How to Mail from Russia.

[Martyshk 137]

It all depends on whether you want a letter by letter transliterative spelling or a spelling that will most accurately represent the pronunciation to a native English speaker.

If you're going for pronunciation, peeva is probably best. It you want transliteration, go with pivo.

Yeah, SMR, we can get into semantics about transliteration about how it sounds. You are closer to the truth though, A on the end would be the closes from a standpoint of a native speaker.

Transliteration simply won't work here.

Also, since I'm actually from Ukraine I tend to pronounce O on the end rather than A hehe

[Martyshk 137]

The "o" is most correct. It's the same reason you would write "spacebo" to transliterate спасибо. Ekee can probably talk more chapter and verse on this, but the end sound on both peevo and spacebo is more closely an "o" sound than an "a" sound. Sorta-kinda like the "u" sound in "pull" but not exactly.

Which I know is pedantic and Cix was just posting humorously, but it's RUB. Can't all be about guns and pie and peevo dontchaknow.

Yeah, it's better for native speakers to chime in. I could care less at this point whether it's O or A, as long as people understand

[Martyshk 137]

According to the wife, there's nothing I can do about my "thick American accent," but whenever I mangle pronunciation she calls me a "redneck."

[SMR 368]

The "o" is most correct. It's the same reason you would write "spacebo" to transliterate спасибо. Ekee can probably talk more chapter and verse on this, but the end sound on both peevo and spacebo is more closely an "o" sound than an "a" sound. Sorta-kinda like the "u" sound in "pull" but not exactly.

Which I know is pedantic and Cix was just posting humorously, but it's RUB. Can't all be about guns and pie and peevo dontchaknow.

As pronounced by most Russians, unless the stress falls on the end of the word, words ending in "а" and "о" can not be audibly distinguished. For instance, neuter words that end in an unstressed "о" in nominative case sound the same in genitive case, even though they are spelled with an "а" at the end in genitive case. Pronunciation differs in the Volga river valley and in Ukraine, as Mart pointed out.

My point was that to a native English speaker with minimal Russian experience, peevo would probably be pronounced with a long "o" sound on the end. Peeva, would probably be pronounced with a schwa sound at the end, which is how a Russian would pronounce it. Alternatively, if a native English speaker heard the word pronounced by a Russian and was asked to spell it phonetically in Latin characters, I strongly suspect the last letter would be an "a," (or a "uh") not an "o."

Mox, you're right that a lot of transliterations preserve letters that look the same when possible, even if it isn't the best phonetic solution. I guess it's easier on documents.

Mart, do you ховорю?

[Martyshk 137]

Mart, do you ховорю?

Oh no no no, SMR. I'm form Crimea. Not a huge influence of Ukranian language there, but we had our own dialect, if you wish.

я гаварю

[Cixelsyd 1]

I have a solution for this:

string liquid_beverage;

char input_decision;

bool is_wife_here = false;

cout << "Please enter your preferred spelling: ";

cin >> liquid_beverage;

while(is_wife_here == false)

{

cout << "Is your wife here? (y)/(n)";

cin >> input_decision;

switch (input_decision)

{

case "y" :

cout << "Then who cares about " << liquid_beverage;

is_wife_here = true;

break;

case "n" :

cout << "You should probably have another " << liquid_beverage;

break;

case default :

cout << "You've had enough " << liquid_beverage;

break;

}

}

There, the perfect attempt at a joke which is programmable to suite your humor taste buds.

(I take no responsibility for truncated spacing)

Edited March 30, 2010 by Cixelsyd

[SMR 368]

I have a solution for this:

string liquid_beverage;

char input_decision;

bool is_wife_here = false;

cout << "Please enter your preferred spelling: ";

cin >> liquid_beverage;

while(is_wife_here == false)

{

cout << "Is your wife here? (y)/(n)";

cin >> input_decision;

switch (input_decision)

{

case "y" :

cout << "Then who cares about " << liquid_beverage;

is_wife_here = true;

break;

case "n" :

cout << "You should probably have another " << liquid_beverage;

break;

case default :

cout << "You've had enough " << liquid_beverage;

break;

}

}

There, the perfect attempt at a joke which is programmable to suite your humor taste buds.

(I take no responsibility for truncated spacing)

My favorite part is that if you are too drunk to answer yes or no, it decides you have had too much beer. That made me laugh.

[Cixelsyd 1]

Won't complile, you forgot

#include <iostream>

It's missing the main as well, but I didn't want to give away trade secrets.

[Cixelsyd 1]

I'd try and do you one worse, but I've done all I can to purge pseudo code from my memory.

If someone posts a flow chart, then I'm reaching for my gun...

[slim 1,533]

I've already got my first bit of advice:

1.) Learn what Peeva is.

2.) Load up on said Peeva.

3.) If the wife isn't here, go back to step 2.

That is excellent advice for noobs. Even if you're not a drinker you should prepare to hang out with some drunk people - because you will. Peeva is definitely one of the first Russian words one needs to master.

she calls me a "redneck."

I get called a redneck just about every day.

I remember trying to transliterate Korean words back in '00 and then the S. Korean govt. officially changed their transliteration system. They did this so "Corea" would be listed before Japan during the Japan/Korea World Cup of '02. Events were held in Busan (formerly known as Pusan) and listed first in alphabetical order before Japanese cities. They take that stuff pretty seriously over there.

The funny thing is no matter how it was spelled, it was still pronounced the same way. Korea, whether with a C or a K, was still pronounced "dae han min ######" in Korean and only the English-speaking channels cared about the Korea with a C, and only because it messed up their broadcast image overlays. Most just stuck with a K anyway.

Another interesting thing going on about that time was we started transliterating a lot of names from Arabic (or similar language) into English. One of the most famous of those was sometimes spelled with an O, sometimes with a U, and sometimes even had an l thrown in there for more umph. I've seen terror-alert messages that made referrence to UBL or OBL and they were referring to the same dude that we still can't find.

When starting to speak Russian (and even still today) I have such a female influence that I often mistakenly say things in a feminine manner. I usually don't "pashol" places, I "pashla" incorrectly. Not such a big deal when drinking with buddies, but it's a dead giveaway that I'm not as fluent as I think I am.

Transliteration is pretty similar. We're going to make it look as close as it sounds to us. What I hear here at home is peeva. But, then again, my wife is from Far East and Muscovites think she has an accent. Maybe she's a "rrredneck."