Does my fiancee need an apostille and is it Kyiv or Kiev?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Maybe from the German? Moscow is Moskau in German, I believe.

sounds good to me. Why not call a Russian city by a German name? No one will mind, except maybe on May 9.

Donetsk never has had name Izum. Before 1924 it was called Uzovka (Юзовка) after its founder John James Hughes. From 1924 until 1961 city was called Stalino. Since 1961 it's Donetsk.

Thanks, my mistake...not Alla's.

[ONA 133]

sounds good to me. Why not call a Russian city by a German name? No one will mind, except maybe on May 9.

Saint-Petersburg is pretty German... Ekaterinburg and Orenburg also...

I'm not sure that Moscow derived from German, but there's nothing wrong with German names.

[eekee 182]

The Germans have been in Russia for 600 years. I imagine that whatever English people learned about Russia hundreds of years ago was initially filtered through German or Swedish sources, rather than first-hand. That is just my theory; I haven't done any research on the topic.

Sankt-Peterburg is a Dutch name, not German.

Edited March 31, 2011 by eekee

[ONA 133]

The Germans have been in Russia for 600 years. I imagine that whatever English people learned about Russia hundreds of years ago was initially filtered through German or Swedish sources, rather than first-hand. That is just my theory; I haven't done any research on the topic.

Sankt-Peterburg is a Dutch name, not German.

Yeah, conscerning Saint-Petersburg, my bad. Close though

Well, i couldn't imagine why English people would learn from Germans about Russia... and why they would take into account German pronounciation, since it seems to be typical for English-speaking cultures to pronounce word their way, which is not necessarily the right way, but the easiest one.

Anyway, google (and Oxford Dictionary) seem to know everything

Moscow is first mentioned in Russian chronicles in 1147, but the modern Russian form of its name, Moskva, dates from the 14th cent. The Old Russian name for the river, principality, and city is recorded as Moskov´, accusative (1177 in this form; earlier in locative na Moskv ‘on the Moscow river’ and in other oblique cases with loss of the second o). It is the fully vocalized form of the name that gave rise both to English Moscow (perhaps also influenced by the Russian adjective Moskovskij) and to post-classical Latin Moscovia, Muscovia (see MUSCOVIAN n. and adj.).

Moscow is recorded as a place name in English sources from the 16th cent. and occurs in the following isolated usage in sense ‘a type of cloth’ in the 19th cent.

[slim 1,523]

I imagine that whatever English people learned about Russia hundreds of years ago was initially filtered through German or Swedish sources

There's probably a lot of truth to this. I think it's time for our favorite teacher (Marina from Hot for Words) to investigate.

since it seems to be typical for English-speaking cultures to pronounce word their way, which is not necessarily the right way, but the easiest one.

Yep.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

since it seems to be typical for English-speaking cultures to pronounce word their way, which is not necessarily the right way, but the easiest one.

Anyway, google (and Oxford Dictionary) seem to know everything

Given the more recent history and the proclivity for Russia to change the names of cities, one would think...oh well, NM

Regarding the other, what I can't stand is you go to a Subway shop and the clerk is an immigrant that can't even say "sammich" the right way!

[ONA 133]

Regarding the other, what I can't stand is you go to a Subway shop and the clerk is an immigrant that can't even say "sammich" the right way!

That's not what I was talking about

I am a big soccer fan and a lot of times players would sign deals with British teams, and the British would be calling them "the convenient" name, but not the right one. And then the rest of the English-speaking world does the same.

What you said is about speaking a language. And I'm not even talking about it.

[eekee 182]

I found a guide for "pronounciation" of Russian athletes' names once. It was hilariously off-the-mark.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I found a guide for "pronounciation" of Russian athletes' names once. It was hilariously off-the-mark.

Some of the tourist books and things in Ukraine are hilarous. Also English menus can be a hoot. y favorite place in Doentsk serves New England Clam Chowder (one of my favorites!) and a damn good chowder it is! They translate it to "New English Mousse Soup" "Mousse" is French for "clam" (and or other "mussels")

I sent my mom some books from Odessa when I was there and she said they desparately need "proofreaders" (she used to be a proofreader long before spellcheck)

Edited April 2, 2011 by Gary and Alla

[Krikit 1,164]

Spam post removed.