Quotation marks are also problematic, as they are used in Russian to refer to proper names of businesses and organizations. For example, Pushkin’s quote “ Дорогою свободной иди, куда влечет тебя свободный ум” is usually translated as “Walk a free road wherever a free mind leads you” – without the comma because English does use one between dominant and subordinate parts of the sentence, as Russian requires. Russian, for instance, has very definite rules for comma use and uses them where, in English, it would be unnatural. One area often taken for granted by beginning translators is that Russian and English have very different rules of punctuation. Thus, each case must be considered in context. In English, these can read as forced or are often perceived as детская речь (“baby talk”). This can be difficult to carry into English without either adding explanation of the Russian tradition or resorting to “little Alex” or “dear Alex” or even “Alex-pie” or other forms that would eventually become difficult and awkward to use consistently in an English text. Саша (Sasha) can also transform further into Сашечка, Сашуля, and even Шурик, carrying various connotations of affection and informality. English speakers are not likely to know, for example, that Саша (Sasha) can be short form of both Александр (Alexander) and Александра (Alexandra) and thus the translator may need to make alterations to the text to alert the audience to this fact. Of greater concern are people’s proper names. For example, the phrase “ Я хо чу заказать столик” (I want to reserve a table), becomes almost impossible to fully translate, with a conveyance of light informality and an implication that the table is likely not for many people. However, others, such as “ столик “ can be more challenging. Some diminutives have more obvious translations, for example мамочка (mommy) and папочка (daddy). Russian uses far more уменьшительные слова (diminutives), especially in literature and conversational speech, than does English. See the graphic to the right for further explanation. This form, for example in крупнейший, is most accurately translated as “one of the biggest.” While the difference between the formation of the two Russian forms is small, the fact that Russian has a grammatical form that English does not, and given that mistranslations of this form can result in untrue statements not intended by the speaker, this difference between Russian and English is perhaps one of the translator’s most dangerous pitfalls. Самый крупный will always refer to “the biggest.” The простая superlative form in Russian is a slightly more книжный стиль (literary form) and is formed with the ending – ейший (or – айший after ж, ч, ш, щ ). The simplest way to explain them to an English speaker is that “hard” superlatives are most like those in English. However, Russian has two types of superlatives: составная and простая (hard and soft) and translating these can be challenging. Прилагательное в превосходной степени (superlatives) in English have just one form, implying that something is “the most” of something. Прилагательное в превосходной степени (Superlatives) For more on Russian’s superlative cases, click here to download this scan. For instance, “ Я гулял” (I strolled) is much more direct and finite than “ Я погулял,” which is closer to “I strolled around awhile.” While such subtleties can often be expressed in English using phrasal verbs, translators must navigate a web of subtleties and consider each case in context to decide how to express the same thought with economy. Russian has only three tenses, настоящее (present), прошедшее (past), and будушее (future), but it also uses вид (aspect) to add layers of значение (meaning) emphasizing how the action was performed, if it was completed, repeated, done with specific purpose, etc. Verbs in English and Russian express время (time) very differently. It is she that he loves) or through other emphasis (i.e. The translator, if to keep the original emphasis, will need to creatively carry this into English, perhaps with a нестандартный (non-standard), non-neutral word order (i.e. In these instances, emphasis is specifically placed on the word moved forward in the word order. This word order is нейтральный (neutral) in Russian, but for вы разительность (emphasis), the word order can be changed, in which case it is no longer neutral: Её он любит/Он её любит. One of the major differences between Russian and English is порядок слов (word order). 7 More Russian MiniLessons! Порядок слов (Word Order)
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