more about opera: smotret' or slushat'?

[Tatyana Buzina]

Yes, coffee was officially both masculine and neuter as of 1991. 1991 Orfograficheskii slovar' russkogo iazyka listed both genders. Both genders are used, but somehow, there are adjectival phrases that still sound odd when used in the neuter gender. It's reasonably OK to say "odno kofe" or even "goriachee kofe" but "chernoe kofe" or "rastvorimoe kofe"... I cannot recall hearing or seeing it. 
What is really crazy gender-wise in today's Russian is the word "viski" (whiskey). It has always been neuter:  "shotlandskoe viski." However, you can hear it combined with masculine forms of adjectives (shotlandskiy viski) or even with plural forms of adjectives "shotlandskie viski." 


>Native English speakers would say "to see" an opera: "What did you do on
>Saturday?" "We went to the opera." "Oh? What did you see?" "We saw 'La
>Traviata.'" If an English speaker said, "What did you do yesterday?" "I
>listened to 'The Magic Flute,'" the inference would be that you listened to a
>recording of it, not that you went to see a live performance. I don't think
>we'd ever use "to hear" unless you didn't actually attend the opera but just
>overheard it: "They were playing 'Carmen' in the park yesterday." "I know, we
>could hear it from our apartment."
>
>On another note: are native Russian speakers really starting to 
>"neuterize" the
>word kofe? How common is this? I assume it's a new development? Are there any
>connotations regarding education/class/background/etc. if you use one over the
>other? I.e., is one more conversational/colloquial/casual? Is the masculine
>starting to sound archaic?
>
>Best,
>Sara Stefani
>
>Quoting Inna Caron <caron.4 at OSU.EDU>:
>
>> Here's another controversial item, also likely to be written off as an
>> archaism.
>>
>> When I was a little girl, my parents always corrected me when I said "my
>> smotreli operu," - "Operu ne smotryat, a slushayut." Now it would be as
>> difficult for me to use "smotret'" (regardless of how pompous and
>> pretentious it may sound to other native speakers), as to accept the
>> legitimization of neuter for coffee, and not mentally wince when someone
>> says "moe/chernoe kofe."
>>
>> So, I'm wondering - and this is not the matter of conducting a research
>> - just plain curiosity:
>>
>> 1) Do other native Russian speakers use "smotret' operu," or "slushat'
>> operu," when referring to live (not recorded) performance?
>>
>> 2) Do native speakers of English say "to see" or "to hear" in the same
>> context?
>>
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-- 
Tatyana V. Buzina,
Associate Professor, Chair,
Dpt. of European Languages,
Institute for Linguistics,
Russian State U for the Humanities

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