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Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5312 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English
| Message 537 of 541 12 August 2016 at 10:18am | IP Logged |
Cherepaha wrote:
frajer = gullible man, sucker (Polish)
frajer = boyfriend (Slovak)
фр’айер = gullible man, sucker, somebody who doesn’t belong to the criminal world and is an easy target for a
crime (Russian) |
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AFAIK, the Polish and Russian meanings are identical to the Yiddish word freier, while the Slovak meaning is pretty much identical to the old German meaning of Freier = suitor. (Nowadays, Freier is usually used in German to refer to the clients of prostitutes.)
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| Cherepaha Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6581 days ago 126 posts - 175 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Polish, Latin, French
| Message 538 of 541 12 September 2016 at 7:53pm | IP Logged |
viedums wrote:
Some Latvian etymologies – strādāt (work) is cognate with Russian stradàtj (suffer). There’s a
semantic parallel with French travailler and English travails.
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viedums, there is a Russian cognate with the same meaning as you are describing for Latvian, i.e. "work". It is used in
reference to agricultural work only. Cтрада [stra'da] is Russian for "intense summer-time work during the
harvesting of the grain producing crops" ("напряжённая летняя работа во время косьбы, жатвы и уборки хлеба"
per Wikipedia).
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| Cherepaha Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6581 days ago 126 posts - 175 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Polish, Latin, French
| Message 539 of 541 12 September 2016 at 8:15pm | IP Logged |
viedums wrote:
That's an excellent point, Evita - the distinction between long and short vowels is really key.
Missing it in the cases you mention (locative and verb endings) could easily lead to miscomprehension. It can also
be tricky keeping track of long and short vowels in verb conjugation, one set (the one ending in –īt) works a bit
differently. The point about it being a problem for Russians speaking Latvian is right too – I heard Ušakovs give an
interview in Latvian, he spoke at a fast pace but his garās patskaņas were nonexistent!
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Stressed vowels in Russian language are pronounced louder and are stretched to be somewhat longer. And if you
whisper, making sounds louder doesn't work, so just the length of the vowel indicates that the stress falls onto it. As
a result to a Russian speaker a long vowel sounds like it is under stress. Consequently, if in studying a foreign
language one is told that stress falls on the 1st syllable, but that vowel in the 2nd syllable should be long, in trying
to pronounce it a Russian speaker hears that both vowels are under stress. Trying to resolve that doesn't easily lead
to successfully separating "stressed" from "long", and I think that this confusion might explain why Russian speakers
give up on mastering the proper control of the vowel length.
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| Cherepaha Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6581 days ago 126 posts - 175 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Polish, Latin, French
| Message 540 of 541 12 September 2016 at 9:54pm | IP Logged |
Chung wrote:
Zajebiście! "(Freakin') awesome!"* (Polish)
* Depending on whom you talk to, this may be vulgar.
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In Russian language this is definitely a part of the taboo vocabulary known as мат [mat], as it makes a reference to
intercourse.
I don't know anything about Polish curse words -- does Polish use a subset of the same mat as Russian, or is this
just an instance of a "cool" borrowing from Russian or Ukranian?
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6589 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 541 of 541 30 September 2016 at 5:01pm | IP Logged |
The root is present in all Slavic languages. It's not on the Swadesh list but it's definitely core vocabulary...
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