taksofon?

[Irina Sekerina]

At 01:59 PM 4/24/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Does anyone have any idea why many Russian pay phones have "taksofon" on
>them?  I assume there is some relation to taxis, but I have already stumped
>a few native spekaers in attempting to get an answer.  Thanks for any help
>you may be able to give.
>
>
        There is a Russian word "TAKSA" which refers to "ustanovlennaja
rascenka tovarov ili norma oplaty chego-nibud'", for example, "oplata po
takse".  Then standard derivational opreation of forming a compond noun
applies: "taks-" plus linking vowel "-o-" plus "-fon" resulting in
"taksofon".  This is just a guess, though.