Pronunciation of surnames

[Paul B. Gallagher]

A few days ago, I 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?

Here is a compilation of the results. Thanks to all who contributed.

Geramй Wouters <gjmwouters at hotmail.com> offered (privately):
        Morton Benson, Dictionary of Russian personal names:
        with a revised guide to stress and morphology. New ed.,
        Cambridge: CUP, 1992. ISBN: 0-521-41165-3

Kevin Hawkins <kshawkin at uiuc.edu> offered:
        Perhaps try "The Well-Tempered Announcer: A Pronunciation
        Guide to Classical Music" by Robert A. Fradkin. I'm not sure
        if it covers stress placement, but its specialty is last names.

Jack Kollmann <jack.kollmann at stanford.edu> offered:
        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...
        "Rossiiskii entsiklopedicheskii slovar,' Moskva, 2000 (sorry
        to refer to paper again, but it happens to be on my shelf).

Genevra Gerhart <ggerhart at attbi.com> offered:
        Morton Benson, long since, produced an entire book of
        stresses [on Russian surnames], University of Pennsylvania
        Press, and entitled "Dictionary of Russian Personal Names,
        with a Guide to Stress and Morphology".
        I got the first edition in 1964 and there was another
        improved one, later, I believe.
as well as
        if it's a famous name we're talking about, you can also refer to
        "The Russian Context" for the same information.

My own online searches did not turn up an electronic reference, but I
did find the following.

Gramota.ru <http://slovari.gramota.ru/sl_tales.html?antrop.htm> cites
several printed sources not listed above:
        Ганжина И. М. Словарь современных русских фамилий. М., 2001.
                (sample entry marks stress)
        Дзятковская Н. П. Украинско-русский и русско-украинский словарь
        собственных имен людей / Под ред. И. Н. Кириченко. Киев, 1954.
                (no sample)
and of course
        Унбегаун Б. О. Русские фамилии / Пер. с англ. / Общ. ред.
        Б. А. Успенского. М., 1989; 2-е изд. 1995; то же:
        Unbegaun B. O. Russian surnames. Oxford, 1972.

Gramota.ru also links to
        Русское словесное ударение. Словарь имён собственных.
        Ф. Л. Агеенко © М.: ЭНАС, 2001 <http://enas.ru/>
        Словарь... содержит имена собственные, вызывающие трудности
        при определении места ударения: географические названия,
        фамилии и имена политиков, деятелей науки и культуры,
        названия средств массовой информации, политических партий,
        литературных и музыкальных произведений и т. п.

For those interested in given (first) names, you can search them at
<http://www.gramota.ru/dic/search.php> (be sure to check the box next to
the Petrovsky dictionary of personal names). If you look carefully at
the results, you will see that the stressed vowel is in red, the rest of
the name in black. But the entries also contain long lists of nicknames,
as well as etymologies. Example:
        ВЛАДИМИР, -а, м. Слав.
        Отч.: Владимирович, Владимировна; разг. Владимирыч.
        Производные: Владимирушка; Владя (Влада); Ладя (Лада); Вадя;
        Вава; Вавуля; Вавуся; Дима; Володя; Володюка; Володюня;
        Володюха; Володюша; Володяка; Володяха; Володяша; Вова;
        Вовуля; Вовуня; Вовуся; Вовуша; Воля.
        [От влад- (ср. владеть, власть) и мир- (ср. мирный, мир).
        Др.-русск. форма имени ≈ Володимэръ.]
        ├ 4 июня, 28 июля, 17 окт.

For a list of personal names with stress marked, point your browser to
<http://www.slovari.ru/lang/ru/ivoc/orfo/orfo_sl.html>.

To email a question to the Russian Language Service (Служба русского
языка Института русского языка им. В. В. Виноградова Российской Академии
наук и Издательства "Азбуковник"), complete the form at
<http://az.don.sitek.net/cgi-bin/gb/rls/newmsg.html>. The site seems to
be unfriendly to Netscape, but works fine with MSIE. See also their main
page at <http://www.slovari.ru/lang/ru/index.html>.

For those interested in a software product that declines Russian names
(I'm not, so I scanned through this quickly), have a look at
<http://www.delphikingdom.com/mastering/poligon/webpadeg.htm>. The above
does not constitute an endorsement and anything you do with it is
entirely at your own risk.

--
War is hell. Bush wants to go to war. Fine. Let him go to hell.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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