#slavic langblr

[multilingualpotato]

Autumn in Czech

Hey guys, autumn is in full swing in the Czech Republic so I thought it's time for some autumn vibes and vocabulary! Enjoy~

podzim (m)- autumn

list (m) - leaf

strom (m) - tree

mrholení (n) - drizzle

déšť (m) - rain

bláto (n) - mud

kaluž (f) ; louže (f) - puddle

deštník (m) - umbrella

kabát (m) - coat

pláštěnka (f) - raincoat

šála (f) - scarf

čaj (m) - tea

kakao (n) - hot cocoa

svíčka (f) - candle

krb (m) - fireplace

dýně (f) - pumpkin

kaštan (m) - chestnut

šípek (m) - rosehip

září (n) - September

říjen (m) - October

listopad (m) - November

počasí (n) - weather

špatné počasí (n) - bad weather

Verbs:

pršet – to rain

zmoknout - to get wet from the rain

Phrases:

venku je zima – it is cold outside

venku prší – it is raining outside

venku je ošklivě – it is bad weather outsider

Czech proverbs:

počasí že by psa nevyhnal – weather that one couldn't even get the dog outside

meaning that the weather is so bad, that even the dogs (who usually love to be outside) do not want to go outside

* f = feminine, m = masculine, n =  neuter

[crescentaureola]

hey did you know that i had translated some bits of the Bible into Polabian language? (Polabian is a now extinct West Slavic language that was located around Elbe river in Germany).

maybe someday ill translate more, but recently i have no energy for anything, so... bluh!

beginning bits of the Genesis story:

beginning of the Tower of Babel story:

[tepli-mravenci]

Funniest thing about the "chai tea" meaning "tea tea" to me is that I'm Czech and the Czech word for tea is "čaj" which is pronounced "chai" and you know what we actually - no joke - call chai tea?

"chai čaj"

We literally call it chai chai we DO call it tea tea we literally pronounce it chai chai it's a thing

[cup-noodle]

the cruelest thing about the world is that there's so many languages and a girl can't learn all of them

[slavic-roots-western-mind]

The 然's

突然，虽然，忽然. and the other 然's can often get mixed up, so here's a quick explanation of some of the most common ones!

突然 (Túrán): This means suddenly or unexpectedly

居然 (Jūrán): This kind of means suddenly, but more in the sense of "surprisingly" or to suggest disbelief at something that happened.

忽然 (Hūrán): This also means suddenly or unexpectedly, but it has a more stronger connotation.

既然 (Jìrán): This is a conjunction meaning "since" or "now that"

既然the weather is great, let's go out!

既然 you aren't busy, let's go watch a movie.

不然 (Bùrán): This means "otherwise" or "or else";

You should study, 不然 you won't do well on the exam.

虽然 (Suīrán): This means although or even though.

虽然 I'm not good at singing, I still like to go to the karaoke.

当然 (Dāngrán): 当然 means certainly or definitely and can be used as a reply:

Can you help me with A? 当然!

自然 (Zìrán): This can mean nature or naturally.

China's 自然 is very beautiful.

She speaks Chinese 得很自然.

仍然 (Réngrán): This can mean "still" or "yet".

I仍然 haven't read that book.

依然 (Yīrán): Similar to 仍然, this also means still" or "yet" but it's usually used in more formal and literary works, whereas 仍然 is more often used in spoken language.

果然 (Guǒrán): 果然 can be used to mean "indeed" or "as expected"

This movie is 果然 interesting.

竟然 (Jìngrán): This is an adverb used to suggest surprise or something unexpected.

He竟然forgot her birthday.

显然 (Xiǎnrán): This means "clearly" or "obviously".

This soup 显然 hot.

偶然 (Ǒurán): This means "accidentally" or "by chance".

We 偶然 met at the same cafe.

How many other 然's do you know about? Drop a comment!

