"Kofe stal srednego roda: Oshibki v russkom yazyke uzakonili"

[John Dunn]

Meanwhile the storm continues to rage:

http://www.newsru.com/russia/02sep2009/oprus.html

Two pieces of background information to supplement what gramota.ru says.  The first is that it would appear that the reason why only the four mentioned works are included in the list is that eligibility was restricted to books published in the last two years: 

http://expert.ru/articles/2009/08/20/slovar/

The second is that the list was drawn up to fulfil the requirements of the 2005 law on the Russian Language as the State Language of the Russian Federation.  It therefore follows that these norms apply only when the Russian language is being used in its capacity as the state language of the Russian Federation (Art. 1, Para. 3).  On all other occasions you remain free to continue using whatever forms you like (or whatever you think your readers and/or listeners will tolerate).

John Dunn.

P.S. Oh, except for mat, of course, which is covered by different legal provisions, as Filipp Kirkorov once found out (literally) to his cost.

-----Original Message-----
From: "Michele A. Berdy" <maberdy at GMAIL.COM>
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2009 14:59:32 +0400
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] "Kofe stal srednego roda: Oshibki v russkom yazyke uzakonili"

Bless gramota.ru! It's been 24 hours of near-hysteria over here.  
> http://www.gramota.ru/lenta/news/8_2442
> 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 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/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


John Dunn
Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
University of Glasgow, Scotland

Address:
Via Carolina Coronedi Berti 6
40137 Bologna
Italy
Tel.: +39 051/1889 8661
e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk
johnanthony.dunn at fastwebnet.it

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 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/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------