[tied] Re: Russian patronymics

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Dusty" <dusty-aquarius@...> wrote:

> Due to "two capitals" period Russian language has one interesting

feature in

> its literature norm (instead of local dialects): while _speach_

norms are based

> on Moskow dialect's pronuncation, _orthography_ norms are based on
> _pronuncation_ of St.Peterburg's dialect.
> As for <Il'ic^> - both [il'jíc^'] and [il':íc^'] (with prolonged

[l']) can be

> found in Moskow and St.Peterburg respectively as dialectical

variant; also only

> [il'jíc^'] is codified.

In that case the orthography fits the [-l'j-] pronunciation as well
as the [-l':-] one due to tradition dating back to the orphographical
norms of Old Church Slavonic, where the same grapheme -- <i> -- was
eployed to render (C~#)/i/, /ji/ and /jI/. AFAIK, in the present-day
Russian orphography the <ji> combination of graphemes occurs only
(newly) borrowed proper names (<Jima> 'Yima') and compounded
abbreviations like <rajispolkom> (from <rajonnyj ispolnitel'nyj
komitet>). In other words, <Il'ic^> is the only correct way to write
[il'jíc^'] -- *<Il'jic^> just wouldn't adhere to the Russian
orthographical norm.

Sergei