Odessa

[Vitaly A. Chernetsky]

On Mon, 19 Jul 1999, Genevra Gerhart wrote:
> Dear Seelangers,
>
> I have been told that Russians say "Odessa" with a hard e (e
> oborotnoye),and that Ukrainians use a soft e.
> The dictionary of stress insists that  the soft one is the right one,
> and further insists specifically that the hard one (e oborotnoye) is the
> wrong one. That specific denial suggests that there is more to the
> story.
> What do you know?
> And thanks for any help. gg
> --
> Genevra Gerhart
> http://www.wolfenet.com/~ggerhart/
>
> 2134 E. Interlaken  Bl.                 Tel. 206/329-0053
> Seattle, WA  98112                      ggerhart at wolfenet.com

Dear Genevra, dear seelangers,

As a native of Odessa I can assure you that the way Odessans prefer the
name of their city pronounced in Russian is with a soft "d" and
consequently the soft (front) "e"; in Ukrainian, the city's name is
spelled "Odesa" and is pronounced with a hard "d"; however, Ukrainian "e"
is more front ("softer") than the Russian "e oborotnoe." Only
out-of-towners would pronounce the city's name in Russian with a hard "d"
and "e oborotnoe" (and would be laughed at).

VC

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Vitaly A. Chernetsky                    tel. (212) 854-5580 (office)
Assistant Professor                                854-3941 (dept.)
Department of Slavic Languages          fax  (212) 854-5009
715 Hamilton Hall                       e-mail: vac10 at columbia.edu
Columbia University, New York, NY 10027
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