"медведь"
Translation:bear
71 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
281
Almost. Медведев is "Bear's," not "bear's." It belongs to a person named Bear, not the animal bear. Медведь had kids, Медведев сын и Медведева дочка. Bear's son and Bear's daughter. A bear's fur would be медвежий мех.
2837
I am having a hardtime understanding ь. I am using duolingo only on my phone, so I can't read the notes before the skills. What am I missing out?
Here is the alphabet information: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/8256103 Alphabet
Use you browser to see this page and scroll down for the tips and notes: https://www.duolingo.com/skill/ru/Plurals
http://www.memrise.com/course/78454/learn-basic-russian/4/ See the video in lesson 4 about soft and hard consonants.
281
If you turn your phone sideways, you do have access to Tips & Notes.
The soft sign, мягкий знак, Ь, is not punctuation. It palatalizes the preceding consonant, but it does sometimes separate the next vowel. For example in пять ("five") the я already palatalizes the п so it sounds similar to "пьать," but пьяный ("drunk"), the ь separates the "пь" from the "яный" in pronunciation. Other wise "пяный" without a ь would sound like "пять."
1538
It's not a standalone sound, it only "softens" the previous letter, though it has the most effect on suffixes/endings. Because of it the adjective is медведев, not медведов.
"бер" means "one" in Tatar and more importantly "eye" in Avar. The Avar empire is what systematized Common Slavic. Its destruction is when the various Slavic languages drifted apart to what they are today.
медведь is the original term, and in general the closer to Proto-Indo-European you get, the more euphemistic the names for predatory animals get. Possibly out of some fear of naming them directly, or because their attributes are their most important identifier.
281
Bear's son = Медведев сын.
Hare's daughter = Зайцева дочь.
Rabbit's daughter = Кроликова дочь.
281
Машинка /mɐ-'ʂɨn-kə/ means "little car." You're thinkinɡ of Машенька /'ma-ʂɪŋ-kə/ which means "dear little Маша."
281
Медведев is the archaic possessive "Bear's." So a man called "Bear," Медведь, had a son and a daughter.
Bear's son = Медведев сын
Bear's daughter = Медведева дочь
That's how the son and daughter got their family name. And same with all "-ов" and "-ев" names. And same in Ukrainian "-ів" names, Czech "-ov," Polish "-ów," etc.
The founder of Kiev was named Кий (RU:"Kiy"/UA:"Kyy"/PL:Kij). His city in Russian is Киев. In Ukrainian, it's Київ, and in Polish it's Kijów.
281
Not really a "ch" sound, but a soft д, indicated by the following ь, is often pronounced, in certain Russian dialects, as "дзь" which sounds like "dz" except with the z palatalized, sometimes even sounding like "dzh." The "dzh" could possibly sound to your ears like "ch."
281
Because the animal "bear" is медведь. Нести is the verb "to carry" or I guess "to bear." For the infinitive tense of a verb, English requires the word "to."