Na zdorov'e

[Deborah Hoffman]

I wonder if it comes from another Slavic language?  I grew up hearing people say Na zdorov'e all the time as a toast, along with Prosit.  Maybe it's Slovak?  There are many descendants of East Europeans here.
Deborah

SEELANGS automatic digest system <LISTSERV at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> wrote:There are 4 messages totalling 254 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

1.  Na zdorov'e
2. Russian Orthodox wedding ceremony (3)

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Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 08:16:07 -0700
From: Elena Boudovskaia
Subject: Re: Na zdorov'e

Na zdorov'e is not a toast, its' what you answer when someone says to you
Spasibo!

I wonder why all non-Russian speakers think it's a toast? A reminiscence
from a film somewhere from the 40s maybe, depicting war-time friendship? Or
from the 50s, about Russian spies? Definitely it's not Russian, whichever
the source.

Real toasts are many (probably there are collections of them somewhere on
the Internet too). Some of the common ones are: Za vashe zdorov'e; Budem
zdorovy (or just Budem); simpler ones like Nu davai or Poexali; and the
famous one from Bulgakov's Sobach'e serdce: Zhelaiu, chtoby vse! (ili:
chtoby vsio; the word-final e allows two readings, and Bulgakov never told
us which one he meant).

Regards,

Elena





Deborah Hoffman
Graduate Assistant
Kent State University
Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

http://www.personal.kent.edu/~dhoffma3/index.htm

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