Sketch of Russian PDF

80 Europe Isthmus Zapotec/Martian” (A. Brown 2003). Part of the reason that Basque fas- cinates the public is that it is a language isolate. But there is nothing genetically special about a language isolate: language families may have any number of mem- bers, from one, two, th...

80 Europe Isthmus Zapotec/Martian” (A. Brown 2003). Part of the reason that Basque fas- cinates the public is that it is a language isolate. But there is nothing genetically special about a language isolate: language families may have any number of mem- bers, from one, two, three, up to several hundred. Moreover, the designation iso- late hinges crucially on the quite arbitrary question of whether related language varieties are to be considered different languages or different dialects. If the five main dialects of Basque, which are noticeably different from each other, were listed as different languages, then Basque would not be considered an isolate. Amateur attempts to connect Basque to other languages often focus on ergative-​ absolutive languages, including those of the Caucasus and Burushaski, another language isolate, spoken in Pakistan (§4.8). None of these attempts has won wide- spread support among linguists. 3.5 Sketch of Russian 3.5.1 GENERAL BACKGROUND Russian belongs to the East clade of the Slavic branch of the Indo-​European lan- guage family. It is spoken by about 270 million people, including 150 million who consider it their native language, primarily in Russia. The Soviet Union con- tributed greatly to the spread of Russian both by facilitating migration of eth- nic Russians to neighboring countries and by mandating instruction in Russian as the language of interethnic communication throughout the union. Since the breakup of the union in 1991, the former member states increasingly empha- size their national languages, but Russian is still an official language in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. It is also widely spoken in many other places with large ethnic Russian minority populations, including Ukraine, Latvia, Moldova, Estonia, and Georgia. However, Russian was never as widely taught or spoken outside the Soviet Union as one would expect given the political and military status of the union. Since Slavic languages are to a large extent mutually intelligi- ble, many Slavs did not bother learning Russian because they felt that they could communicate adequately with Russians by speaking their own native language. In addition, not learning Russian or learning it badly was one of the ways in which people in the Eastern Bloc countries showed opposition to their domination by the Soviet Union. Russian is a fusional language with a fairly complicated morphology and pho- nology. Its basic word order is SVO, and it places adjectives before nouns and head nouns before relative clauses. Russian has borrowed extensively from other languages. In the past it was influ- enced by various Turkic languages, Uralic languages, Greek, Latin, and Germanic languages. In more recent times a large number of terms, especially technical terms, were borrowed from German, Dutch, French, and even more recently, English.  3.5 Sketch of Russian 81 3.5.2 ALPHABET The alphabet used to write Russian is called Cyrillic, in honor of Cyril, a ninth-​ century Greek missionary who was instrumental in spreading Christianity among the Slavs. Most of the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet were derived from the Greek alphabet; letters for a few sounds that did not have Greek equivalents were borrowed from Glagolitic, another early script for writing Slavic languages. Traditionally, the Cyrillic alphabet has been used for languages whose speakers predominantly belong to the Orthodox Church: Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian, in addition to Russian. During Soviet times, dozens of minority languages were furnished with Cyrillic writing systems; these included Uzbek, Kazakh, Tajik, and Azerbaijani. With the break-​up of the Soviet Union, several newly independent countries moved toward adopting other writing sys- tems, such as Latin in Azerbaijan. 3.5.3 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY The consonantal phoneme inventory of Russian is shown in Table 3.12. Russian has an unusually large number of sibilants. As a so-​called satem Indo-​European language, it has sibilants in place of the Proto-​Indo-​European fronted velars; for example, [z] in [zna-​] ‘know’ from [ɡnoh₃-​ ̟ ] (9a; §3.1.10). Along with other Slavic languages, it has also undergone many other changes that turn sounds into sibi- lants. These changes all consisted of assimilating consonants to adjacent [j] or front vowels like [i] and [e]. Assimilation is any sound change that makes a sound more like another nearby sound. In this case, the assimilations involved place of articulation: the affected consonants were drawn toward the front of the hard pal- ate where the conditioning sounds are produced. Such changes are called pala- talizations and are very common in the languages of the world. The outcomes of palatalizations can be quite varied, even within the same language. (9b–​d) list the main outcomes of several palatalizations in the history of Russian that produced sibilants. The most recent palatalization (9e) is comparatively mild, in that it hasn’t changed the main place of articulation of the consonants very much, but it has TABLE 3.12 Consonant phonemes of Russian p ‹п› pʲ t ‹т› tʲ k ‹к› b ‹б› bʲ d ‹д› dʲ ɡ ‹г› t͡s ‹ц› t͡ɕ ‹ч› f ‹ф› fʲ s ‹с› sʲ ʃ ‹ш› ɕː ‹щ› x ‹х› v ‹в› vʲ z ‹з› zʲ ʒ ‹ж› ʑː ‹жж› m ‹м› mʲ n ‹н› nʲ rʲ r ‹р› ɫ ‹л› lʲ j ‹й› 82 Europe added a secondary articulation to their pronunciation: the dorsum of the tongue is raised toward the front of the hard palate. Thus [pʲ] is like pronouncing a [p] and a [j] simultaneously. (9) a. Unconditioned satem change: [k̟] > [s]; [ɡ̟] > [z]; [ɡ ̟] > [z].. b. Before [j], [i], or [e]: [k] > [t͡ɕ]; [ɡ] > [ʒ]; [x] > [ʃ]; [sk] > [ɕː] c. Before [æ] or after [i]: [k] > [t͡s]; [ɡ] > [z]; [x] > [s] d. Fusion: [tj] > [t͡ɕ]; [t͡sj] > [t͡ɕ]; [dj] > [ʒ]; [sj] > [ʃ]; [stj] > [ɕː]; [zj] > [ʒ] e. Before [j], [i], or [e]: [p] > [pʲ]; [t] > [tʲ]; [d] > [dʲ]; [s] > [sʲ]; [r] > [rʲ]; etc. A pervasive distinction is drawn between flat and sharp consonants. These terms are attempts at characterizing an acoustic difference between the sounds in each class. Sharp consonants sound lighter, thinner, or noisier than flat consonants; Russian grammarians traditionally call them soft. Sharp consonants have a higher pitch component than corresponding flat consonants, because they are pronounced with the middle part of the