25.1402, Welcome Aboard to Eastern Europe!

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-25-1402. Mon Mar 24 2014. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 25.1402, Welcome Aboard to Eastern Europe!

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Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 10:55:46
From: LINGUIST List [linguist at linguistlist.org]
Subject: Welcome Aboard to Eastern Europe!

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Region 6 | Eastern Europe | Fund Drive 2014

Welcome back to the TraveLING Around the World! This week we will be heading
to Eastern Europe.

And today we are going to start with the most most eastern part of it - the
Russian Federation. Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more
than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area; extending across much of
Eastern Europe and  the entirety of northern Asia, Russia spans nine time
zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms.

Though the Russian is the most widespread and also the official language,
there are more than 100 indigenous languages that are spoken by over 185
ethnic groups designated as nationalities. 27 different languages are
considered official languages in various regions of Russia, along with
Russian. Another interesting fact is that the languages of the Russian
Federation belong to 14 language families: Indo European, Altaic, Uralic,
Yukaghir,  Kartvelian, Abkhazo-Adyghean (Northwest Caucasian), Dagestanian
(Northeast Caucasian), Sino-Tibetan, Eskimo–Aleut, Chukotko-Kamchatkan,
Yeniseian, Austroasiatic, Ainu; Nivkh (language isolate).

If you want to learn more about the languages spoken in Russia as well as
about the ongoing research of the Russian linguists you should definitely
visit the Institute of Linguistics (ILING) at the Russian Academy of Sciences,
that is located in Moscow. The Institute of Linguistics was founded in 1950
and is one of the oldest linguistic institutes in country. It conducts
extensive, in-depth study of theoretical problems in linguistics and
researches languages of the Russian Federation, CIS as well as other world’s
languages. A lot of attention is paid to the current socio-linguistic problems
(language situation, language policy, language conflicts in different regions
of the world), historical and comparative linguistics, as well as the theory
and methods of sociolinguistics.

Moscow is one of the largest science centers in Russia. The Lomonosov Moscow
State University and  Russian National Research Medical University are located
in Moscow as well as numerous other research and applied science institutions.
There are 452 libraries in the city, including 168 for children.

But besides being one of the main scientific centers of the country, Moscow is
famous for being the center of the Russian historical heritage. Don’t miss to
visit  the heart and soul of Russia, the Red Square. It is the main city
square in Moscow that separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and
currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from an historic
merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod. Being there you also won’t miss
Moscow's most recognized building, Saint Basil's Cathedral.

Up north is located the “cultural capital” of Russia, Saint Petersburg. Just
like Moscow, Saint Petersburg is a large scientific center and  has its own
linguistic research institution the Institute for Linguistic Studies that also
belongs to the Russian Academy of Sciences. So if you are in the area, don’t
forget to say “hi” to your Russian fellow linguists. No matter whether you are
a museum person or a “walk through the city” type of tourist, Saint Petersburg
will satisfy your wanderlust. The city is inscribed on the UNESCO World
Heritage list as an area with 36 historical architectural complexes, and
around 4000 outstanding individual monuments of architecture, history and
culture.  It  has 221 museums, 2000 libraries, more than 80 theaters, 100
concert organizations, 45 galleries and exhibition halls, 62 cinemas, and
around 80 other cultural establishments. What some of you may not know is that
due to the intricate web of canals, Saint Petersburg is often called Venice of
the North.

Let’s now go the the Nevsky Avenue (Russian: Nevsky Prospekt [ˈnʲefskʲɪj
prɐˈspʲekt]), the main street in the city. The Nevsky Avenue is, in some ways,
the Russian version of the Times Square in New York city. Planned by Peter the
Great as beginning of the road to Novgorod and Moscow, the avenue runs from
the Admiralty to the Moscow Railway Station. The majority of the city's
shopping and nightlife are located on or right off of the Nevsky Avenue.

While taking a stroll along Nevsky Avenue you cannot fail to notice the
impressive Kazan Cathedral. It is my most favorite, absolutely breathtaking
sight of St. Petersburg. Kazan Cathedral was built to an enormous scale and
boasts an impressive stone colonnade, encircling a small garden and central
fountain. It was inspired by the Basilica of St. Peter’s in Rome and was
intended to be the country’s main Orthodox Church.

>From the 1760s onwards the Winter Palace was the main residence of the Russian
Tsars. Magnificently located on the bank of the Neva River, this Baroque-style
palace is perhaps St. Petersburg’s most impressive attraction. Many visitors
also know it as the main building of the Hermitage Museum. The green-and-white
three-storey palace is a marvel of Baroque architecture and is definitely
worth visiting.

Food:  If you got hungry in the middle of our trip, don’t worry - Russian
cuisine is as diverse as the country itself and will definitely be able to
satisfy your taste buds. Here are a few thing that traditionally represent
Russian cuisine:
- Shchi [ɕːi] (Russian: щи) is a Russian soup with cabbage as the primary
ingredient. Its primary distinction is its sour taste, which usually
originates from cabbage. When sauerkraut is used instead, the soup is called
sour shchi, and soups based on sorrel, spinach, nettle, and similar plants are
called green shchi. Linguistics fun facts: the two-letter word щи contains the
letter щ that represents the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative /ɕ/, which is
absent in most non-Cyrillic alphabets and is transcribed into them with
several letters. For instance, In German, щи becomes eight letters, Schtschi.
- Pirozhki  [pʲiroʂˈkʲi] (singular: pirozhok; diminutive of "pirog" [pie]) are
small stuffed buns (pies) made of either yeast dough or short pastry. They are
filled with one of many different fillings and are either baked (the ancient
Slavic method) or shallow-fried (known as "priazhenie", this method was
borrowed from the Tatars in the 16th century). One feature of pirozhki that
sets them apart from, for example, English pies is that the fillings used are
almost invariably fully cooked. The use of chopped hard-boiled eggs in
fillings is another interesting feature. Linguistics fun facts: the stress in
pirozhki is properly placed on the last syllable: [pʲiroʂˈkʲi]. Pirozhok
(Russian: пирожок, singular) is the diminutive form of the Russian cognate
pirog (Russian: пирог), which refers to a full-sized pie. The Russian plural
of this word, pirogi (Russian: пироги, with the stress on the last syllable
[pʲiroˈɡʲi]), is not to be confused with pierogi (stress on "o" in English and
Polish) in Polish cuisine, which are similar to the Russian pelmeni.
- Blini [blʲinɨ] are thin pancakes made with yeasted batter which are often
served in connection with a religious rite or festival. The word "blin"
(singular of blini) comes from Old Slavic "mlin", which means "to mill". Blins
had a somewhat ritual significance for early Slavic peoples in pre-Christian
times since they were a symbol of the sun, due to their round form. They were
traditionally prepared at the end of the winter to honor the rebirth of the
new sun during Maslenitsa (Масленица, Butter Week; also known as Pancake
Week). This tradition was adopted by the Orthodox Church and is carried on to
the present day.

We thank you for traveLING to the Eastern part of Russia with us! We touched
upon the  a few possible destinations to visit,I hope you enjoyed it. Next we
will have lots of fun by exploring landmarks and attractions of other
countries of the Eastern Europe. We’ll have lots to do and lots to see, so
stay tuned!







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LINGUIST List: Vol-25-1402	
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