More antique Russian

[Ralph Cleminson]

I have nothing to add to the translation (with which I agree), but might
I suggest a minor textual emendation: instead of "а 746 и 747 годах", "в
746 и 747 годах"?  This certainly helps with both sense and syntax.  It
also makes it easier to read if you imagine a colon after "показал".

>>> William Ryan <wfr at SAS.AC.UK> 09/07/10 3:11 PM >>>
Thank you John. Your suggestion regarding 'perevezeno' makes good sense.

And I had carelessly glossed over the sense of 'po' which you give, 
correctly I think, as 'in the first four months of 1747'. Your version 
is  better although I think we agree on the essentials. So I have 
learned. Open exchange is worth it!

Regards,
Will


On 09/07/2010 14:34, John Dunn wrote:
> In response to Will's reproach I am re-sending to the list my
annotated translation of the passage in question.  I have removed a note
that essentially duplicates some of Will's explanations and added a new
note about the agreement of 'perevezeno'.
>
> Also on 19 October the above-mentioned Priadunov made a statement to
the Mining Department in which he claimed that he had delivered to the
laboratory of the Mining Department in Moscow Russian oil, which he had
extracted in 1746 and in the first four months of 1747 [while exploring]
in the Pustozersk uezd close to the river Ukhta, to a quantity [weight]
of 40 poods. Priadunov claimed to have subjected all of this oil to a
process of double distillation, and the result of this double
distillation was pure oil which had a weight of two-thirds [of the
original], i.e. 26 poods and 26½ pounds.
>
> Notes:
>
> 1. This does not claim to be a finshed version, but I wanted to make
it reasonably transparent how I got from the original to the
translation.
>
> 2. Even by the undemanding standards of the 18th century this is not
particularly elegant piece of writing, and I cannot rule out the
possibility that the text is corrupt (or that it is written by someone
who is not a native speaker of Russian).
>
> 3. I am not sure that agreement of перевезено is defective.  The
syntax here in not entirely transparent, but I take the subject to be
the numeral construction: российской нефти ... сорок пудов, and to the
best of my knowledge neuter agreement with such constructions is not
unusual in 17th- and 18th-century Russian.  But there may be other and
better explanations.
>
> John Dunn.
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: William Ryan<wfr at SAS.AC.UK>
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2010 13:35:34 +0100
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] More antique Russian
>
> To repeat a complaint made often enough before, if SEELANGers respond
> off-list to requests for information this not only leads to
unnecessary
> duplication of effort, it defeats the whole purpose of the list, which
> is to exchange information and opinion. In this particular interesting
> case I would quite like to know if anyone has come up with a better
> explanation of the apparently defective agreement of 'perevezeno' in
> your problem passage.
>
> Will
>
>
> 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
>
>
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