Translation of Flora/Fauna

[Will Ryan]

Commiserations to John Meredig - becoming relevant is somehow like 
losing one's innocence! I had just found a site for huntsmen on Yandex 
which also pointed to ducks, though without the additional details 
offered by John. The only problem is that the story in which these words 
appear seems to have the chernukhi sitting in the branches of a tree. I 
don't know much about birds, but it seems unlikely that any of these 
birds can do that.
And by the way, for "zelenenkaya travka" perhaps the following helps, 
also via Yandex, Солянка русская (поташник, соленая трава), Salsola 
ruthenica ILjin.

Will Ryan


Meredig, John wrote:
> Oh my God, it's actually happened in my lifetime--my dissertation has become RELEVANT! It was a linguistic analysis of Russian bird names, with data gleaned from a number of sources, some of them quite obscure--but of course it is far from being comprehensive (if such a thing is even possible when dealing with folk names and such). In any case, no luck, unfortunately, on nochnaya ptitsa-kovyrun. However, here are some possibilities for chernukha: 
>
> In general, chern' (fem.), chérnet' (fem.), chernúkha, chernúshka, and chernýsh can refer to various diving ducks of the genus Aythya, such as Common Pochard (Aythya ferina), Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula), Greater Scaup (Aythya marila), and Ferruginous Pochard (Aythya nyroca). All of these birds have a significant amount of dark plumage. A number of these names can also refer to the Scoters: Black Scoter (Melanitta nigra) and White-winged Scoter (Melanitta fusca: this is the "obyknovennyy turpan" listed by Paul below). These birds are pretty much all black. Chernýsh is also attested for the male Black Grouse (Lyryrus tetrix), Green Sandpiper (Tringa ochropus), and Black Lark (Melanocorypha yeltoniensis). 
>
> Cheers!
> John Meredig
> jm3 at evansville.edu
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Paul B. Gallagher
> Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 9:21 PM
> To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Translation of Flora/Fauna
>
> Followup to yesterday's posting:
>
> In this case...
>
>   
>>> Two types of birds:
>>>
>>> nochnaya ptitsa-kovyrun
>>> ptitsa-chernukhi
>>>       
>
> Would this be appropriate for your context?
>
> <http://www.poimai.ru/pticy/article507.html>
> Обыкновенный турпан
>
> Называется местами также свирок, турпан, тюльпан, чернуха, черная утка и головень. Это весьма крупная утка с массивным туловищем, очень большими лапами и относительно короткой шеей. Клюз у турпана широкий, с широким ноготком и небольшим вздутием у основания. Вес селезня иногда превышает 1700 граммов, самка несколько мельче. ...
>
>   

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