tongue at the hard palate, a gesture like that produced when making an [i] or [j], which have especially high second formants (Bondarko 2005). More precisely, many sharp consonants are formed by adding the secondary articulation of palatalization to the articulation of the flat consonant; this is indi- cated by the IPA diacritic [ʲ]. Sometimes this produces side effects: sharp [tʲ] and [dʲ] are affricated, and [rʲ] sounds like a fricative. The alveolopalatal sounds [t͡ɕ], [ɕː], and [ʑː], as well as the palatal glide [j], are also considered sharp. The alveolo- palatal sounds can be contrasted with the flat sounds [t͡s], [ʃ], and [ʒ]. Although we discussed the various palatalizations in historical terms, they continue to play an important role in Russian morphophonemics. When adding suffixes to a stem, the final consonant of the stem often changes between forms that were historically the inputs and outputs of palatalizations. For example, [pʲiˈk-​u] means ‘I bake’, but [pʲiˈt͡ɕ-​oʃ] means ‘you sg bake’. As this example shows, the front vowel or [j] that was historically responsible for the assimilation is very often no longer present; therefore, there may be no phonological clue as to which conso- nant to use. Consequently, sounds like [t͡ɕ] are no longer allophones of sounds like [k] but are now separate phonemes. When an obstruent appears at the end of a word, it becomes voiceless; for example, in (10a), the end of the stem [ɡod] devoices when it has no suffix. Russian also has a rule of anticipatory, or regressive, voice assimilation across obstruents. An anticipatory assimilation occurs when a sound becomes more like a sound that is coming up. When two obstruents come together in Russian, the first one takes on the voicing of the latter one (10b). This even happens across word boundaries. If more than two obstruents come together, the assimilation keeps applying iteratively: the second takes on the voicing of the third, then the first takes on the new voicing of the second.  3.5 Sketch of Russian 83 (10) a. ˈɡod-​i → ˈɡot year-​m.nom.pl year[m.nom.sg] ‘years’ ‘year’ b. ˈɡosʲtʲ → ˈɡozʲdʲ daˈvid-​a guest[m.nom.sg] guest[m.nom.sg] David-​m.gen.sg ‘guest’ ‘David’s guest’ Russian orthography represents the etymology, or the underlying pronuncia- tions, rather than the results of devoicing and voicing assimilation. For example, the word [ɡot] ‘year’ is spelled год, ending with the letter that normally spells [d] (11a). The spelling represents the underlying phonological representation as shown by forms of the word where the [d] is followed by a suffix. Spelling [ɡot] with a ‹д› helps the reader associate it with other forms of the same lexeme and distinguish it from homophonous word forms with underlying [t], in this case the word for ‘Goth’, which retains the [t] before suffixes (11b). (11) a. год [ˈɡot] ‘year’, годы [ˈɡodi] ‘years’ b. гот [ˈɡot] ‘Goth’, готы [ˈɡoti] ‘Goths’ Russian has five vowel phonemes, each with two different spellings (Table 3.13), although the two dots on ‹ё› are usually omitted, making ‹e› ambiguous. There are two main reasons for having two spellings per vowel. First, the spellings on the right side of each pair in the table can stand for the sequence [j] plus vowel (12a). The letters on the left are never used that way. Second, the spellings on the right can indicate that the preceding consonant is palatalized (12b). But putting vowel symbols to multiple purposes can lead to conflict. How to mark palatalization when a palatalized consonant is not followed by a vowel? This problem is addressed by using ‹ь› as a silent mark of palatalization (12c). The same solution is applied to show that a [j] is sounded between a palatalized consonant and a vowel (12d): note that without the ‹ь›, ✗пю would spell ✗[ˈpʲu]. To spell a [j] between a nonpalatalized consonant and a vowel, the subtly different symbol ‹ъ› is used (12e), though an in-​progress sound change palatalizing consonants before [j] is gradually eroding the need for this rule. Centuries ago, the symbols ‹ь› and ‹ъ› represented ultrashort vowels called jers –​ [ĭ] and [ŭ], respectively –​but those sounds are no longer in the phonological inventory, leaving the symbols available for repurposing. TABLE 3.13 Vowel phonemes of Russian i ‹ы, и› u ‹у, ю› e ‹э, е› о ‹о, ё› a ‹а, я› 84 Europe (12) a. я [ja] ‘I’ b. гуляю [ɡuˈlʲaju] ‘stroll’ c.   дать [ˈdatʲ] ‘to give’ d. пью [ˈpʲju] ‘I drink’ e. съезд [ˈsjest] ‘congress’ Different rules apply for the Cyrillic letters ц, ш, ж, ч, and щ. They retain their basic sharpness or flatness regardless of what vowel letter follows them. Stress in Russian is phonemic: in principle, the position of the stress has to be memorized for each polysyllabic word. Although there are rules that can help one predict the stress of words, they are very complicated and have many excep- tions. Indeed, there are some minimal pairs for stress such as [muˈka] ‘flour’ ver- sus [ˈmuka] ‘torment’. Despite the fact that stress is phonemic, the location of the stress is not marked in Russian writing. The five-​way vowel contrast shown in Table 3.13 obtains only in stressed syllables. In unstressed syllables, the vowel system is reduced to a three-​way con- trast [a]–​[i]–​[u]. Ignoring some exceptions, underlying [o] merges with [a], which may further reduce to [i] after a palatalized consonant. Underlying [e] merges with [i]. Russian spelling handles this situation much as it does obstruent voicing assimilation, by representing underlying forms rather than the reduced pronunciation. Often these spellings give the reader a hint as to what other word forms a particular word may be related to, because different syllables are often stressed in different forms or derivatives of a word. For example, spelling the first vowel of [sʲiˈmʲja] with an ‹e› instead of an ‹и› shows its connection with the plural form, семьи (13a). Similarly, spelling the second vowel of the adverb [xaraˈʃo] with an ‹о› instead of an ‹а› shows its connection with the adjective (13b). However, the first ‹о› of хорошо and хороший is never pronounced as [o] in this or any related word, and so its use instead of ‹а› is unlikely to help Russian readers at all. (13) a. семья [sʲiˈmʲja] ‘family’; семьи [ˈsʲemʲji] ‘families’ b. хорошо [xaraˈʃo] ‘well’; хороший [xaˈroʃij] ‘good’ We won’t usually devote much space to the phonetic description of allo- phones in a language, but a few allophonies are particularly salient in Russian. In addition to merging with other phonemes, unstressed vowels in most situ- ations are centralized, with [a], [i], and [u] being pronounced as [ə], [ɪ], and [ʊ], respectively. Vowels tend to be pronounced a bit more high or front next to sharp consonants. Conversely, velar consonants tend to become palatal con- sonants before the front vowels [i] and [e]. The phoneme [i] is retracted to the central vowel [ɨ] when it appears after a flat consonant. Flat consonants tend to be somewhat velarized in Russian: pronounced with the back of the tongue  3.5 Sketch of Russian 85 raised toward the soft palate. This velarization is particularly noticeable before [ɨ], where the transition between the consonant and vowel may sound like a velar glide [ɰ]. A glide, or semivowel, is a consonant that is phonetically simi- lar to or identical to a vowel but is found in the onset or coda of a syllable instead of in the nucleus. 