[learnukrainian]

Free online courses about Ukraine

Basics of the Ukrainian Language and Culture - https://www.open.edu/openlearn/languages/introduction-ukrainian-language-and-culture/

Ukraine: History, Culture, and Identities; this course is available in English, French, Italian, and Norwegian on Coursera: https://ui.org.ua/en/sectors-en/the-first-online-course-about-ukraine-in-english/

The Making of Modern Ukraine with Timothy Snyder: https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-making-of-modern-ukraine

Crimea: History and People on Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/crimea-history-and-people/

[fortunatelywingedwizard]

Hey there,

I need help from the Sorbian tumblr community to translate a Sorbian text from the German theatre version of Otfried Preußler's "Krabat" into English or German!

Would be amazing if someone could help, so I can shorten the sentence without cutting the entire sense of it... so here it is:

merbo perosch andribo

mirosch mylosch tonlo merbo

kuzo uschto tentar slabo

perlo slachaltar malerbo

The translation websites can't cope with the "sound written" words...

[renegade-hierophant]

In Slovak 🇸🇰 (and I think other West Slavic 🇨🇿🇵🇱 languages, but I'm not sure) we not only use repetitive or iterative verbs, but we can make any verb repetitive (but using the infinitive, not the present stem), for example:

jem - I eat jedávam - I usually eat

píšem - I write písavam - I usually write

BUT in theory one could add the infix -av- indefinitely to make repetitions of repetitions of repetitions, so:

jedávam - I usually eat jedávavam - I usually eat often jedávavávam - usually I usually eat often, or something like that

Also the rhythmic law which prevents two long syllables from following one another needs to be kept in check.

[strawberrymleko]

Week 1: Apr 28 - May 4 🦋

Polish 🇵🇱

Duolingo Units 1-6: basic greetings, basic verbs, some basic use of accusative and instrumental cases, people, food

Colloquial Polish Units 1-3: basic greetings, a few verbs, basic questions, accusative case

Clozemaster

Watched Dzień Świra on yt with English subtitles

Put all new words into flashcards

Russian 🇷🇺

Clozemaster

Ukrainian 🇺🇦

Clozemaster

Pics: Rose Garden near the Natural History Museum in LA 🌹

[slaviclore]

pls choose the best option & elaborate in tags if you'd like.

some endings are cut off to meet poll limits...

Context below the cut, but please answer first :)

this is the opening sentence of a letter written by fryderyk chopin to his friend and/or boyfriend tytus woyciechowski in 1829. he's 19/20 years old (we're not sure about his DOB), and he's been spending some time with prince antoni radziwiłł and his family at their palace in antonin (near Poznań). radziwiłł is a huge music nerd, and chopin is having a great time over there. the mood of the letter is mostly positive and upbeat, and you can probably expect him to be at his cheekiest.

there are 3 published english translations of this letter. none of the 3 translators are native polish speakers. here are their takes on this sentence:

full original sentence from chopin's november 14 1829 letter:

Ostatni twój list, w którym mi każesz się ucałować, odebrałem w Antoninie u Radziwiłła.

EL Voynich, Chopin's Letters (1931), pg 73:

I received your last letter, in which you send me a kiss, at Antonin, at the Radziwiłłs'.

Arthur Hedley, Selected Correspondence of Fryderyk Chopin (1962), pg 36:

Your last letter, in which you send me your warmest greetings, reached me at Radziwill's place at Antonin.

David Frick, Chopin's Polish Letters (2016), pg. 143:

I received your last letter, in which you tell me to give myself a kiss, in Antonin at Radziwiłł's.

why is this important?

1) it's an interesting grammar problem where the combination of a referred statement (FC is summarizing what TW said), a command, and a reflexive (się) makes it unclear who is to kiss who.

2) we don't have any letters from TW to FC, so it's useful to piece together the way he may have written to him.

3) FC has a habit of teasing TW for not liking to be kissed, which historians have taken a bit too seriously, if you ask me.

4) we'll talk about arthur hedley some other time, but yeah... i know.

i read this letter in polish first, and i didn't realize this sentence might be ambiguous. when i started reading the translations, i was surprised to see the different takes. my reactions ranged from "?" to "????" i like remind myself that my perspective is also biased, though -- by the fact i speak modern polish, and this is a 200 year old letter. i think this is a good example of how subjective translations can be. you ask 4 different people to translate something, you might very well get 4 different translations.

