Сочи

[Alina Israeli]

Should be

Сочам — About 13,500 results
Сочами — About 12,100 results
Сочах — About 267,000 results


Conclusion? This kind of statistical analysis cannot be conclusive; 
nominative and accusative are the most common cases. How much more 
common are they? I don't know.  267 thousand examples of uses is nothing 
to sneeze at, even if it's not the norm.

Clearly Сочи is a strange word. Try an adjective. You can easily say 
любимая Москва, любимый Питер, любимый Париж. The most examples we get with

любимый Сочи — About 1,600 results, hardly as many as the oblique cases 
of the declined version, but still the masculine wins, as opposed to:

любимый город Сочи — About 240,000 results

The conclusion is, as dictionaries like to write: употребление 
затруднительно. Yes, it has a gender, but fitting it into regular 
patterns feels as awkward as the genitive plural of the word мечта.

Alina Israeli

> I googled with the following results:
>
> Сочи    almost 12 million hits
> Сочей  47  000  hits
> Сочям 723 hits.   (For Сочам there are 17 000 hits, but most do not 
> seem to rfefer to the city)
> Сочями 140 hits Сочами  11 700 hits,. not all refer to the city
> Сочях 8 300 hits and  Сочах 267 000 hits.
>
> Conclusion: ?????
>
> Frans Suasso
>
>

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