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- "медведь"
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A neat tangent here (considering your user name) is that the meaning of Beowulf (the hero from the old saxon poem) is derived as such: Beowulf -> (old norse) bee wolf -> bee/honey predator -> (kenning) bear!
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.
the pronunciation of this word "медведь" could be greatly improved, also the slower form of it still doesn't sound like the word at all
2118
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.
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."
- 895
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.
How do you scream: медведь? Seems harder to scream than "bear" or "oso" or "Bär" or "orso". Does anyone have a video? (Serios question )
And I like bears. They mainly eat seals, fish, mushrooms, berries, and honey
- 696
Берлога = the bear lair Бер+лога = берлога, the second part of word лога derived from логово = lair.
- 696
The first part бер similar to English word bear. I think a long time ago in old Russian root бер meant bear, but supplanted by the word медведь
- 533
"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.
I think(only my thought, because of the names on several civilizations) that it might be something like the patronymic, like bearish or somethjng like that, It'd be funny as my girlfriend's surname is зайцева, which if I'm right, would be something like bunnyish
Bear's son = Медведев сын.
Hare's daughter = Зайцева дочь.
Rabbit's daughter = Кроликова дочь.
Is there a proper tone to say медведь! As in if you are taking a hike and see a bear and shout, "медведь!" Or would it be the same as in English-scared and panicky?
Машинка /mɐ-'ʂɨn-kə/ means "little car." You're thinkinɡ of Машенька /'ma-ʂɪŋ-kə/ which means "dear little Маша."
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.
- 383
are they not ashamed about such pronunciation? Both sound like "meteorit". You have to be Russian and live with bears to hear "bear". This is not teaching but frustrating students.
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 "dj." The "dj" could possibly sound to your ears like "ch."