3.5.4 MORPHOLOGY 3.5.4.1 Nouns Like English, Russian nouns take different suffixes depending on whether their number is singular or plural. Gender is a system of putting nouns in a small number of categories so that other words can succinctly indicate which noun they are syntactically associated with. English has a trace of a gender system in its system of personal pronouns: to refer back to nouns designating females, a form of the feminine pronoun she must be used; the masculine pronoun he refers to males, and the neuter pronoun it refers to objects not characterized by sex. That is, English pronouns agree with their antecedents with respect to their semantic gender. Russian has the same three genders as English, but gender plays a much larger role in the grammar. For one thing, gender is basically a property of a noun, not of the object the noun signifies. To be sure, with rare exceptions, nouns nam- ing males are masculine, nouns naming females are feminine, and many nouns naming inanimate (neither human nor animal) objects are neuter. But individ- ual nouns can contravene that expectation, and those naming inanimate objects are, more often than not, masculine or feminine rather than neuter. The Russian word for ‘desk’, [stoɫ], is masculine, and the word for ‘book’, [ˈknʲiɡa], is femi- nine. Both Russian and English inherited very similar word-​based gender systems from Proto-​Indo-​European. In Old English, words had grammatical gender, but English transitioned to a meaning-​based system over 600 years ago; Russian did not. Another important difference from English is that in Russian, not just pro- nouns but also adjectives must agree in gender with the noun they modify. They take different suffixes depending on which gender the modified noun has –​that is, they are said to inflect, or change their form, for gender. A Russian noun takes different forms to identify the type of grammatical relation it has with its head –​that is, the main word in the phrase, on which it is dependent. Such a system is called an inflectional case system; a noun is said to inflect, or change its form, to express case. English has only vestiges of a case system, which, like gender, is best preserved in its personal pronouns. The follow- ing table arranges the pronouns by person, number, and semantic gender. Person refers to which of the two participants in a conversation are included: first (1) if the speaker is included, else second (2) if the addressee is included, else third (3). Note that the three genders have one-​letter abbreviations: masculine (m), feminine (f), neuter (n). 86 Europe (14) Category nom acc gen 1sg I me my 2 you you your 3sg.m he him his 3sg.f she her her 3sg.n it it its 1pl we us our 3pl they them their If a pronoun is the subject of a verb, it inflects to show the nominative case: I grill hamburgers; She jogs; and so forth. If a pronoun is the object of a verb, it inflects to show accusative case: A mosquito bit me; A dog chased her. If a pronoun is depen- dent on another noun –​a typical relationship is to show possession –​then it is in the genitive case: My dog has fleas; Mary admires her perseverance. In addition to illustrating that case is connected to grammatical relations, pondering the English pronouns also reveals some pervasive ambiguities when it comes to case. First, cases are very commonly used for more than one grammatical relation. Note that the accusative case may express not only the object of a verb but also the object of a preposition: An apple fell on me. Second, the same word form may express more than one case: note you, her, and it. Third, different words may take different suffixes to express the same case. Note how four of the pronouns have a final r in the genitive, but two of them have s. Russian has six main cases, which apply to nouns as well as to pronouns. The most fundamental uses of the cases are illustrated in (15). For each case, we have given an example sentence putting the Russian word for ‘book’ in that case. You will readily notice that Russian nouns mostly have different forms in the different cases. In contrast, in only one case does an English noun have a distinctive form. (15) a. nom = nominative: subject of the verb [ˈknʲiɡa uˈpaɫa v ˈvodu] ‘The book fell in the water.’ b. acc = accusative: direct object of the verb [ˈon ˈvzʲaɫ ˈknʲiɡu] ‘He took the book.’ c. dat = dative: indirect object of the verb [ˈon ˈdaɫ ˈknʲiɡi ˈdva kanˈt͡sa] ‘He gave the book two endings.’ d. gen = genitive: dependent of another noun [ˈabɫoʃka ˈknʲiɡi biˈɫa aˈtorvana] ‘The book’s cover has been torn off.’ e. ins = instrumental case: the instrument with which an action is performed [ˈon ˈmnʲe ɡraˈzʲit ˈknʲiɡaj] ‘He threatens me with a book.’ f. loc = locative: object of preposition showing location [ˈja prat͡ɕiˈtaɫ ˈeta f ˈknʲiɡi] ‘I read this in a book.’  3.5 Sketch of Russian 87 Each case has many other uses, of which the most common is that different prepositions select for different cases. Russian is very representative of Indo-​European languages in expressing case, number, and gender by means of suffixes. Suffixes that express grammatical catego- ries like these are often simply called endings. Russian is a fusional language, in that individual endings inseparably express number, gender, and case. For example, the ending [a] in [ˈknʲiɡ-​a] ‘book’ cannot be broken into three parts each of which expresses one specific category. Rather, [a] itself inseparably marks nominative case, singular number, and feminine gender. Because inflectional endings are so short, it may come as no surprise that there is a lot of homophony. [a] can also mean nominative, plural, and neuter, as in [ˈblʲud-​a] ‘dishes’. Russian is also typical of fusional languages in that different nouns may take different endings to express the same categories. For instance, the instrumental singular of [ˈknʲiɡ-​a] ‘book’ is [ˈknʲiɡ-​aj], but for [ˈkosʲtʲ] ‘bone’ it is [ˈkosʲtʲ-​ju]. Fortunately, most words can be grouped into one of a small number of inflectional paradigms: sets of words that take the same endings. Table 3.14 shows the full set of inflections for the three most important noun paradigms. Other paradigms are mostly variants of one of these. The entries in Table 3.14 are the forms that appear when the first vowel of the ending is stressed. For example, [t͡ɕirˈta] ‘line’ is stem [t͡ɕirt-​] plus the nomina- tive singular stressed ending [a]; its accusative singular is [t͡ɕirˈtu], and its dative singular is [t͡ɕirˈtʲe]. The palatalization on the stem-​final consonant of this last word form is due to the ending: the notation [‑ʲe] indicates that the ending causes TABLE 3.14 Noun paradigms Paradigm 1 2 3 Case sg nom ‑a m -​∅, n ‑o -​∅ acc ‑u = nom or gena -​∅ dat ‑ ʲe ‑u ‑i gen ‑i ‑a ‑i ins ‑oj ‑om ‑ju loc ‑ ʲe ‑e ‑i pl nom ‑i m ‑i, n ‑a ‑i acc = nom or gena = nom or gena = nom or gena dat ‑am ‑am ‑am gen ‑∅ m ‑of, n ‑∅ ‑ej ins ‑amʲi ‑amʲi ‑amʲi loc ‑ax ‑ax ‑ax a In animate nouns, form is same as genitive; in inanimate ones, same as nominative. 88 Europe [ʲ]-​palatalization on any consonant that has a [ʲ] counterpart. Not all nouns are stressed on the ending. Some are stressed on the stem; some are stressed on the stem in some categories and on the ending in others (recall 13a). When the end- ings are unstressed, the vowel reductions discussed in §3.5.3 may occur. Compare the paradigm 1 singular case endings in Table 3.14 with the example sentences given in (15). That shows the inflection forms taken by a paradigm 1 noun that does not stress the endings. The vowel [o] becomes [a] and [e] becomes [i]. After sharp consonants, many speakers further reduce [o] and [a] to [i], but not when [a] is the last vowel in the word. The notation ‑∅ in the table means that the stem does not take any ending. When that happens, words ending in consonant clusters often insert an [e] or an [o] to break up the cluster. For example, the word [dʲnʲ-​i] ‘days’, a nominative plu- ral paradigm 2 form, would according to Table 3.14 have the nominative singular ✗ [dʲnʲ]. Instead it inserts [e], resulting in [dʲenʲ]. Historically, all forms of the word had a jer. Jers were deleted in certain environments, and in others they became full vowels. The notation “= nom or gen” in the accusative rows of Table 3.14 means that different nouns in the same declension take different endings, depending on whether the object they refer to is animate. People and animals take one set of endings; inanimate objects take another. In Russian, the category of animacy is determined by the meaning of the noun, and is not an arbitrary property of words, at least not nearly to the same extent that gender is. 3.5.4.2 Adjectives Like nouns, adjectives have endings that indicate gender, case, and number (Table 3.15). An adjective must agree with the noun it modifies in those three categories, as well as animacy in the accusative case. Note that the adjective endings are mostly different from those of nouns; adjectives must match the nouns in terms of the function of their inflections, not their form. The endings listed are for when they are stressed; two-​syllable endings are stressed on their first vowel. For words in which the stem is stressed, the unstressed TABLE 3.15 Sample adjective declension sg Case f m n pl nom ‑aja ‑oj ‑oja ‑iji acc ‑uju = nom or gen ‑oja = nom or gen dat ‑oj ‑omu ‑omu ‑im gen ‑oj ‑ova ‑ova ‑ix ins ‑oj ‑im ‑im ‑imʲi loc ‑oj ‑om ‑om ‑ix  3.5 Sketch of Russian 89 suffixes undergo the expected change of [o] into [a]. Exceptionally, the masculine nominative singular is nowadays mostly pronounced [ij] when unstressed. Here are some examples of how adjectives inflect to agree with nouns. Sentence (16e) illustrates a special feature of adjectives in many Slavic languages. In predi- cate nominative constructions, adjectives often have forms with noun inflections, which are used as the head of nominative predicates. These forms –​the singular has feminine [-​a] (noun paradigm 1), masculine with no ending, and neuter singular in [-​o] (both paradigm 2), and the plural has [-​i] –​are shorter than the more usual adjective endings, and so are commonly called short forms. (16) a. balʲˈʃ-​oj ˈkonʲ big-​m.nom.sg horse(m)[nom.sg] ‘a big horse’ b. balʲˈʃ-​aja ˈkoʃk-​a big-​f.nom.sg cat(f)-​f.nom.sg ‘a big cat’ c. balʲˈʃ-​oja ˈdʲerʲiv-​a big-​n.nom.sg tree(n)-​n.nom.sg ‘a big tree’ d. balʲˈʃ-​im ˈkoʃk-​am big-​dat.pl cat(f)-​dat.pl ‘to big cats’ e. ˈkoʃk-​a kraˈsʲiv-​a cat(f)-​nom.sg beautiful-​f.nom.sg ‘The cat is beautiful.’ 3.5.4.3 Diminutives Both nouns and adjectives in Russian have a variety of diminutive suffixes, which can sometimes be piled up one after another: (17) a. ˈɡorat city ‘town, city’ b. ɡaraˈd-​ok city-​dim ‘small town’ 90 Europe c. ɡaraˈd-​ot͡ɕ-​ik city-​dim-​dim ‘a tiny town’ [-​ot͡ɕ] is an allomorph of [-​ok], originally caused by palatalization. [-​ik] is a different, though etymologically related, diminutive suffix. d. ɡaraˈd-​ot͡ɕ-​it͡ɕ-​ik city-​dim-​dim-​dim ‘a teensy-​weensy town’ Besides indicating the small size of something, the diminutive also expresses endearment, and therefore plays a large role in baby talk and in the sweet talk between lovers. More rarely these days, it can also indicate condescension. (18) a. ˈpʲotr Peter(m)[m.nom.sg] ‘Peter’ Underlying [e] often changes to [o] before flat consonants. b. ˈpʲetʲ-​inʲk-​a Peter(m)-​dim-​nom.sg ‘my dear Petey’ Noun paradigm 1 (note the [-​a]) is most commonly used for feminine words, but it includes quite a few masculine words as well. These are limited to words that refer to males (semantically masculine words). c. ˈpʲetʲ-​k-​a Peter(m)-​dim-​nom.sg ‘Pete’ a servant, or someone of similarly low social status, or someone with whom the speaker is angry, annoyed, etc. Adjectives can be given diminutive suffixes. The diminutive meaning applies to the modified noun, not to the adjective. (19) a. ˈbʲeɫ-​ij white-​m.nom.sg ‘white’ b. ˈbʲelʲ-​inʲk-​ij white-​dim-​m.nom.sg ‘tiny and white’ (not ✗‘whitish’)  3.5 Sketch of Russian 91 3.5.4.4 Patronymics A source of endless confusion for the readers of Russian novels in translation are patronymics, which Russians use as middle names. The patronymics name a per- son’s father. It is considered respectful enough to address someone only by his or her first name followed by the patronymic, omitting the family name or any title of respect. Patronymics as well as Russian family names are adjectival in form and must agree in gender with the nouns they modify, that is, with the sex of the bearer. This creates confusion among uninitiated