Stress question

[Jack Haney]

Of course, languages changes, but L. N. Tolstoi insisted on the the
surname SerpukhovskOi in Anna Karenina. JV Haney



On Tue, 15 Feb 2000, Ralph Cleminson wrote:

> On  Mon, 14 Feb  Richard Robin wrote:
> > One thing to keep in mind is that the OVOJ/OVYJ ending is often a
> > matter of free variation. For example, there's the metro station
> > SepuxOvskaya (as all my acquaintances pronounce it), but the metro
> > recording insists on SepuxovskAya. I have also heard variant
> > stresses for semestrOvyj/-ovOj. There must be a bunch of others
> > besides jazykovyj (supposedly 'tongue') vs. jazykovoj (language).
> >
> > -----
> I'm pretty sure that twenty years ago the recording used to say
> Serpukh'ovskaja.  This, together with the responses regarding the
> microwave, and the fact that both Avanesov (1959) and Ozhegov (1975
> ed.) give only semestr'ovyj (and I can't recall hearing anything
> else), suggest a movement in spoken Russian towards desinential
> stress for some types of adjective.  (I think we should ignore for
> these purposes those examples such as vr'emennyj/vremenn'oj where the
> stress makes a semantic distinction.)  This is a tiny and inadequate
> sample, but somehow the idea seems plausible in the context of
> general impressions.  Has anyone done any proper work on this?  If
> not, there may be a PhD in it for someone.
>
> Another thought.  It does happen that non-standard stress and/or
> inflection are characteristic of professional jargons.  (If you think
> who writes the textbooks, you'll realise how professor'a and
> uchitel'ja became standard.)  If this is the case here, it would
> explain how Serpukhovsk'aja would occur in the language of metro
> workers (and hence in their announcements?) before that of the
> general public.  And I assume that the examples of semestrov'oj were
> heard in universities...
>
>
>
> R.M.Cleminson,
> Professor of Slavonic Studies,
> University of Portsmouth,
> Park Building,
> King Henry I Street,
> Portsmouth PO1 2DZ
> tel. +44 23 92 846143, fax: +44 23 92 846040
>
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