One Million English Words 7

[flapeyre]

Ben,

Russian?

Schlagbaum and Landschaft are German nouns.

You mean ?????? ("landscape"; other translations are ????, ?????????, ???????? or ??????) and ???????? ("barrier" or "gate"), don't you?

No, I don't know either Russian or German, but I used translate.google.com to confirm my suspicions.

-- Francis
I'd like to change the world, but I can't find the source code.

 

[Stella740pl]

flapeyre,

You mean ??????...?

No. German Landschaft is Russian ???????? is English landscape in a more technical sense, as in "The aspect of the land characteristic of a particular region" or "A section or expanse of rural scenery, usually extensive, that can be seen from a single viewpoint". Pronounced closer to the German word.

Russian ?????? is French Paysage is English landscape, and, I suspect, is pronounced closer to the French word. The meaning is more art-related, as in "A picture representing natural inland or coastal scenery" or "The category of aesthetic subject matter in which natural scenery is represented" or "A panoramic view of scenery; vista".

German Schlagbaum is Russian ???????? is English boom barrier - a bar used to allow or block vehicular access through a controlled point.
Like this:

or this:

Ben,

Catherine the Great, born German Princess, in accordance with the custom of then ruling dynasties of Germany, received her education chiefly from a French governess and from tutors. She was a great lover of all things French and exchanged letters with Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

 

[BadBigBen]

Stella, thank you for the clear up... that would be exactly as I would have explained it...

Court language, in the Kingdoms of what is called Germany today (Germany as a whole did not exist until 1870), was French as you noted. And I know that Peter the Great was an adventurer and globetrotter, who modernized the Russian Empire in his time, that is the main reason why I had thought that he was the reason as to why the French influence entered the Russian language...

Francis - Yes, they are German nouns among others, that have entered the Russian Language, at what time period, only a Russian linguist would be able to tell...

if you look closely at the word: ???????? you will notice that it is similar in spelling as the German word: Schlagbaum, e.g. ? = SCH or sh and ??????? = lagbaum... latinized it would be more like ???????? = shlagbaum (I've also seen the work spelled ????????) = shlakbaum)... and from this, I am able to discern what something is written about when I visit some Russian Websites (they tend to post some weird and interesting videos and articles)...

oh, yeah, Google does help with the rest, but it will make you laugh at the translations...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[Stella740pl]

Ben,

And I know that Peter the Great was an adventurer and globetrotter... French influence entered the Russian language

French was the language of Russian court and nobility for a while, I am not sure when it started (and don't have time for research now), but I believe it started before Peter the great and continued till the end of Russian royalty.

Catherine the Great was not really so innovative as to bring it to Russia, but she sure popularized it more. She praised herself on being an educated lady; that's why she read works by great (French) thinkers of the time, kept friendships with some of them, and brought ideas of Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau, etc. to the country.

Peter the Great was an adventurer, globetrotter - and also engineer, tradesman, worker. He went to European countries to study modern trades and brought them to Russia. He studied shipbuilding in Holland, and military in Germany, if I remember correctly. His wife (not the first one, of a noble family, that he sent to convent, but his second one that he chose personally) was a plain German girl that he found in some German settlement nearby and made the Empress.

 

[CajunCenturion]

Great discussion guys.

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[Stella740pl]

Thanks, CC.
I guess, it's one of those rare cases when you approve of the discussion that hijacked the thread. ;-)

 

[Stella740pl]

Oh, and by the way, that's today and just past that time.
Did we hear any news yet? :-D

 

[BadBigBen]

Stella,

I did not know that French was the Court language in Russia. You don't need to research the exact time frame, I believe you... But wasn't Peter the Great's second wife, Martha Skawronskaja, and if I remember right she was of Lithuanian descend and married to a Swedish noble before she married Peter?

It is also interesting how closely related the Nobility of various countries where and are still today...


CC - glad that it was interesting to you. History is a great discussion maker, specially if it interests the parties. And the best thing about it is, that you learn something interesting and new...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[CajunCenturion]

Web 2.0" is the 1,000,000th word.

--------------
Good Luck
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read
FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[Stella740pl]

CC,
"Web 2.0" is a word?

Ben,
Martha Skawronskaja... I didn't remember the name. Sounds Polish to me, even though she was born in Latvia, not Lithuania (just checked), and was coming from a peasant family. (For some reason, I believed for many years she was German.) She was briefly married before, but I am not sure if her husband was a noble.

Actually, there is plenty of interesting information on the topic in Wikipedia, out of which I can read English and Russian articles (and they are not identical, but complement each other in a way) - but have no time at the moment to go through all of it, and you can check out English and German version. It's a good topic.

 

[BadBigBen]

Stella, thanks for the heads up on the misinformation on my part... I probably will check it out...


"Web 2.0" is a phrase not a word... someone should shoot the people responsible... (not literally of course)...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[2ffat]

Yes, he is including phrases and hyphenated words as words. His site is Language Monitor. I'm surprised at his 1,000,000 and 1,000,001 words. They've been around for awhile now. Why just now add them to the English language.

BTW, I've thoroughly enjoyed the discussion on Russian/German/Ukrainian/Latin/etc. Odd that I hated langauges when I had to learn them but now that I'm older I seem to enjoy how they have evolved. I still can't speak English since American is my first language. ;-)



James P. Cottingham
[sup]I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229![/sup]

 

[BadBigBen]

Odd that I hated langauges when I had to learn them but now that I'm older I seem to enjoy how they have evolved.

I enjoyed learning Spanish in High School, but that was more or less due to my gf at the time, she was a Mexican-American (fond memories that be)...

The etymology of words, are like a trip through history, e.g. the word "hamburger", in English it is a ground meat patty on a bun, where as the same word (capitalized) in German denotes two things, today, 1. a resident of the city of Hamburg and 2. the aforementioned patty.

Here it gets interesting, Americans don't seem to like long descriptions for things in general, as German immigrants brought this patty on a bun to the US, and most had departed from the city of Hamburg, so that "Hamburger Frikadelle or Steak" became just plain hamburger. And the German Hamburger (the patty) entered the language back through the GI's that where stationed there, and of course MikiD's & Co. that have established themselves in the past 20 yrs...

Here is a great site for English Etymology, in case you ever wondered where a certain word comes from:

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php

I still can't speak English since American is my first language.

a famous person once said: "The British and the Americans are two peoples divided by a common language." - George Bernard Shaw



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"