"Na Velikiy i Moguchiy naveli porchu"

[William Ryan]

Steve,

Read it - a good amusing rant. But since he asks philologists and 
writers to come to his aid perhaps he should be told that there is a 
difference between etymology and meaning. To complain that a "sobranie 
pod predsedatel'stvom prezidenta" is a tautology and a stain on the 
purity of the Russian language because "predsedatel'" is a calque of 
Latin "president" is a Shishkovian silliness because (1) the word 
"prezident" is long since de-etymologized; (2) how many Russians know 
Latin anyway, even those who have, in the vernacular, "ostepenilis'"?; 
(3) the "prezident" in question was presumably the President of Russia 
and not necessarily the regular chair of the meeting, in which case how 
else could this information have been conveyed?

Will

On 27/11/2010 13:27, Steve Marder wrote:
> A must-read by the satirist Mikhail Zadornov:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/2do77qk
>
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