Russ. zajti : vojti

[Andrei and Stephanie Zaitsev]

I would say that VOITI and ZAITI might be replaceable and incompatible
within the same context. The reason is that, on the one hand, these verbs
have different meanings: voiti = to enter; zaiti = to stop by. On the other
hand, semantic component: 'to walk in' is common for both verbs.

VOITI # ZAITI (On voshiol v komnatu. Vs. On zashiol v komnatu za gazetoi.)
The sentence 'On zashiol v komnatu' sounds wrong because the context doesn't
allow the meaning 'for a short time' - he walked into the room and he is
here (vs. On zakhodil v komnatu. - which is fine.).  Also, 'On voshiol v
komnatu za gazetoi' sounds wrong because 'on voshiol' means 'he is still
here' but 'za gazetoi' (he was outside, he was looking for gazeta, he
stepped into komnata, he found gazeta, he walked out),- is a purpose for a
short 'step in' (compare to: On vkhodil v komnatu za gazetoi. - which sounds
ok.)

VOITI = ZAITI (On voshiol v komnatu i skazal..... = On zashiol v komnatu i
skazal.....) In both sentences, the component of meaning 'to walk in' is
highlighted while the component of 'for a short time' (expressed by 'zaiti')
is not relevant for this particular context. That is why both verbs may be
use as synonyms.

I might be wrong.

Andrei Zaitsev


-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU]On Behalf Of Polina Rikoun
Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002 4:14 PM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Re: Russ. zajti : vojti

I would certainly use vojti in "On voshel v komnatu," zajti sounds wrong
to me in this sentence.  Maybe this is partly a question of regional
variation, where zajti may be replacing vojti in some places but not
others.  (I grew up in Odessa and do not remember hearing "zajti" being
used instead of "vojti" there.)

Best,
Polina Rikoun
Harvard University

On Thu, 7 Mar 2002, Steven Young wrote:

> Colleagues,
>
> In dealing with students who were born in the former Soviet Union and are
> native speakers of Russian (we have quite a few on campus), I've long
> observed usages which are non-normative but seem to have become de-facto
> norms in everyday spoken Russian, like odet' [sviter] rather than nadet',
> or ezhaj / ed' as the imperfective imperative of exat' (I won't bring up
> kushat' : est' again!).  I was reminded of the whole question of norms in
> reading in a student essay "on zashol v komnatu"--for many native-speaker
> students I've dealt with, 'zajti' seems to have almost replaced 'vojti' in
> the context of going into a room.  I remember one student trying to draw a
> slight semantic distinction for me, though I couldn't follow her
> intuitions.  Any comments?
>
> Steve Young.
>
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