Re: Easy and Interesting Languages -- Website

From: "Philippe Caquant" <herodote92@...>

> True, when it comes to cursives, Russian is terrible.
> If you have a word with a lot of l, i, sh, shch and
> some more inside, you always wonder where does a
> letter begin and where does it end (perhaps the word
> "lishnyj" for ex ?
I never write in cursive except when signing my name; my handwriting gets
horrible. The way Russians (at least) disambiguate certain letters is with
strokes like a line above 't' (which looks like 'm'), and some others I
can't remember.

I didn't learn much Russian when I studied it, but I do know Cyrillic
backwards and forwards. Since I write everything in print, I write things
like the 't' that looks like 'm' (but not the 'd' that looks like a 'g'),
see below.

Now you wanna see something REALLY illegible -- try Suetterlin:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/german.htm.

> Also strange to see a "d" written like a "g" in
> Russian (although another less exotic form is possible
> too).
Which I prefer since it's more familiar to me. It's looks like 'd' but with
a curved stem, or edh (ð) without the stroke.

> Talking about "anecdots", I don't know the exact
> meaning of the word in English, but in French, it
> justs means a short unimportant story you might tell
> when chattering with friends. It doesn't have to be
> funny at all - might even be tragic. But if you say to
> Russian people "Ja vam rasskazhu anekdot" (I'll tell
> you an anecdot), they will all expect eagerly the end,
> in order to burst of laughing. "Anekdot" HAS to be
> funny in Russian. Better to know it before.
I think _anekdota_ in Russian (and Greek) simply translates to 'joke'.