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‧ Неделя ‧ Не Дело ‧ No doings ‧ [ Proto-Slavic *dělati (“to do”). ‧ en.wiktionary.org/wiki/делать ] ‧
‧ Неделя ‧ From Old East Slavic недѣлꙗ (nedělja, “Sunday”), equivalent to не (ne) + де́лая (délaja, “no working”), originally used to mean Sunday, the day of rest (Old Church Slavonic недѣлꙗ (nedělja, “not doing”)) ‧ en.wiktionary.org/wiki/неделя ‧
Slavic [ Дело ] and English [ to Do Doing ] are cognates ‧ ‧ [ From Proto-Balto-Slavic dēˀtei, from Proto-Indo-European dʰéh₁ti, from *dʰeh₁- (“to do”). ‧ en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/děti ] ‧ en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/dʰeh₁- ‧
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An in fact in old Russian it meant the same - its original meaning is self evident.
Not "FALSE" friends with Serbs ;) We also say "недеља” for the week ;) and even almost the same ”прошла недеља” ;)
But we do also say the same for Sunday :) where Russians say "Воскресенье - Sunday." what is in our (Serbian) case Easter ;)
No wonder. Воскресение also (and primarily) means "resurrection", "rising from the dead", hence it is used for both Easter (Светлое Христово воскресенье) and Sunday. Before Russia was Christianized, the word седмица ('a set of seven days') was used for "week" and the word неделя (which comes from "ничего не делать" = "to do nothing") meant Sunday.
Can anyone explain why this is in the lesson on possessives? Do the forms of these words somehow connote possession?
They have to introduce new words all along the course, so annoying people don't complain about the repetition of words. Now, we are able to see phrases like "my last cat" or "your week" soon.
I CANNOT FIND HOW -OE in ПРОШЛОЕ (masculine) turns into -Я ПРОШЛЯ (feminine). Could someone explain the rule to me ?
One phonetical feature of the Russian language is the so-called reduction of vowels. It means that in an unstressed syllable O sounds the same as A and E is no different from Я. Unless the unstressed syllable precedes the stressed one, any of the four letters in it stands for the shwa sound with a hint to /j/ (as 'y' in 'you') consontant before it in the case of E and Я following another vowel. Thus there is not supposed to be any difference in pronunciation between ПРОШЛОЕ (the neuter form) and ПРОШЛАЯ (the feminine form) except in some northern dialects. In an unstressed syllable preceding the stressed one О and A are both pronounced as 'uh', whereas E, И and Я are pronounced as 'e' in 'economy'
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I'm not sure I'm getting the pronunciation right... I have неделя figured out, but прошлая is a conundrum. that final я, seems to usually have a "ya" pronunciation. I don't hear it here. Is it perhaps they are sounding it so fast?
Я following a vowel is only pronounced "yah" when it is stressed, e.g. in words моя, твоя, маяк, змея, струя and the like, but in adjectival endings it is never stressed, so the last syllables in прошлая are pronounced close to "-shley" in Ashley. In a fast speech the words прошлая, прошлое, прошлый and прошлые sound the same.
It shouldn't if properly articulated. However, unlike 'sh', 'ш' does not have a slightest palatalization. The tip of the tongue should be pointed much higher in the mouth - its position is similar to the one you put your tongue in while pronouncing 'r' in English. Or, you might as well think of saying 'sh' and 'h' simultaneously
One year later and I'd like to know why this is the case as well. Not sure why Duo bothers to tease us with the option to report these mistakes when they clearly aren't interested in repairing the audio.
Does неделя have the same root as делать? If so, is it etymologically connected to doing things?
You’re right. In old Russian, неделя meant Sunday - день, когда можно ничего не делать. With the advent of Christianity to Russia, the word воскресение (resurrection, or rising from the dead) was adopted for Sunday, whereas «неделя» changed its meaning to “a week”. In most other Slavic languages, the word similar to неделя still means Sunday.
I'm not sure, but I think that "y" vowels after L just sound as plain vowels because the "y" is implied in the change of pronunciation of "L". That is, " L" in Russian sounds as in "bull" but "LY" (ль) sounds as in "alien".
The last week = последняя неделя; last week = прошлая неделя / на прошлой неделе
I entered "past week" and got it wrong despite tapping "прошлая" And having the tip show "past."
Прошлая неделя means "last weak" whereas the past weak means прошедшая неделя
Неделя is nominative singular. This form is used as the sentence subject. Неделю is accusative singular. It is used as a direct object of verbs ждать, прождать (to wait for), провести (to spend), потерять (to lose), потратить (он потратил неделю на то, чтобы... = it took him a week [to do a certain thing]; он потратил впустую целую неделю = he wasted a whole week), as well as the object of some preposions, e.g. на неделю = for a week; в неделю = per week; за неделю до события = a week before the event; сделал за неделю = did it over a week, через неделю = in a week; на неделю = for a week; с неделю = for about a week
It's the other way around.
неделя is the base form of the word, неделю is the accusative form.
последний also means last, does this mean last as in final? Or could I use последний in this phrase?
The word прошлый (прошлое, прошлая, прошлые - depending on the number and gender of the following noun) is used with nouns век, год, месяц, неделя and ночь to mean "last" (no article). It can also be used with days of the week, for example, "в прошлую среду" = "last Wednesday". Последний means "the last" as in "the last time" (which is not necessarily final).
The program pronounces the ending of 'неделя' with a very distinct /r/ type (rhotic) sound, the same as in 'дверь'. Surely that is not correct, it should be an /l/ sound.
Am I right in also assuming that it reduces and becomes most like 'недела'?