[multilingualpotato]

Back to School Vocabulary in Czech

Hey guys,

seeing as the new school year starts soon I thought we could take a look at some back to school vocabulary in Czech.

PS: yes, I just decided to start posting again after three years… so, welcome back!

Zadání (n) - Assignment

Úkol (m) – Homework

Student (m); Studentka (f) – Student

Žák (m); Žákyně (f) – Pupil

Ředitel (m); Ředitelka (f) – Principal

Zkouška (f); Test (m) – Exam

Prezentace (f) – Presentation

Hodina (f) – Class (referring to a school subject, for example: a math class = hodina matematiky)

Třída (f) – Classroom

Třída (f) – Class (referring to a group of students who together form a class, for example: we go to the same class = chodíme do stejné třídy)

Předmět (m) – Subject

Rozvrh (m) – Timetable

Učebnice (f) – Textbook

Sešit (m) – Notebook

Známka (f) – Grade

Propiska (f) – Pen

Tužka (f) - Pencil

Penál (m) – Pencil case

Guma (f) – Eraser

Zvýrazňovač (m) – Highlighter

Knihovna (f) - Library

* f = feminine, m = masculine, n =  neuter

[crescentaureola]

i forever will lament the fact that the Old Polish words as "latoś" ("this year"), "łoni" ("last year") and "nocsia/notsia" ("this night") didnt survive to the Modern Polish. except maybe in some local dialects only

"latoś" and "nocsia" are formed the same way as "dziś/dzisiaj" ("today") obviously.

actually, talking about "dzisiaj", in Old Polish it was just "dzisia" (without the /j/ sound at the end), so the Old Polish form of "nocsia/notsia" would most likely looked like: "nocsiaj/notsiaj" in Modern Polish with the added /j/ sound

[tepli-mravenci]

I find it funny how English speaking people use he/she pronouns for objects/animals as a way of showing endearment when there's multiple languages - including mine - that just gender objects and animal species in general

Table? Guy shaped.

Shoe? Girl shaped.

Door? They/them that bitch.

Cat? Girl until proven otherwise.

Dog? Boy until proven otherwise.

Pig? Let's not even bother, it's an it/its.

And that's just Czech. German has completely different genders for most of these things. And that goes for every other heavily gendered language. It's a curse really :)

[pol-ski]

Noun genders in Polish | Polish for Beginners

[slavic-roots-western-mind]

T - Verbs in Chinese

Tackle (an issue) - 处理 (chǔlǐ)

Take - 拿 (ná)

Talk - 说 (shuō)

Target - 瞄准 (miáozhǔn)

Teach - 教 (jiāo)

Tell - 告诉 (gàosù)

Terminate - ��止 (zhōngzhǐ)

Testify - 作证 (zuòzhèng)

Thank - 感谢 (gǎnxiè)

Think - 想 (xiǎng)

Threaten - 威胁 (wēixié)

Throw - 扔 (rēng)

Tie - 系 (jì)

Tighten - 紧 (jǐn)

Tolerate - 容忍 (róngrěn)

Touch - 触摸 (chùmō)

Train - 训练 (xùnliàn)

Transfer - 转移 (zhuǎnyí)

Transform - 转变 (zhuǎnbiàn)

Translate - 翻译 (fānyì)

Transmit - 传送 (chuánsòng)

Travel - 旅行 (lǚxíng)

Tremble - 颤抖 (chàndǒu)

Trigger - 触发 (chùfā)

Trust - 信任 (xìnrèn)

Try - 尝试 (chángshì)

Type - 打字 (dǎzì)

[kutyozh]

the word "hlad": *exists*

me: what on earth could this mean

dictionary: it means "hunger"

me: ohh right, czech doesnt have "g" (-> h) and also remember liquid metathesis haha so it makes sense that Proto Slavic *goldъ evolved into Russian голод gólod and Czech hlad! :D

2 hours later

the word "hlas": *exists*

me: what on earth could this m-