non-​Slavic readers because both the patro- nymic and the family name will look different in the case of a brother and sister: (20) a. iˈvan iˈvan-​avʲit͡ɕ ivaˈn-​of Ivan(m)[m.nom.sg] Ivan-​patronym(m)[m.nom.sg] Ivan-​surname(m)[m.nom.sg] ‘Ivan Ivanov, son of Ivan’ b. jiˈlʲen-​a iˈvan-​avn-​a ivaˈn-​ov-​a Elen(f)-​f.nom.sg Ivan-​patronym(f)-​f.nom.sg Ivan-​surname-​f.nom.sg ‘Elena Ivanova, daughter of Ivan’ 3.5.4.5 Verbs Finite forms A finite verb is the most fundamental type of verb inflection in a language. It can serve as the head of a sentence. In synthetic languages, it is the type of verb that tends to have the most grammatical information attached to it, such as tense (time) and agreement with the subject. For example, in the English sentence John loves to play WoW, loves is the finite verb: the head of the sentence, marked for present tense and for having a third-​person singular subject. The verb play, by contrast, is nonfinite. Like most other Indo-​European languages, Russian has finite verb forms that agree with the number and person of their subject nouns. The verbs mark agree- ment by means of inflectional endings. Table 3.16 gives two typical inflectional TABLE 3.16 Personal verb forms in Russian Paradigm Subject 1 2 1sg ‑u ‑u 2sg ‑ ʲoʃ ‑iʃ 3sg ‑ ʲot ‑it 1pl ‑ ʲom ‑im 2pl ‑ ʲotʲi ‑itʲi 3pl ‑ut ‑at 92 Europe paradigms for verbs in the present or future (= nonpast npst) tenses. For example, the first-​conjugation ‘I give’ is expressed as [ja daˈj-​u], selecting a first person sin- gular ending, but ‘Elena gives’ is [jiˈlʲena daˈj-​ot], selecting a third person singular ending. The second paradigm is typified by [i] endings: ‘I speak’ is [ja ɡavaˈrʲ-​u], but ‘Elena speaks’ is [jiˈlʲena gavaˈrʲ-​it]. We do not mark any of the endings as pala- talizing because all stems in verb paradigm 2 already end in a sharp consonant. Thus [ˈja ɡavaˈrʲ-​u] ‘I speak’, [ˈti ɡavaˈrʲ-​iʃ] ‘you speak’, and so forth. The clear dis- tinction between the two paradigms is muddied by the fact that the [o] of the first declension is weakened to [i] in words where the stress doesn’t fall on the ending. The major complication of the nonpast inflection is not the endings, but the fact that some verbs change stems when used with different endings. Recall from §3.5.3 the contrast between [pʲiˈk-​u] ‘I bake’ and [pʲiˈt͡ɕ-​oʃ] ‘you bake’, which is ultimately due to a palatalization of [k] before certain endings. The imperative mood (imp) is used for commands. Imperative verbs are formed from the nonpast stem by adding [-​ʲi]: [ɡavaˈrʲi] ‘speak!’. Other variants, depending on how the verb stem ends, are [-​j] and mere [-​ʲ]-​ palatalization on the last consonant. The plural is formed by adding [-​tʲi] to the basic imperative. The Russian past tense (pst) is formed by adding [‑ɫ] to verb stems. Instead of inflecting to show number and person, past-​tense forms agree with their subject in number and gender, using endings typical of short-​form adjectives (§3.5.4.2): mas- culine singular -​∅, feminine singular [-​a], neuter singular [-​o], and plural [-​ʲi] for all genders. Thus, ‘he was reading’ is [ˈon t͡ɕiˈtaɫ]; ‘she was reading’ is [aˈna tɕ͡ iˈtaɫa], and so forth. This unusual type of agreement arose because the past tense form was originally a type of past participle (see next section, §3.5.4.5) and still retains the type of agreement participles have: gender instead of person. Nonfinite forms Russian nonfinite verb forms are not inflected for person and cannot serve as the main verb of a sentence. They are illustrated here with the verb stem [t͡ɕiˈta-​] ‘read’. Participles modify a noun and inflect like an adjective, agreeing with the noun in number, gender, and case. They also inflect for grammatical voice: active forms are used with nouns that have a subject-​like relationship to the verb; passive voice forms are used with nouns that have an object-​like relationship. Adverbial participles modify the verb itself and do not inflect at all. (21) a. infinitive inf: [t͡ɕiˈtatʲ] ‘to read’ b. present active participle: [t͡ɕiˈtajuɕːij] ‘reading’ c. present passive participle: [t͡ɕiˈtajimij] ‘being read’ d. past active participle: [t͡ɕiˈtafʃij] ‘having read’ e. past passive participle: [ˈt͡ɕitannij] ‘having been read’ f. adverbial participle: [t͡ɕiˈtaja] ‘while reading’  3.5 Sketch of Russian 93 Aspect Russian has an unusually thoroughgoing treatment of aspect at the lexical level. Aspect characterizes the action of a verb in terms of its completion. A perfective aspect (pfv) frames the action as complete (Latin perfectum), whereas an imper- fective aspect (ipfv) frames the action or state as ongoing, or not completed. In English, sentences such as I have written a letter, I had written a letter, I sneezed, and I will write a letter tomorrow suggest a perfective aspect. Sentences such as I am writing a letter, I was writing a letter, I used to write letters, I sneezed over and over, I have been writing letters, and I’ll be writing a letter when the movie starts suggest an imperfective aspect. Most Russian verbs have a specific aspect built into the lexeme: a verb is either perfective or imperfective and cannot be used to express the other aspect. A hallmark of perfective verbs in Russian is that they cannot express present tense: the present is considered inherently imperfective. Instead, when a perfective verb is used in the nonpast personal form (as in Table 3.16), the tense it expresses is future. For example, the imperfective verb [pʲiˈʃu] in the nonpast tense is inter- preted as present ‘I write’, but the perfective verb [napʲiˈʃu] in the same inflected form is future: ‘I will write’. Russian makes extensive use of derivation to make fine distinctions of mean- ing, including differences in aspect. Almost all imperfective verbs have at least one perfective counterpart that is derived from the imperfective verb, or vice versa. For example, from the basic root [stuk-​] ‘knock’ one can form the following verbs, which are all cited in their infinitive form: (22) a. [stuˈt͡ɕ-​atʲ] ipfv ‘to knock, keep on knocking’ b. [ˈstuk-​nutʲ] pfv ‘to knock (once)’ c. [pa-​ˈstuk-​ivatʲ] ipfv ‘to keep on knocking intermittently’ d. [pa-​stuˈt͡ɕ-​atʲ] pfv ‘to knock intermittently once’ e. [da-​stuˈt͡ɕ-​at-​sa] pfv ‘to knock until there is a result’ f. [na-​stuˈt͡ɕ-​at-​sa] pfv ‘to have one’s fill of knocking’ g. [ras-​stut͡ɕ-​atʲ] pfv ‘to knock something apart’ h. [ras-​stut͡ɕ-​at-​sa] pfv ‘to knock away with abandon’ 3.5.5 SYNTAX The unmarked or basic word order in Russian is SVO, as in English. Adjectives normally precede the nouns they modify. However, the Russian word order is less fixed than that