Ru

Some notes on our interaction with the Russian language on this site:

In searching for Russian materials in computerized databases we have to keep in mind several sources of discrepancy, in addition to and potentially compounding our own errors. These included mistakes in transcription and choices of transliteration by non-Russian sources such as Brockett; and changes in Russian spelling which create inconsistencies in native Russian cataloguing as well as presenting difficulties for work lookup and translation.

Russian words (as in German, where we face similar issues to a lesser extent) vary with declension and this must be borne in mind when extracting them from context. The spelling of case endings may also have changed over the past century. In particular, the letter ѣ (w:Yat) is no longer used and, it seems, rarely typed, typically being replaced with е. (Mainstream OCR does not acknowledge its existence and in general this character is rarely used on the web. The need for a "rus_old" setting on tesseract has been expressed but it doesn't doesn't exist yet.) The ending -ія seems to be respelled -ия.

It seems that the unusual ә is used to translate French é. We've seen it in аәропланъ for aéroplane (cf. aëroplane) and in Эмә for Aimé.

Something we may bring into this is The Transliteration of Modern Russian for English-Language Publications, Thomas J. Shaw, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Milwaukee, and London, 1967. It features four Systems (I-IV), context- or purposed-based recommendations for their varied use, a transliteration chart cross-referencing the four systems, Special Problems and Suggested Solutions, and A Note on Russian Dating. The transliteration chart is followed by brief adjunct sections featuring combinations of letters and protocols of treating Old Style Russian letters as though they were in their New Style form, before transliteration. We are dealing with names spelled multiple ways, in the Cyrillic alphabet originals, aside from transliteration. Some of the persons in question also had the opportunity of Latinizing their own names, and doing so in accordance with their own preferences or at least non-universal precedents. We may retain notes on a great deal of this, without having template and other protocols become unduly complicated in the process.

See also Glossary/Russian.