Pronunciation of surnames

[Jack Kollmann]

Paul B. Gallagher wrote:
For those of us who do know how to pronounce Russian, given the proper
stress placement, do you know of any web sites (reference lists) that
give the proper stress placement for surnames?

         I haven't searched the Web for this, but in book form Unbegaun's
"Russian Surnames" (Oxford, 1972), is a classic.  Chapter 2 discusses form,
stress, and declension.  Most chapters present surnames by origin -- e.g.,
from patronymics, baptismal names, occupational names, surnames of
non-Russian origin, etc.
He lists the 100 most frequently-occurring surnames in "Ves' Peterburg" for
1910.  Surnames are stressed throughout the text and the index.  Of course,
some pronunciations are particular to a person or family (e.g., the 19th-c.
artist A.A.  iVANov, as opposed to the more common ivanOV).  Such instances
can be checked in various encyclopedias -- e.g., "Rossiiskii
entsiklopedicheskii slovar,' Moskva, 2000 (sorry to refer to paper again,
but it happens to be on my shelf).

Jack Kollmann

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