Re: Intelligentsia? Re: Adopting a plural

On Wednesday, October 13, 2004, at 05:30 , Rodlox wrote:

>> Languages Dept. of the university where I work.
>> On the reverse formation, Annie Dillard has a bright teenager coining
>> "intelligentsium"
>> (as singular from intelligentsia) as a term for herself, presumably the
> only
>> intelligent person in her community.
>
>  doesn't _intelligentsia_ or _intelligetsa_ (guessing at the spelling)
> come
> from Russian? *curious*
_intelligentsia_ is the English spelling. Yes, it is taken from Russian.
My dictionary says it may also be spelled _intelligentzia_ but I do not
recall ever seeing that spelling. The dictionary also gives two
pronunciations: either /IntElI'gEntsi@/ or /IntElI'dZEntsi@/. The former,
I guess, would be used by those knowing its Russian origin, but IME it's
almost invariably pronounced the second way.

The Russian word is taken from the Latin 1st. dec. feminine noun
_intelligentia_ which, I believe, is normally pronounced in the Slav
countries as /inteli'gentsia/. The modern Roman pronunciation, used
whenever Latin is used in Catholic liturgy, is /inteli'dZentsia/.

The Latin noun BTW is an abstract noun meaning "the power of discernment
or understanding' and is the origin of the English word _intelligence_.

Ray
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Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight,
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