for discussion

[Josh Wilson]

Well, now I have another piece to use in the inevitable explanations of my
name I have to go through in order to get folks here to say it correctly -
although I am also not "Yeshua."

Most will say my name as "George" unless I go into fairly extensive
explanations. "George" is the closest phonetic match that most Russians are
immediately comfortable saying. I've even had folks insist that is "the same
name anyway," that they should be able to call me "George" for that reason,
and are only dissuaded from this view if presented with the historical
argument. (And, actually, I often don't bother arguing with folks who say my
name as "George" if I won't have to hear them say it too frequently - the
song and dance is just not worth going through every time.) 

Incidentally, I had mentioned the translation of my name primarily to show
the absurdity of expecting people to translate their names. 

I think part of the power of the historical argument is the basic inference
that they might have the choice between calling me Isus or Dzhosh, of which
the later is immediately preferable. Naming someone Isus in Russian is about
as common as naming someone Jesus in English...

 

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Alina Israeli
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 11:54 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] for discussion

-- Имя?
      -- Мое? --  торопливо отозвался арестованный,  всем  существом   
выражая
готовность отвечать толково, не вызывать более гнева.
      Прокуратор сказал негромко:
      -- Мое -- мне известно. Не притворяйся более глупым, чем ты  
есть. Твое.
      -- Иешуа, -- поспешно ответил арестант.
      -- Прозвище есть?
      -- Га-Ноцри.
      -- Откуда ты родом?
      -- Из города Гамалы,  -- ответил  арестант, головой показывая,  
что там,
где-то далеко, направо от него, на севере, есть город Гамала.
http://lib.ru/BULGAKOW/master.txt
Й is a later Russian innovation.

On Mar 9, 2010, at 2:30 PM, Edward Dumanis wrote:

> Josh, your name in Russian is associated with Bulgakov's "Джошуа
> Га-Ноцри" (Dzhoshua Ga-Notsri) usually transliterated as "Йешуа
> Га-Ноцри" (Yeshua Ga-Notsri) which means Иисус из Назарета (Jesus fon
> Nazareth). So, Иисус (Jesus) would be a more traditional rendering of
> your name in Russian. However, I believe, this transcription is
> reserved exclusively for the deity.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Edward Dumanis
>
>
>
>

Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu





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