Versification question, Tsvetaeva

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Last week, I wrote:

> Molly Thomasy Blasing wrote:
> 
>> Dear Francoise,
>>
>> A wonderful choice!  I own a recording of Tsvetaeva poems (read by an
>> actress--there are no recordings of Tsvetaeva reading her work, as I
>> understand) and the stress is, as you suggested, on the first
>> syllable of PO-ru.
> 
> This is also the standard stress on the accusative, is it not?
> 
> Пора is one of a small set of two- (occasionally three-) syllable 
> feminine nouns with retracted stress in the accusative singular. 
> Compare: нога, рука, голова (from Common Slavic *golvā via pleophony), 
> щека, etc. (but глава with no retraction from Bulgarian).
> 
> To the best of my knowledge, these have not yet been leveled out, at 
> least in the literary language.

A few more examples came to mind as I was cleaning out old emails. This 
is still a closed class of ancient words, with only a few dozen members. 
Most grammar books will have a more complete list.

беда, гора, дева, зима, земля, изба, река, сковорода(!), спина, стена, 
сторона, цена

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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