of English. The endings on nouns and their dependents indicate fairly unambiguously the grammatical relations: what modifies what, what is the subject of a verb, or the object, and so forth. The normal word order is often vio- lated for stylistic reasons and when elements of the sentence are topicalized –​ marked as being the topic of discourse. For example, both of the following Russian 94 Europe sentences basically mean ‘My cat bit your dog’, in spite of the radical difference in word order: (23) a. maˈj-​a ˈkoʃk-​a ukuˈsʲi-​ɫ-​a tvaˈj-​u saˈbak-​u my-​f.nom.sg cat-​f.nom.sg bite-​pst-​f.sg your-​f.acc.sg dog-​f.acc.sg Normal word order, perhaps in answer to the question “What happened?” b. tvaˈj-​u saˈbak-​u ukuˈsʲi-​ɫ-​a maˈj-​a ˈkoʃk-​a your-​f.acc.sg dog-​f.acc.sg bite-​pst-​f.sg my-​f.nom.sg cat-​f.nom.sg ‘Your dog’ placed at the front of the sentence, perhaps in answer to the question “What happened to my dog?” Note that the Russian sentence meaning ‘Your dog bit my cat’ could have the same word order as (23b), but the nouns would have different endings: (24) tvaˈj-​a saˈbak-​a ukuˈsʲi-​ɫ-​a maˈj-​u ˈkoʃk-​u your-​f.nom.sg dog-​f.nom.sg bite-​pst-​f.sg my-​f.acc.sg cat-​f.acc.sg The Russian equivalent of the verb ‘be’ is not used in the present tense, result- ing in verbless clauses. Predicate adjectives used in such constructions may be used in their short form, if they have one. (25) a. ˈja stuˈdʲent I[nom] student[m.nom] ‘I am a student.’ b. ˈja ˈbolʲin I[nom] sick[m.nom] ‘I am sick.’ [ˈbolʲin] is the short form of [balʲˈnoj]. 3.5.5.1 Interrogative sentences Interrogative sentences (questions) in Russian often have the same word order as declarative sentences (statements), especially in content questions –​ those that have an interrogative word like ‘when’ that the answerer is meant to replace with the correct content: (26) a. ˈti ˈbi-​ɫ ˈtam you be-​pst[m.sg] there ‘You were there.’  3.5 Sketch of Russian 95 b. kaˈɡda ˈti ˈbi-​ɫ ˈtam when you be-​pst[m.sg] there ‘When were you there?’ Note how the subject and verb switch places in the English equivalent but not in the Russian. In polar questions (also called yes-​no questions), the word that is the focus of the interrogation is fronted to the beginning of the sentence, and the enclitic interrogative particle [lʲi] is placed immediately after it. A particle (q) is a word that conveys grammatical information and doesn’t belong to any other major word class. (27) a. ˈbi-​ɫ=lʲi ˈti ˈtam be-​pst[m.sg]=q you there ‘Were you (actually) there?’ b. ˈti=lʲi ˈbi-​ɫ ˈtam you=q be-​pst[m.sg] there ‘Was it you (and not somebody else) who were there?’ The use of the enclitic [lʲi] is now considered literary. In everyday language, the most common way of forming polar questions is to use the same words and the same word order as the declarative statement, but apply an interrogative intonation. 3.5.5.2 Subordinate clauses A subordinate clause is a clause that is syntactically dependent on some ele- ment in a higher, parent clause. In (28), [kaˈɡda ˈti prʲiˈʃoɫ] ‘when you came’ is a subordinate clause that is dependent on and elaborates the tense of the verb [ˈbiɫ] in the main clause [ˈon uˈʒe ˈbiɫ ˈpʲjan] ‘he was already drunk’. (28) kaˈɡda ˈti prʲiˈʃo-​ɫ ˈon uˈʒe ˈbi-​ɫ ˈpʲjan when you come(pfv)-​pst[m.sg] he already be-​pst[m.sg] drunk[m.nom.sg] ‘When you came, he was already drunk.’ A relative clause is a subordinate clause that is dependent on a noun. Relative clauses in Russian follow the noun they modify (29). Like English, Russian employs relative pronouns (rel) as markers of relative clauses; they agree in number and gender with the noun they depend on. Their case, however, is determined by their usage within the relative clause itself. 96 Europe (29) ˈkoʃk-​a kaˈtor-​aja ukuˈsʲi-​ɫ-​a kaˈnʲ-​a cat-​f.nom.sg which(rel)-​f.nom.sg bite(pfv)-​pst-​f.sg horse-​m.acc.sg ubʲiˈʒa-​ɫ-​a run_​away(pfv)-​pst-​f.sg ‘The cat that bit the horse ran away.’ 3.5.5.3 Negation Like French, Spanish, and some other languages, including many nonstandard dialects of English, Russian employs double negation. The multiple negatives do not cancel each other out, but redundantly signal and reinforce the negative aspect of the statement: (30) ˈon nʲikaˈɡda nʲi ˈxot͡ɕ-​it paj-​ˈtʲi nʲikuˈda sa ˈmnoj he never not want-​3sg go(pfv)-​inf nowhere with me ‘He never wants to go anywhere with me.’ Another feature of negation in Russian is the different case marking of direct objects of negated verbs. The genitive case is used instead of the accusative case when the object is indefinite. (31) a. ˈja ˈvʲiʒ-​u ˈkoʃk-​u I see(ipfv)-​npst.1sg cat-​f.acc.sg ‘I see a cat.’ b. ja nʲi ˈvʲiʒ-​u ˈkoʃk-​i I not see(ipfv)-​npst.1sg cat-​f.gen.sg ‘I don’t see any cat.’ The genitive case is used instead of the expected nominative case to mark the logical subject in existential sentences that have been negated: (32) a. vaˈd-​a ˈjestʲ water-​f.nom.sg is ‘There is water.’ b. vaˈd-​i ˈnʲet water-​f.gen.sg isn’t ‘There isn’t any water.’  3.5 Sketch of Russian 97 3.5.6 SAMPLE TEXT The following passage is taken from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s novel В круге первом [f ˈkruɡʲi ˈpʲervam] (Solzhenitsyn 1968: 95). Solzhenitsyn (Солженицын [salʒiˈnʲit͡sin]) was a Nobel Prize–​winning author best known for his depiction of Soviet forced labor camps. In this selection, Abakumov [abaˈkumaf], Minister of State Security under Stalin, is interrogating Bobynin [baˈbinʲin], an engineer who works in a secret research institute staffed with prisoners. In order to keep things uncluttered, some morpheme breaks have been ignored. (33) У Абакумова был тоже голосок с громовыми раскатами, и он умел им припугнуть. u abaˈkumav-​a bi-​ɫ ˈtoʒi ɡalaˈs-​ok at Abakumov-​m.gen.sg be-​PST[m.sg] also voice-​dim[m.nom.sg] z ɡram-​aˈvi-​mʲi raˈskat-​amʲi with thunder-​adj-​m.ins.pl roll-​m.ins.pl    i ˈon uˈmʲe-​ɫ i-​m prʲipuˈɡnu-​tʲ    and 3sg.m.nom know_​how(ipfv)-​pst[m.sg] 3sg.m-​ins frighten(pfv)-​inf ‘Abakumov also had quite a little voice, like rolling thunder, and he knew how to intimidate people with it.’ The most common way to express possession in Russian is by using an existential construction (32). The possessor is the object of the preposition [u] ‘at’, which takes the genitive case. The preposition [s], which has the allomorph [z], takes the instrumental case when it means ‘with’. Unlike with [im] later in this sentence, this isn’t the core case function of means. It is very common for instrumentality and accompaniment to be linked in case systems. (34) Но сейчас он чувствовал, что кричать было бы беспомощно и несолидно. ˈno sʲiˈt͡ɕas ˈon ˈt͡ɕustvava-​ɫ ʃta krʲiˈt͡ɕ-​atʲ but now 3sg.m.nom feel(ipfv)-​pst[m.sg] that(subord) shout-​inf ˈbi-​ɫ-​a=bi bʲis-​ˈpomaɕːn-​a i nʲi-​saˈlʲidn-​a be-​pst-​n.sg=sbjv without-​help-​n.nom.sg and non-​solid-​n.nom.sg ‘But for now he felt that it would be useless and not respectable to shout.’ adj = adjective. subord = subordinator, a conjunction that introduces subordinate clauses. sbjv = subjunctive mood, making the clause hypothetical. Neuter nominative singular forms of adjectives can often be translated as impersonal constructions in English. Another example: [ˈxoladn-​a] ‘It is cold’. The same adjective form is also commonly used as an adverb in Russian. 98 Europe (35) Он понял, что арестант этот трудный. ˈon ˈponʲi-​ɫ ʃta arʲiˈstant 3sg.m.nom understand(pfv)-​pst[m.sg] that(subord) prisoner(m)[m.nom.sg] ˈetat ˈtrudn-​ij this[m.nom.sg] difficult-​m.nom.sg ‘He understood that this prisoner was difficult.’ (36) И только предупредил: —​Слушайте, заключённый. i ˈtolʲka prʲiduprʲiˈdʲi-​ɫ ˈsluʃa-​j-​tʲi zaklʲuˈt͡ɕonnij and only warn(pfv)-​pst[m.sg] listen(ipfv)-​imp-​pl prisoner(m.nom.sg) ‘And so he merely warned: “Listen, prisoner.’ [ˈsluʃaj-​tʲi]. The ending is plural, but the command is addressed to one person. Use of the plural in direct address was adopted as a more polite or formal way of addressing a single individual, like French vous. In Soviet Russia it was the normal way of addressing any adult who was not a close friend or family member. The mark “—​” is a quotation dash, used to set off quoted speech or indicate change of speakers. (37) Если я с вами мягко, так вы не забывайтесь …. ˈjesʲlʲi ˈja s ˈvamʲi ˈmʲaxk-​a ˈtak ˈvi nʲi zabiˈva-​j-​tʲi-​sʲ if 1sg.nom with 2pl.ins soft-​adv so 2pl.nom not forget(ipfv)-​imp-​pl-​refl ‘ “Just because I’m going easy on you, don’t you forget yourself….” ’ adv = adverb. refl = reflexive voice. In Russian, the reflexive is indicated by attaching [sʲ] (sometimes [sʲa] or [sa]) after all other inflectional endings. In a true reflexive, such as John shaves himself, the subject of a verb is understood to be the same entity as its object. As in many other languages, constructions that are formally reflexive in Russian are not always literally so from a semantic perspective, but all reflexive verbs do have the common property of not taking a direct object. [ˈja s ˈvamʲi ˈmʲaxk-​a]. It is not unusual in Russian for a verb to be omitted if it can be supplied from context. (38) —​А если бы вы со мной грубо –​я б с вами и разговаривать не стал, гражданин министр. a ˈjesʲlʲi=bi ˈvi sa ˈmnoj ˈɡrub-​a ja=p s ˈvamʲi i but if=sbjv 2pl.nom with 1sg.ins harsh-​adv 1sg.nom=sbjv with 2pl.ins even razɡaˈvarʲiva-​tʲ nʲi ˈsta-​ɫ ɡraʒdaˈnʲin mʲiˈnʲistr talk(ipfv)-​inf not begin(pfv)-​pst[m.sg] citizen[m.nom.sg] minister[m.nom.sg] ‘ “If you were dealing with me harshly, I wouldn’t even begin to talk to you, citizen minister.’  3.5 Sketch of Russian 99 Bobynin, being a prisoner, cannot address Abakumov as [taˈvariɕː mʲiˈnʲistr] ‘comrade minister’, which would have been the normal way for an ordinary Soviet citizen to address such an official. Prisoners and others deemed enemies of the state could not be considered comrades of Soviet citizens. (39) Кричите на своих полковников да генералов, у них слишком много в жизни есть, им слишком жалко этого всего. krʲiˈt͡ɕ-​i-​tʲi na sva-​ˈix paɫˈkovnʲik-​af da ɡinʲiˈraɫ-​af u shout(ipfv)-​imp-​pl at refl.poss-​m.acc.pl colonel-​m.acc.pl and general-​m.acc.pl at nʲi-​x ˈsʲlʲiʃkam ˈmnoɡa v ˈʒizʲnʲ-​i jesʲtʲ i-​m ˈsʲlʲiʃkam ˈʒaɫk-​a 3pl-​gen too much in life-​f.dat.sg is 3pl-​dat too sorry-​n.nom.sg ˈeta-​va fsʲi-​ˈvo this-​n.gen.sg all-​n.gen.sg ‘ “Shout at your colonels and generals! They have too much in life, they’d be too sorry to lose it all.” ’ [nʲix] ‌. The third-​person pronoun adds an initial [n] when it follows a preposition. Compare [im]. [ˈʒalka] ‘sorry’ expresses the experiencer in the dative case and the stimulus, the thing one is sorry about, in the genitive case. (40) —​Сколько нужно –​и вас заставим. ˈskolʲka ˈnuʒna i v-​as zaˈstavʲi-​m as_​much_​as necessary[n.nom.sg] and 2pl-​acc force(pfv)-​npst.1pl ‘ “We’ll do whatever we have to; and we’ll use force on you.” ’ (41) —​Ошибаетесь, гражданин министр! aʃiˈbaj-​itʲi-​sʲ ɡraʒdaˈnʲin mʲiˈnʲistr err(pfv)-​2pl-​refl citizen[m.nom.sg] minister[m.nom.sg] ‘ “You are mistaken, citizen minister.” ’ On the use of the reflexive, compare the French expression vous vous trompez ‘you are mistaken’. (42) —​И сильные глаз-​а Бобынина сверкнули ненавистью. i ˈsʲilʲni-​ji ɡlaˈz-​a baˈbinʲin-​a svʲirˈknu-​lʲ-​i and strong-​nom.pl eye(m)-​m.nom.pl Bobynin-​m.gen.sg flash(pfv)-​pst-​pl ˈnʲenavʲistʲ-​ju hatred-​f.ins.sg ‘And Bobynin’s piercing eyes flashed with hatred.’ Quite a few masculine nouns form their nominative plural in [a], which is always stressed. 100 Europe (43) —​У меня ничего нет, вы понимаете –​нет ничего! u mʲiˈnʲ-​a nʲit͡ɕ-​iˈvo ˈnʲet v-​i paˈnʲima-​itʲi ˈnʲet nʲit͡ɕ-​iˈvo at 1sg-​gen nothing-​n.gen.sg isn’t 2pl-​nom understand-​npst.2pl isn’t nothing-​n.gen.sg ‘ “I have nothing, you understand –​nothing!’ (44) Жену мою и ребёнка вы уже не достанете –​их взяла бомба. ʒiˈn-​u maˈj-​u i rʲiˈbʲonk-​a v-​i uˈʒe nʲi daˈstanʲ-​itʲi wife-​f.acc.sg my-​f.acc.sg and child-m.acc.sg 2pl-nom already not get(pfv)-​npst.2pl i-​x vzʲa-​ˈɫ-​a ˈbomb-​a 3pl-​acc take(pfv)-​pst-​f.sg bomb-​f.nom.sg ‘ “You can’t get my wife and child any longer: a bomb took them.’ (45) Родители мои –​уже умерли. raˈdʲitʲilʲ-​i ma-​ˈi uˈʒe ˈumʲir-​lʲ-​i parent-​m.nom.pl 1sg.poss-​m.nom.pl already die(pfv)-​pst-​pl ‘ “My parents have already died.’ (46) Имущества у меня всего на земле –​носовой платок, а комбинезон и вот бельё под ним без пуговиц (он обнажил грудь и показал) –​казённое. iˈmuɕːistv-​a u mʲiˈnʲ-​a fsʲi-​ˈvo na zʲimˈlʲ-​e nas-​aˈv-​oj possession-n.gen.sg at 1sg-​gen all-​n.gen.sg on earth-​f.dat.sg nose-​adj-​m.nom.sg pɫaˈtok a kambʲinʲiˈzon i ˈvot bʲilʲˈjo kerchief[m.nom.sg] whereas overalls[m.nom.sg] and here underwear[m.nom.sg] ˈpod nʲi-​m ˈbʲes ˈpuɡavʲit͡s ˈon abnaˈʒi-​ɫ under 3sg-​ins without buttons[f.gen.pl] 3sg[nom.sg] bare(pfv)-​pst[m.sg] ˈɡrutʲ i pakaˈza-​ɫ kaˈzʲonn-​aja chest[f.acc.sg] and show(pfv)-​pst[m.sg] state_​owned-​n.nom.sg ‘ “My only earthly possession is a handkerchief; the overalls and this underwear beneath it that doesn’t have any buttons” —​he bared his chest and showed him —​ “are state-​issued.’ According to Soviet prison regulations of that time, prisoners were forbidden to wear clothing with buttons. (47) Свободу вы у меня давно отняли, а вернуть её не в ваших силах, ибо её нет у вас самого. svaˈbod-​u v-​i u mʲiˈnʲ-​a davˈno ˈotʲnʲi-​lʲ-​i a freedom-​f.acc.sg 2pl-​nom at 1sg-​gen long_​ago take_​away(pfv)-​pst-​pl but vʲirˈnu-​tʲ iˈj-​o nʲi v ˈvaʃ-​ix ˈsʲiɫ-​ax ˈiba iˈj-​o   return(pfv)-​inf 3sg-​f.acc not in 2pl-​loc.pl power-​f.loc.pl for(conj) 3sg-​f.gen  3.5 Sketch of Russian 101 nʲet u ˈv-​as sam-​aˈvo   isn’t at 2pl-​gen self-​m.gen.sg ‘ “Freedom you took from me long ago, but it’s not in your power to return it, for you don’t have it yourself.’ conj = conjunction (48) Лет мне отроду сорок два, сроку вы мне отсыпали двадцать пять, на каторге я уже был, в номерах ходил, и в наручниках, и с собаками, и в бригаде усиленного режима –​чем ещё можете вы мне угрозить? ˈlʲet ˈmnʲ-​e ˈot-​radu ˈsorak ˈdva years[m.gen.pl] 1sg-​dat from-​birth(adv) forty[nom] two[nom] ˈsrok-​u ˈv-​i ˈmnʲ-​e atˈsipa-​lʲ-​i ˈdvat͡sitʲ ˈpʲatʲ term-​m.ptv.sg 2pl-​nom 1sg-​dat pour(pfv)-​pst-​pl twenty[acc] five[acc] na ˈkatarɡ-​i ja uˈʒe bi-​ɫ in convict_​labor-​f.loc.sg 1sg[nom] already be-​pst[m.sg] v namʲiˈr-​ax xaˈdʲi-​ɫ i v na-​ˈrut͡ɕ-​nʲik-​ax in number-​m.loc.pl go(ipfv)-​pst[m.sg] also in on-​hand-​noun-​m.loc.pl i s saˈbak-​amʲi and with dog-​f.ins.pl i v brʲiˈɡadʲ-​i uˈsʲilʲinn-​ava rʲiˈʒim-​a and in brigade-​f.loc.sg strenous-​m.gen.sg regimen-​m.gen.sg ˈt͡ɕ-​em iˈɕːo ˈmoʒ-​itʲi v-​i mnʲ-​e uɡraˈzʲi-​tʲ what-​ins.sg still can(ipfv)-​npst.2pl 2pl-​nom 1sg-​dat threaten(pfv)-​inf ‘ “I am 42 years old, and you’ve given me a 25-​year sentence; I’ve already been at convict labor, walked around wearing numbers, and in handcuffs, and with dogs, and in a hard labor brigade; what else can you threaten me with?’ ptv = partitive case. Russian uses this case for objects of verbs when they are mass nouns –​nouns that name substances that are not ordinarily treated as counted items. The idea is that the verb isn’t affecting all of the substance (here, time) but only part of it. The partitive can be thought of as a subcase of the genitive case, because for most nouns the same form is used for the genitive and the partitive. [ˈlʲet]. Some paradigm 2 masculine nouns lack a genitive plural ending. This is particularly common in the context of counts and measures. ‘Pour’ in the sense of ‘pour out a measure of grain’. Here this verb is being used as slang meaning ‘to mete out (a prison term)’. (49) чего ещё лишить? Инженерной работы? t͡ɕ-​iˈvo jiˈɕːo lʲiˈʃi-​tʲ inʒiˈnʲern-​aj raˈbot-​i what-​gen.sg still deprive(pfv)-​inf engineering-​f.gen.sg work-​f.gen.sg ‘ “What else can you deprive me of? Engineering work?’ 102 Europe (50) Вы от этого потеряете больше. ˈv-​i ˈot ˈeta-​va patʲiˈrʲa-​itʲi ˈbolʲʃi 2pl-​nom from this-​n.gen.sg lose(pfv)-​npst.2pl more ‘ “You would lose more from that.’ (51) Я закурю. ˈja zakuˈrʲ-​u 1sg[nom] smoke(pfv)-​npst.1sg ‘ “I’m going to have a smoke.” ’ (52) Абакумов раскрыл коробку »Тройки« особого выпуска и пододвинул Бобынину: abaˈkumaf rasˈkri-​ɫ kaˈropk-​u ˈtrojk-​i Abakumov[m.nom.sg] open(pfv)-​pst[m.sg] box-​f.acc.sg Troika-​f.gen.sg aˈsob-​ava ˈvipusk-​a i padaˈdvʲinu-​ɫ baˈbinʲin-​u special-​m.gen.sg edition-​m.gen.sg and approach(pfv)-​pst[m.sg] Bobynin-​m.dat.sg ‘Abakumov opened a pack of Troika Special Edition, and pushed it over to Bobynin:’ Higher-​quality versions of cigarette brands and some other products were made for higher Soviet officials and were available only to them. (53) —​Вот, возьмите этих. ˈvot vaˈzʲmʲ-​i-​tʲi ˈetʲ-​ix here take(pfv)-​imp-​pl this-​f.ptv.pl ‘ “Here, take some of these.” ’ This is perhaps a clearer use of the partitive object: ‘take (some) of these’, but not all of them. (54) —​Спасибо. Не меняю марки. Кашель. spaˈsʲiba nʲi mʲiˈnʲa-​ju ˈmark-​i ˈkaʃilʲ thanks not change(ipfv)-​npst.1sg brand-​nom.pl cough[m.nom.sg] ‘ “Thanks. I’m not switching brands. The cough.” ’ (55) —​И достал »беломорину« из самодельного портсигара. i daˈsta-​ɫ bʲiɫa-​ˈmorʲ-​in-​u is sama-​ˈdʲelʲ-​n-​ava and get(pfv)-​pst[m.sg] white-​sea-​aug-​f.acc.sg from self-​make-​adj-​m.gen.sg portsʲiˈɡar-​a cigarette_​case-​m.gen.sg ‘And he took out a coarse Belomor from a homemade cigarette case.’ aug = augmentative word: the opposite of a diminutive, but much more often it is used to suggest coarseness, crudeness, and commonplaceness instead of large size. Bobynin, of course, is baiting the official. Belomorkanal was one of the cheapest brands of cigarettes and had no filter; it defied common wisdom to suggest that it would be less likely to induce a cough than the minister’s fancy cigarettes.  3.6 Sketch of Finnish 103 (56) —​Вообще, поймите и передайте там, кому кому надо выше, что вы сильны лишь постольку, поскольку отбираете от людей не всё. vaapˈɕːe pajˈmʲ-​i-​tʲi i pʲirʲiˈda-​j-​tʲi ˈtam ka-​ˈmu in_​general understand-​imp-​pl and report(pfv)-​imp-​pl there who(rel)-​dat.sg ka-​ˈmu ˈnada ˈviʃi ʃta v-​i sʲilʲˈn-​i who(rel)-​dat.sg necessary higher that(subord) 1pl-​nom powerful-​m.pl ˈlʲiʃ paˈstolʲku paˈskolʲku ad-​bʲiˈra-​itʲi   at lʲuˈdʲ-​ej only insomuch inasmuch from-​take(ipfv)-​npst.2pl from people-​m.gen.pl nʲi ˈfsʲ-​o not all-​n.acc.sg ‘ “Understand this and report it to whichever higher-​ups you need to, that you are powerful only as long as you don’t take everything away from people.’ (57) Но человек, у которого вы отобрали всё –​уже не подвластен вам, он снова свободен. no t͡ɕiɫaˈvʲek u kaˈtor-​ava v-​i at-​aˈbra-​lʲ-​i but man[m.nom.sg] at which-​m.gen.sg you-​nom.pl from-​(pfv)-​pst-​pl ˈfsʲ-​o uˈʒe nʲi pad-​ˈvɫasʲtʲ-​in v-​am all-​n.acc.sg already not under-​power-​adj[m.nom.sg] 2pl-​dat ˈon ˈsnova svaˈbodʲ-​in 3sg[m.nom.sg] again free-​adj[m.nom.sg] ‘But a man you’ve taken everything from is no longer in your power; he is free again.’ 3.6 Sketch of Finnish 3.6.1 GENERAL BACKGROUND Finnish is a member of the Finnic clade of the Uralic language family. To a large extent, it is mutually intelligible with Karelian, which is spoken across the border in the Russian Republic of Karelia. Along with Swedish, Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland, and it is spoken by some five million people. Typologically, Finnish is predominantly agglutinative, with a very rich mor- phology. While most Uralic languages have SOV word order, Finnish has SVO. Finnish vocabulary, too, has been influenced very much by Indo-​European languages (58). Early Germanic loanwords in Finnish are important for the recon- struction of the Proto-​Germanic language. The word [kuniŋːɑs] (58b) shows the hypothesized Proto-​Germanic form of the maculine nominative singular ending *[‑az] more clearly than any attested word in a Germanic language. (58) a. [sɑtɑ] ‘hundred’ < Iranian (cf. Avestan [satəm]) b. [kuniŋːɑs] ‘king’ < Germanic *[kuniŋɡaz] (cf. Old English [kyniŋɡ]) c. [siltɑ] ‘bridge’ < Lithuanian [tʲɪ ɫ̂ tɐs]