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What do Russian diminutives mean?
Russian nicknames, or diminutives, are simply short forms of the given name. As opposed to full names used in formal situations, short forms of a name are used in communication between well-acquainted people, usually relatives, friends, and colleagues.
How do Russians use diminutives?
Most Russian names (with a rare exception, like Maxim, Nikita, Vera, or Nina) have a diminutive. As a rule, it is formed by adding the ending –sha to the initial syllable of a name, e.g. Mikhail becomes Misha, Pavel – Pasha, Maria – Masha, Darya – Dasha and so on.
What does CHKA mean in Russia?
We have a lot of such suffixes in Russian: -чка (-chka, for both genders), -ик, -чик (-ik, -chik, only for boys), -нька (-nka, mostly for girls), -иша, -уша (-isha, -usha, for both genders). The first three are used as diminutive suffixes for common nouns as well…
How do nicknames in Russia work?
Names consist of a GIVEN NAME (imia), a PATRONYMIC (otchestvo), and a SURNAME (familiia). It is customary to use patronymics as middle names. Patronymics are derived from the father’s given name and end with -ovich or -evich. The female patronymics end in -ovna or -evna.
Why Sasha is short for Alexander?
Apparently “sha” is the diminutive or nickname portion… you take that and add the “sa” sound from Alex-SA-nder or Alex-SA-ndra and you get “Sasha”! Nicknames are not always in connection with the original names. The “xa” sound in “Alexander” maybe like “sha” , as we pronounce “sha” in the name “Xiaomi” (“shyomi”).
Does English use diminutives?
English. English has a great variety of historical diminutives adopted from other languages but many of these are lexicalized. Productive diminutives are infrequent to nonexistent in Standard English in comparison with many other languages.
Why do Russians add an A?
You are correct. If female has a tipical russian family name in most cases it’s comes with added ‘a’ at the end. There is diff in russian when the female talk or man talk. They sort of modify the verb, in some cases.