Сочи

[E Wayles Browne]

When Russian toponyms are plural in form, do they get plural agreement? And do they decline (take 
endings to show different cases)? Certainly Mineral'nye Vody gets plural agreement and takes case
endings. See, for example, the Russian Wikipedia article. When this city is referred to as "gorod", we
see masculine singular agreement, but when it is referred to as Mineral'nye Vody or Minvody, it gets
plural agreement. The table of temperatures is headed: Klimat Mineral'nyx Vod.

I think it is English that is the odd man out, or odd language out, in this respect--not Russian.
English often has singular agreement for plural-form place names, e.g. not only "Mineral'nye
Vody is..." but also "The United States is..."
It is interesting to look at the Wikipedia article for British Virgin Islands. This name occurs in the
text both with singular verbs and with plural verbs.

--
Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics
Morrill Hall 220, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.

tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)
fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE)
e-mail ewb2 at cornell.edu

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