Russia

[Predator]

Well, as I don't like to be passive and enjoy joining things I like doing myself, here's a russian language topic. Not like academic things or so (Please, consult pros on such things), but I'll gladly help if there is a need to translate something or tell about common language.

To begin, Russian is a Slavic group language, using Cyrlic alphabet, meaning western people will encounter problems reading at the begining. For example, russian "H" is in fact pronounced as "N" and "C" as "S". Also some greek letters exist in such alphabet making it little difficult to get used to.
But aside from the hard things there is a thing every youth would enjoy and we in Baltic often use. That's the fact that the russian is the most "juicy" language to swear. That's a bad habit russians brought to the world (honestly I could bet Russian is the language having the greatest number of "bad words" ).

Feel free to post your questions on russian language here.

[Gold Knight]

Thanks for taking the time to do this Pred ^^ And you make me so curious as to how Russians curse XD

My usual questions!

Thank You
You're Welcome
Good Morning
Good Night

How are you?
I'm good ( or ) I'm feeling bad
I'm happy to hear that
What are you doing?
Have fun!

[Leen]

I know thank you is "spasiva" or something that sounds similar to that. My brother kows Russian and so far, I only learn one word. :cry

It will be good for you to teach Russian here. Then I can immpress my brother. :knk

By the way, my brother told me that in Russian, every thing have their gender. For example, pen is male and pencil is sort of female. Am I right?

Also, the Russian female name will always end with -a.

Example of tennis players :

Maria Sharapova
Elena Dementiva
Nadia Petrova
Svetlana Kuznetsova

[Predator]

OK, here's the start. As GK said the everyday phrases are what's the best thing to begin with.
I don't know how to make you know the right pronounciation tho.

Thank You - Spasibo
You're Welcome - Dobro Pozhalovakh
Good Morning - Dobry Urto
Good Night - Dobry Noch
Hello - Pirvet

How are you? - Kak Dhela?
I'm good ( or ) I'm feeling bad - Vsyo v poryadke (or) Ya Ploho Sebya Chustvuyu.
I'm happy to hear that - Priyatno Slishakh.
What are you doing? - Kak Dhela?
Feel yourself like home. - Chustvuy Sebya Kak Dome.

sidenote: GK - Zolotoy Ricarj (зoлotoй pицapь).

[Galth]

all i know about russian is something about the names ( yes, eileen, female names tend to end with an -a ) from the doctor zhivago book - for example, you have joeri andrejevitsj zhivago [first name, father's name, last name] called joera, giving him an impressive 4 names to begin with, not counting things like nicknames. at some point a person named lara marries mr. antipov, and her name changed to lara antipova ( here's an example of your -a, eileen ), that's about as far as my knowledge gets me... if it's correct that is...

[Predator]

all i know about russian is something about the names ( yes, eileen, female names tend to end with an -a ) from the doctor zhivago book - for example, you have joeri andrejevitsj zhivago [first name, father's name, last name] called joera, giving him an impressive 4 names to begin with, not counting things like nicknames. at some point a person named lara marries mr. antipov, and her name changed to lara antipova ( here's an example of your -a, eileen ), that's about as far as my knowledge gets me... if it's correct that is...

Yes that's right, but in everyday comunication it's even more obvious.
We have still many russians remaining in our country, so we see their habits quite clearly.
Their own way of speaking is as original as Japanese:
1) They call each other just by first name and the fathers name. That's an honorable form. Surnames skiped.
2) As Japanese say same phrases all the time, ending the sentence, russians swear all the sentence long.
3) Between the sentences some wide range harming phrases are inserted when angry.
4) Same methaphores are rarely repeated during one conversation.

[Gold Knight]

Spasibo. I was wondering if there was a site that I could look at as far as learning the Cyrlic alphabet.

[Predator]

Spasibo. I was wondering if there was a site that I could look at as far as learning the Cyrlic alphabet.

Actually, I don't know. I learned it "at the backyard" when I was little under the system of Soivets.
I'll post it someday later. But I can tell you there's no use in learning Cyrlic. Better learn true Latin alphabet and Greek letters. Cyrlic is like a hybrid of those two.

[KOLE]

As cyrlic goes, I can help because we in Serbia also use cyrlic.
Here's the "conversion table": (/ means that it doesn't exist in cyrlic).

