"assault rifle" for "avtomat"?

[Emily Saunders]

All of this talk of avtomaty and ocheredi reminds me of a Shtirlits  
joke (and one of the few actual Russian puns that I've heard out there)  
that I feel compelled to share, though it not materially assist with  
translation efforts:

Shtirlits strelyal po ocheredi.  Ochered' upala.

Cheers!

Emily Saunders

On Jun 19, 2006, at 11:18 PM, Kevin Windle wrote:

> If the context of the phrase quoted 'avtomatnaia ochered' ' was WWII,
> and the weapon in question a PPSh (Shpagin), Thompson, Sten or similar,
> 'submachine gun' would be fully appropriate, these being neither rifles
> nor machine guns.
>
> For later weapons such as the AK47, the term 'assault rifle' seems to  
> be
> standard.
>
> Kevin Windle
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Chris B. Clough
> Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 4:04 PM
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] "assault rifle" for "avtomat"?
>
> A Kalashnikov is not, to my understanding, a submachine gun. Assault
> rifle is better, I think.
> A submachine gun is usually smaller (hence 'sub'), like the UZI or the
> H&K MP5. And while machine gun sounds slightly "Rambo" to my ear, it
> may be the best descriptive for something larger like the M60.
>
> Chris Clough
>
> On 6/17/06, Peter Scotto <pscotto at mtholyoke.edu> wrote:
>> What about "assault rifle" for "avtomat." I'm no expert on this, but
> isn't that
>> how the Kalashnikov is usually classified?
>>
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