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Fresie

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Hi! :p

I don't speak any Russian, but I'm 1/8 on my mom's side. I need help figuring the meaning of her maiden name: Grincavich. My Granny says it used to be spelled Grincovich, but I'm not sure if she's right or if one letter even makes a difference. I can't find any information using either spelling except for stuff about my family. It's been bugging me for awhile. Also, how would it be written in Cyrillic?

Thanks to anyone who can help! Dx

Actually, could be Grincovich as well - spelled Гринкович in Cyrillic. Quite a few of them on Russian Facebook. The name is quite common in Belarus and Western Ukraine and is originally a medieval Polish name - a Polish envoy to Belarus Grincovich is mentioned as early as 1432.
 
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Draconess25

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Actually, could be Grincovich as well - spelled Гринкович in Cyrillic. Quite a few of them on Russian Facebook. The name is quite common in Belarus and Western Ukraine and is originally a medieval Polish name - a Polish envoy to Belarus Grincovich is mentioned as early as 1432.

Huh, I guess it's just my family's spelling that isn't too common....o_O No clue what it means, though?
 

Fresie

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Huh, I guess it's just my family's spelling that isn't too common....o_O No clue what it means, though?

Yeah, it's derived from the first name Grinko (green-KOH), a common West Slavic diminutive form of Gregory. Apparently, your Granny's family had an ancestor Gregory (Grigori) whom everybody called Grinko so his children became Grinkovich - that's possessive meaning "Grinko's children".
 
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Draconess25

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Yeah, it's derived from the first name Grinko (green-KOH), a common West Slavic diminutive form of Gregory. Apparently, your Granny's family had an ancestor Gregory (Grigori) whom everybody called Grinko so his children became Grinkovich - that's possessive meaning "Grinko's children".

Aw cool! :D Thanks!
 

Moont

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[FONT=&quot]Здравствуйте![/FONT][FONT=&quot] Всем привет из барселона! Очень приятно! Как дела? Я не говорю по-русскию[/FONT][FONT=&quot]... because I taught myself Russian for about a month, then got health problems and stopped, and now I'm a bit better would like to keep learning, though I only know a few very basic sentences. I'm glad you offered to help, AnneMayFair and WritingIsHard, because I'd like to take you up on your offer. You see, I had this weird idea to write a piece of fic with a few of my characters who speak Russian among themselves (just a very few sentences) and a third character with a scant knowledge of the language misunderstands what those guys are saying and well... chaos erupts in this particular scene I've in mind. OK I'm no published author yet - am just beginning to seriously think of trying, been writing for my own pleasure for a long time, though.. and I tried Google translator but I think it may sound awful, really... One of my characters says 6 short sentences (The "greeting" and "how are you" parts,I can do myself, I think) and his subordinate responds with 5 short sentences.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] If you are still willing to help, should I pm you with my attempt at translation for correction, or should I post it here with the English translation of my intended dialogue? The rest of the story is not in Russian. I've written it in English, Spanish and Catalan.[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]Thank you very much for your help!
[/FONT]
 
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Andreus

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If you need some support in Russian, you are welcome. )
 

CC.Allen

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English to Russian translation (I only speak English, FYI)

Hello everyone,

I have used an online tool to translate the following sentence from English to Russian. I'm curious if anyone out there who may be bilingual, could confirm or deny the accuracy of the translation? I only used a free online tool, as this is the only Russian line in my book and I wanted to avoid an expense.

Thank you so much for anyone who could confirm this or correct me, if necessary!

English:

I love you, my beautiful Valentina.

Russian:

Я люблю тебя, мой прекрасный Валентину
 

Olga

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English:

I love you, my beautiful Valentina.

Russian:

Я люблю тебя, мой прекрасный Валентину

Assuming Valentina is a woman, it should be

Я люблю тебя, моя прекрасная Валентина

or

Я люблю Вас, моя прекрасная Валентина

depending on how formal you want it to sound.
 

CC.Allen

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Thank you so much Olga! I hadn't thought about gender quality, but wondered if there may be close translations for some reason or another.

Once I read your reply, it made me think of Spanish. I know very little, but do now that all objects are associated with a masculine or feminine quality & it just sounds wrong when you change an object's gender.

To add a little context to my sentence... It is a father speaking to his infant daughter in a moment where he is actually crying goodbye to her, knowing that he is about to die.
...
What kind of formality would you think he would use in that moment?

Thanks again, so very much, for your assistance!
~Casey
 

Olga

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If he is talking to his daughter, he would say
Я люблю тебя, моя прекрасная Валентина.

