"putin(ov)shchina" exists.

[colkitto]

> colkitto wrote:
>
>>>> Lenin and Stalin did change their names for "poetic" reasons, no
>>>> doubt ( creating their own -ism's probably was not among their
>>>> reasons), not everyone is lucky to have a beautifully sounding
>>>> name like Napoleon (three sonorants out four consonants, for
>>>> Russian, not for French) for overthrowing the world.
>>>
>>> I can understand someone wanting to be associated with steel, but
>>> laziness?? I'd've stuck with "Ulyanov," myself.
>>
>> apparently Lenin took his name from the River Lena from his Siberian days
>
> Sure, I've heard that story, too. But as I said to another subscriber
> privately in response to a similar comment:
>
> "Sure, you can control what you mean, but not what people will read into
> it. Advertising and marketing folks spend millions of dollars every year
> ruling out potential product and company names for just this reason."
>
> No matter what Ulyanov's intentions, some people will recognize the len'
> root in "Lenin," and even if they ultimately reject that hypothesis, it
> *will* cross their minds. Adolescents have great fun "recognizing" dirty
> words in innocuous contexts -- "the cock crowed three times" (hahaha),
> etc. -- and making up names to trip up the teacher ("Richard Hertz, but
> you can call me 'Dick,' " etc.). The human mind can't help "recognizing"
> these before the "parent module" steps in to reject them.


I think Gvozdev has a story somewhere where teaching of Russian phonology
fell under Party anger because p'janyj and pjat' (and by extension 
pjatiletka) would be juxtaposed, in order to illustrate  the contrast 
between soft consonants and soft
consonants plus jod.  The Party took fearful umbrage suggesting that 
teachers of Russian phonology were trying to mock the Five-Year Plan, 
suggesting that it was being run by drunks.

And you can guess the rest ......

I'm sure phonology teachers did not intend this outcome, but things spun out 
of control .......

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------