Re: A perfect day for introducing myself

On Thu, 27 Jan 2000 11:22:40 -0600, Matt Pearson
<jmpearson@...> wrote:

>Privyet, Vasiliy Yevgenyevich, and welcome to the list!
>
>Matt.
>(who studied two years of Russian in college, and
>only remembers "privyet" and a handful of other
>phrases...)
Priv(y)et, i spasibo!

Oh, Russian looks so funny when written in the Roman letters...

I guess it's like English in IPA :)

On Thu, 27 Jan 2000 16:33:21 -0600, Matt Pearson
<jmpearson@...> wrote:

>Determining what my Russian name is is complicated by the fact
>that my father and I both go by our middle names.  So should I base
>my Russian given name and patronymic on our first names or our
>middle names?  If they were based on our middle names, I would be
>Mattvei Stepanovich Petrov.  If they were based on first names,
>I would be Yul Ivanovich Petrov.
>
>Matt.
There is no distinction between 'first' and 'middle' names in Russian.
So you can safely name yourself Matvey Stepanovich (or Metyu Stivenovich,
as we in Russia mostly transcribe foreign names based on their sound
rather than etymology, with rare exceptions like the names of monarchs).

Aren't you a person of royal descendance, occasionally ? If so, there
is a special rule. I believe then you'd be Iuliy Ioannovich (and not
simply Yuliy Ivanovich; but I doubt about the etimology of your first
name: Julius?). Or maybe Matfey Stefanovich (I don't remember a king
named Matfey, though. That would be a precedent ;). Oh, sorry...
somewhere in Hungary? An unjustified exception: written *Matiash* in
Russian).

If, for some reason, a Russian has more than one name, they are perceived
as 'alternative' first names, and their order is unimportant.

Foreign names are sometimes written with a defice. I think this is
originally a German influence (Anne-Marie, etc.). Such names look like
compounds (or rather, 'double' names, since both parts are potentially
declinable).


Basilius