In these two aspects (formality and gender changes) Russian is similar to Spanish and French, except it has three genders (neutral is the third one).
 

morngnstar

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You probably also want to think about whether to use the formal name or one of the diminutives: Val'a, Valechka, or Valen'ka. I'm not a native Russian speaker so I shouldn't really advise. Often a family member would use a diminutive, but in a moment like this, maybe it really depends on your character and only you can decide what's right.
 

CC.Allen

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Super, Olga. I've done it just as so. Thanks again!

Yes, Morngnstar, I had played with that idea, way back during early drafts. The baby is actually a grown up character in my book and goes by Tina. I really wanted to make this flashback resonate with emotion and every name I tried never had the same effect as Valentina. Good thought, thanks for offering.
 

Olga

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Morngnstar, you are absolutely right that very often family members don't address each other by full name. I should have thought about it. In fact, now that I think of it, I don't remember ever being addressed as Olga :) But then, nobody ever addressed me as "my beautiful ... ". That alone suggests a certain level of "high" language that sounds better with the full name, at least to me. But yes, it depends on the character, situation, and even general time period.
 

SaraP

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Just a drive-by post to thank you guys for helping out. I love to see our International peeps posting helpful comments regarding their language. :)
 

Dannyher

I have an opportunity to learn Russian, Ukrainian or Poland, not sure what to choose. I am not planning to visit any of these countries in the nearest future, anyway I have to choose one.
 

Fresie

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I have an opportunity to learn Russian, Ukrainian or Poland, not sure what to choose. I am not planning to visit any of these countries in the nearest future, anyway I have to choose one.

To me, all three sound fine. Being Russian, I'd suggest Russian, but I used to study Polish when I was a teenager and I loved it, it's such a pretty language. Ukrainian is also very melodious and rich in beautiful colloquialisms. All three have fabulous literature. Actually, Ukrainian is more or less halfway between Russian and Polish, so once you learn Russian or Polish, learning Ukrainian is like learning a new dialect rather than a new language. But to study Polish, you don't need to learn the Cyrillic alphabet because they use Latin letters. So I should start with Polish as the easiest, then - if you wish - move on to the other two.
 
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JRHardesty

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I know some Russian, as I was a Russian linguist in the US Air Force back in the early '70s. The course was 9 months of intensive (40 hrs/wk) training. We learned to read, write & speak the language. When we graduated, our senior instructor congratulated us with a statement to the effect that we now had the language proficiency of a 7 year old native speaker but we got there in only 9 months! I'm rusty, but have been able to read the majority of what has been written here. That's comforting. My keyboard is not set up for Cyrillic, so I have to transliterate. Do svidaniya!
 

allias

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A friend of mine managed to get intermediate level quite fast with the help of this resource russianlessons.net. Good luck! :)
 

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Looking for Russian SF Markets

Hi,
I have a short SF story that uses fairly simple language, and I have a (pretty poor) grasp of Russian, and also family that speaks it natively. I'm trying to find, if they exist, Russian markets for SF short fiction. I'm thinking this would be a fun project for me, and my family, to do the translation ourselves.

Can anybody help me locate the markets there, if they exist? I'm, thinking along the lines of ANALOG or ASIMOV'S magazines here in the US.

I appreciate any help or suggestions. Thanks thanks thanks -

Newdaddy06
 

pisatel

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Reminds me of my trip to Russia. Вы можете написать немного медленнее, пожалуйста,
спасибо!
 

jasrow

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Привет всем! Меня зовут Жасмин :) Я живу в Нью-Йорке.
 

SamuelKristopher

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Hey are there any Russians from St. Petersburg here? I've been living in this city for a year and a half now and I love it, but I'm wondering if there's a book club somewhere around?
 

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Здравствуйте. Меня зовут Брэд. Я учусь говорить на Русском.
I probably know more about Russia than I know about my own country but I'm still learning the language. I know the history from the days of Rurik and Kievan Rus to the Great Patriotic War, the revolutions, and the civil war. I also know the holidays and myths, have talked to a lot of Russians living in Russia and Ukraine, know the Cyrillic and Old Church Slavonic alphabets, can type Russian on an English keyboard, and can write and read Russian script. I also read Russian newspapers (Российская газета, Комсомольская правда, и Красная Звезда), watch Russian movies, and my favorite band is Smyslovye Gallyutsinatsii (Смысловые галлюцинации) and my favorite Russian author is Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

The two heroes in the Sci-fi book I've started are a Russian and an American so I totally do need to learn more of the language and common phrases and I totally appreciate any help I can get with that.