Glossary/Russian

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 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. See Schwa (Cyrillic) on English Wikipedia for more. In any case, we are dealing with evolving usages, and imperfect systems. Beyond particularly Russian matters of interest, even the IPA uses the usual Ə to approximate the "e" in the French "le", for example, and we know that this does play out very well in terms of pronounced usage.

Fundamental terminology

воздух	vozdukh or vozdux	air
воздухоплавание	vozdukhoplavaniya	aeronautics
воздухопла́ватель	vozdukhoplavatel'	aeronaut
воздушный корабль	vozdushny korabl'	airship
дирижабли	dirigible	dirigible
самолёт; самолётъ	samaljot	airplane
аәропланъ ; аэропла́нъ ; аэроплан (newer)	aeroplan'	airplane
аэроплана		airplane
летательная машина	letatelniy masheen	flying machine	This seems to be an antiquated use, with летательный аппарат (see w:ru:Летательный аппарат) more common today. Of course, "flying machine" is also antiquated in English.

Patents, organizations, and administration

Names for organization:

общество	obshchestvo	company / society / association
товарищество	tovarishchestvo	association/company
компания	companiya	company

Table of biplanes

From Aero i automobilnaya zhizn, December 1912; this table contains period terminology presented in context, as well as aircraft specifications which we might want to extract.

The Transliteration of Modern Russian for English-Language Publications

Thomas J. Shaw, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Milwaukee, and London, 1967

Systems of Transliteration and Recommendations for Their Use

• System I - This is acceptable for the transliteration of personal and place names. It is to be used, even in publications covering specialized material, but addressed to audiences to entirely composed of specialists. This system is not acceptable for citational or bibliographical material.
• System II - This is the Library of Congress system for transliterating modern Russian with diacritical marks omitted.
• System III - This is the most internationally scholastic system, with somewhat of a per se linguistics orientation. It is promoted for all bibliographical and citational purposes. Though this system isn't especially orientated towards technical material, it might serve us fairly well.
• System IV - This is the Library of Congress system for transliterating modern Russian inclusive diacritical marks.

Transliteration Chart

This cross-references the four systems. 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.

A Note on Russian Dating

The Julian (Old Style) Calendar was used in Russia until 1918. To convert Old Style dates to New Style (according to the Gregorian Calendar), add 10 days in the years between 1582 and 1700, 11 days during the eighteenth century, 12 days during the nineteenth, and 13 during the twentieth. In the Soviet Union, February 14, 1918 (New Style), followed January 31, 1918 Old Style.

In Russia, the system of dating “from the creation of the world” was used until the beginning of the eighteenth century. The creation of the world was thought of as having taken place March 21, 5509 B.C. To change dates “from the creation of the world”, to our system, subtract 5508.

The first day of March was considered the first day of the year in Russia until about 1492; and after that, September 1, until the year 1700, when January 1 was decreed the first day of the year.

This antique depth may seem excessive, but we a dealing with variably-numbered months, and date converters, as such, get into very odd formats.

Historic letters (or Old Style), eliminated starting 1917-1918 :

• Іі Like и or й U+0406 / U+0456
• Ѣѣ Like е U+0462 / U+0463
• Ѳѳ Like ф U+0472 / U+0473
• Ѵѵ Usually like и U+0474 / U+0475

Notes and references

Enclosing categories
Subcategories
Keywords
Start year
End year