question regarding R, RCS, or OCS (?)

[John Dunn]

The phrase svjataja svjatyx is found in most, if not all Soviet-era 
dictionaries and perhaps is not all that obscure.  One (further?) 
curiosity is that, notwithstanding its origins as a neuter plural, in 
modern usage it is treated as feminine and indeclinable (vojti v etu 
svjataja svjatyx; see also D.N. Ushakov's tolkovyj slovar' russkogo 
jazyka, vol. IV, col. 110).

John Dunn.


>At 06:59 PM 3/5/2006, you wrote:
>
>>Not feminine, archaic neuter plural.
>>
>><http://www.spravka.gramota.ru/hardwords.html?no=369>
>...
>Paul B. Gallagher
>
>
>Since I expect that everyone will come back with the neuter
>plural, I guess I should clarify why this did not occur to me.
>1.  This would be the only archaic linguistic form I have seen
>in the translation, which I am sure was done within the last
>30 years, if not 20.
>2.  What is the neuter plural Adj agreeing with?  In view of English,
>this seems to be a traditional translation (Greek?), but the original Hebrew
>I believe (don't have it in front of me and too lazy to get up and 
>look for it)
>is makom kadosh--holy place, for the inner chamber of the Tabernacle.
>3.  This translation is definitely NOT the product of a traditional chain of
>translations going back to RCS and OCS sources.  It is possible that 
>the translator
>in fact never looked at any non-Jewish Biblical translation, and the earliest
>Jewish translations from Hebrew into Russian are mid-19th C.  (I am 
>guessing here,
>admittedly.)  Thus the motive for using an archaism unintelligible 
>to the modern
>reader is what exactly...?  (My point being that if there is a 
>traditional rendering, even when
>the exact meaning is lost on modern readers, it still has the power 
>to lend a tone of
>sanctity, etc., as with the use of thou, thine, etc. in an English 
>translation. )
>So I still think something remains to be explained here.
>Jules Levin
>    
>
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-- 
John Dunn
School of Modern Languages and Cultures (Slavonic Studies)
University of Glasgow
Hetherington Building
Bute Gardens
Glasgow
G12 8RS
United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 (0)141 330 5591/330 5418
Fax: +44 (0)141 330 2297
e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk

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