vl cluster spotting

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Sun Nov 11 21:00:08 UTC 2007


FWIW, Czech _vlast_ and Russian _vlast'_ are the same word,
historically, though the Russian word, like the name, "Vladimir," is a
borrowing from Old Church Slavic. The  "real," so to speak, Russian /
East Slavic words are _volost'_ and _Volodimir_, the latter being the
source of the nickname, "Volodja" and preserved in Ukrainian as
_Volodymyr_.

-Wilson

On 11/10/07, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: vl cluster spotting
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It will certainly become more common in a few
> weeks, after the Nov. 23 through 27 concerts of
> the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which in an
> all-Smetana program will play the complete "Ma
> Vlast".  Those of lesser musical ambition or
> knowledge will recognize its second part, Vltava
> (ah yes, another vl cluster), aka "Die
> Moldau".  Coincidentally, the flyer for this BSO
> program arrived after my posting on vl- words.
>
> And I was being a bit facetious about the
> commonness of "vlast" -- although it was in my
> vocabulary.  I may even have encountered it in
> its Russian sense of "(political) power".
>
> Joel
>
> At 11/10/2007 09:37 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
> >Hmm, I had never heard of the word until your posting. I find Má
> >vlast on Wikipedia, where vlast is explained as meaning fatherland.
> >It wasn't in my AHD3, which is the source I cited. I searched for
> >English pages on Google using the following:
> >
> >-"Ma vlast" vlast -Smetana
> >
> >In the top 100 hits, I found zero in an English setting when I
> >skipped music bands, song names and geographical names. I did find
> >"Má vlast (My Homeland): The Jiraneks In Canada: General History" at
> >about hit 90 or so, but no hits on the word within the three pages of
> >text in the article.
> >
> >Is it used commonly by ADS members? BB
> >
> >On Nov 10, 2007, at 5:09 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >
> >>Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> >>
> >>At 11/10/2007 02:30 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
> >>>Right. The interesting thing about "vlog", though, is the
> >>>potential to
> >>>become a common word. BB
> >>
> >>What, isn't "vlast" a common word?  569,000 Google hits, although
> >>many are not in English or refer to Smetana.
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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