A-А
B-Б
C-Ц
D-Д
E-Е
F-Ф
G-Г
H-Х
I-И
J-Џ
K-К
L-Л
M-М
N-Н
O-О
P-П
Q-/
R-Р
S-С
T-Т
U-У
V-В
W-/
X-/
Y-Ј
Z-З

And additional Serbian cyrilic letters (I don't know Russian)
ШЖЧЋЂЉЊ

[Gold Knight]

I'm somewhat familiar with Latin and Greek actually, though I could use some brushing up on them.

Thanks, KOLE.

[Predator]

Great, thanks indeed Kole! There are some mistakes tho, cause real Cyrlic is unlike Serbian.

e - pronounced as "ye"
there are no J and Y

The rest is like this.
Ш - Sh
Ж - Zh
Ч - Ch
Њ - hardened "I"
ё - yo
й - iy
Я - ya
ю - yu
щ - (hold your hats) Shya

Sorry for the lack of Caps. My PC has no Cyric typing prog installed so I just copied them from a random site.

[dedal_x]

Sorry for the lack of Caps. My PC has no Cyric typing prog installed so I just copied them from a random site.

I can tell that.
I'm Ukrainian here. Ukrainian is also a Slavic language, but in reality the most widely spoken language here is Russian. And I'm speaking it since I ever tried to speak and that's 18 and something years. Honestly, some translations and transcriptions of yours here made me smile, sorry.

And here if the full Russian alphabet(caps and small ones):

Аа Бб Вв Гг Дд Ее Ёё Жж Зз Ии Йй Кк
Лл Мм Нн Оо Пп Рр Уу Сс Тт Уу Фф Хх
Цц Чч Шш Щщ ъ ы ь Ээ Юю Яя

And if someone here has difficulties with fonts here's the image version I did:
http://img418.imageshack.us/img418/6...titled17qb.png[br]Posted at: April 01, 2006, 03:29:33 PM_________________________________________________

Thank You - Spasibo
You're Welcome - Dobro Pozhalovakh
Good Morning - Dobry Urto
Good Night - Dobry Noch
Hello - Pirvet

How are you? - Kak Dhela?
I'm good ( or ) I'm feeling bad - Vsyo v poryadke (or) Ya Ploho Sebya Chustvuyu.
I'm happy to hear that - Priyatno Slishakh.
What are you doing? - Kak Dhela?
Feel yourself like home. - Chustvuy Sebya Kak Dome.

sidenote: GK - Zolotoy Ricarj (зoлotoй pицapь).

Some mistakes were there...(and I added cyrillic eqvivalents)

Thank You - Spasibo - Спасибо
You're Welcome - Dobro Pozhalovat (last -t is soft) - Добро Пожаловать (if it's a greeting, and "Ne Za Chto - Не За Что" if it's a reply to "Thank you")
Good Morning - Dobroye Utro - Доброе Утро
Good Night - Dobroy Nochi (-i is read like -ee) - Доброй Ночи
Hello - Pirvet - Привет (it's a casual greeting- i.e. between friends)

How are you? - Kak Dhela? - Как Дела?
I'm good - Vsyo v poryadke - Все В Порядке.
I'm feeling bad - Ya Ploho Sebya Chustvuyu - Я Плохо Себя чуствую
I'm happy to hear that - Rad Slishat (last -t is soft) - Рад Слышать
What are you doing? - Chto Delaesh?/Chem Zanimayeshsya? - Что делаешь?/Чем Занимаешься?
Feel yourself like home - Chustvuy Sebya Kak Doma - Чуствуй себя как дома

Golden Knight - Zolotoy Ritcar (last -r is soft) - Золотой Рыцарь

[Predator]

Great job, dedal_x! I completely forgot to write all those phrases in Cyrlic, because mostly they wouldn't be understood anyway. So I tried to put it in Latin so that everyone could at least grasp the pronounciation of those phrases. And that's what turned out. Also my approach was casual contacts, like in the case of "What are you doing?".

And thanks for correcting my work. Same as you I don't get to say too many polite phrases out on the street.

[ratty]

You're Welcome - Dobro Pozhalovakh

Welcome! = Dobro Pozhalovat' {добро пожаловать}
You're welcome (answer to "thank you") = Pozhaluysta (spoken: Pozhalusta) {пожалуйста}

[Predator]

Welcome! = Dobro Pozhalovat' {добро пожаловать}
You're welcome (answer to "thank you") = Pozhaluysta (spoken: Pozhalusta) {пожалуйста}

Yeah ...... If you put it that way ...... That's good. It must always be viewed in context.
I wrote it as meaning "You're always welcome here" sense, so both answers are sorta correct.