The Russian is ???????????, yes. And the accent falls on the "e", yes. And ? is Russian for "ye" and the non-palatized "eh" sound is spelled ?.
However, how many "y"s are you going to write. Are you going to write Lyenin instead of Lenin? Or perhaps even Lyenyin? After all, both vowels are palatized. Also, how are you going to translate ? and ? and ?? The first is a non-palatized "i" with a slight w- sound, which sounds as though you're trying to say "oui" but down in your throat. It is usually transliterated as "y". However, the ? is a consonantal -y at the end of words and it is frequently transliterated as "y" as well, which leads to some confusion. Then there is the palatized "i", ?, which is usually transliterated as "i" but which is palatized.
Thus, if you want to really be correct and consistent, you would spell the name:
Dostoyevskiy
or, if you use a -j to avoid confusing ? and ?, you would spell it:
Dostoejevskij
I prefer, however, to spell transliterated Russian with as few letters as possible. This means that I only spell "e" as "ye" if it BEGINS a word, as in:
Yeltsin (rather than Eltsin)
However, even then first names are better of without the "Ye", so I write Elena and Ekaterina instead of Yelena and Yekaterina.
So, to sum up, I transliterate as follows:
1. -iy and -yy always end up being transliterated as -y
2. Russian E never becomes "ye" except at the beginning of a word that is not a given name
3. ? is translated as "y", as is ?
4. Ignore all hard and soft signs (? and ?) in transliteration
However, how many "y"s are you going to write. Are you going to write Lyenin instead of Lenin? Or perhaps even Lyenyin? After all, both vowels are palatized. Also, how are you going to translate ? and ? and ?? The first is a non-palatized "i" with a slight w- sound, which sounds as though you're trying to say "oui" but down in your throat. It is usually transliterated as "y". However, the ? is a consonantal -y at the end of words and it is frequently transliterated as "y" as well, which leads to some confusion. Then there is the palatized "i", ?, which is usually transliterated as "i" but which is palatized.
Thus, if you want to really be correct and consistent, you would spell the name:
Dostoyevskiy
or, if you use a -j to avoid confusing ? and ?, you would spell it:
Dostoejevskij
I prefer, however, to spell transliterated Russian with as few letters as possible. This means that I only spell "e" as "ye" if it BEGINS a word, as in:
Yeltsin (rather than Eltsin)
However, even then first names are better of without the "Ye", so I write Elena and Ekaterina instead of Yelena and Yekaterina.
So, to sum up, I transliterate as follows:
1. -iy and -yy always end up being transliterated as -y
2. Russian E never becomes "ye" except at the beginning of a word that is not a given name
3. ? is translated as "y", as is ?
4. Ignore all hard and soft signs (? and ?) in transliteration
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
This message last edited by Tom on 22/06/2010 at 06:40:23 PM
The BBC is just silly.
22/06/2010 03:08:32 PM
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Ahem.
22/06/2010 03:26:42 PM
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Are you trying to get them to be able to pronounce it correctly or just use it?
22/06/2010 03:56:29 PM
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On that note
22/06/2010 06:17:56 PM
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It gets down to how many "y"s you want to write.
22/06/2010 06:35:28 PM
- 488 Views
And so are you
23/06/2010 01:02:07 AM
- 566 Views
Oh my God - this is one of the stupidest things I've seen posted on this site...ever.
23/06/2010 01:47:39 AM
- 369 Views
And still never able to beat you
23/06/2010 04:24:46 AM
- 600 Views
You seem to pretend there is a separate "Belorussian" people.
23/06/2010 06:02:12 AM
- 395 Views
If there is enough of people claiming they are what right do you have to say otherwise?
23/06/2010 06:54:28 AM
- 587 Views