curious!

[Forum Admin]

and this has what? to do with Russian pronunciation??

[TimM]

And people *volunteer* for that "privilege"? Hm.

Sorry...way, way off topic, but I'm curious!

They figure its more humane.

[RomaFan96]

I only found out the proper way to announce Anastasia after watching synchronised swimming. I remember hearing that the Russian duet of Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova always had their first names pronounced as Ana-sta-SI-a. Again, that sounds more Russian than the western pronunciation of Ana-stay-zhar or Ana-star-zyhar (the latter is more American).

Despite my British ways, I think is important to pronounce someone's name the way they themselves say it out of respect to them. It takes a while to get accustomed to the Russian stresses, but once you get it you won't forget it. It also helps when it comes to learning foreign languages. I am currently teaching myself Russian for when I go and it makes it easier to get your head around the phonetics.

T x

[RomaFan96]

Once again, for anyone who still struggles with saying the names I highly recommend Romanovy, as you will learn it better if you hear a native Russian saying the words.

I always used to think Ivan Trupp was said I-van Tr-upp (as in up) but it's actually said E-van Tr-oop (like troop).

You learn something new everyday!

[Rodney_G.]

What about 'godoruk' ? I have more of a question about syllable stress than actual sound.

[RomaFan96]

This site http://www.russianforfree.com/ is great for anyone who wants to learn Russian from scratch. If you devote an hour a day by the end of the week you'll well versed in simple Russian sentences. It also teaches you how to read the Cyrillic alphabet. Once you start learning the language, Russian pronunciations become much easier to get your heard around.

Tara

[JamesAPrattIII]

I have some other pronounciations that might be usefull:
Ekaterinburg Ye-ka-tyer-in-boorg from LDR

Mar Minister V.A. Sukhomlikov Sokh-om-leen-ov
LTC E.I. Miasoedov Myas-o-yed-ov  both from "The Foe Within"

Semenovsky Semionovsky Russias Military way to the west 2nd most senior guards regiment in the Rusisia Imperial army after the Preobrazhensky

[Превед]

Good audio source for pronunciations in multiple languages: Forvo.

[JamesAPrattIII]

Flipping through the book Rasputin Satyr, Saint or Satan they have prounciations of Russian words:

Borzoi bor-zoi Russian wolfhound
djipsayn gip-si-yi female gypsey
djizan dur-oc life
durak dur-oc fool
isba eez-ba peasant hut
ivrodivye ee-oo-ro-deev-ya holy idiot
muzhik moo-zheek peasant
salazki sa-laz-kee horsedrawn sled
stranik stra-neek religious mendicant
svinya sveen-ya swine
Dvina Dveena name of a river

French
Poilu Pwahl-you French infantryman

[Превед]

Borzoi bor-zoi Russian wolfhound
djipsayn gip-si-yi female gypsey
djizan dur-oc life
durak dur-oc fool
isba eez-ba peasant hut
ivrodivye ee-oo-ro-deev-ya holy idiot
muzhik moo-zheek peasant
salazki sa-laz-kee horsedrawn sled
stranik stra-neek religious mendicant
svinya sveen-ya swine
Dvina Dveena name of a river

These pronunciations are nearly worthless as long as they don't indicate stress, which is very irregular in Russian and influences how vowels are pronounced too. (Ref. the Rómanov vs. Ramánaff discussion.) A better method nowadays is looking the word up in Google Translate and use the audio feature to listen to the pronunciation there: E.g. https://translate.google.no/#en/ru/holy%20fool E.g. юрóдивый > [jʉˈrodʲɪvɨj]

French
Poilu Pwahl-you French infantryman

"Pwahl-you" for poilu indicates Russian-style palatalisation (poillou / поаю) and is thus wong. It could be rendered "pwahl-ew" to English eyes and ears, but more accurate is the international standard phonetic transscription [pwa.ly]. Or just use Forvo: http://forvo.com/search/poilu/