den' rozhdenija

[Olia Prokopenko]

<<<I think most of us who are saying it correctly, that is "moj den'
rozhdenija" *endured strict drilling from mothers or grand-mothers*.>>> So
true!

The other two versions grate on the ear (although they sound sweet when used
by kids, similar to "curiouser and curiouser").

Olia Prokopenko,
Temple University

On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 5:23 AM, Alina Israeli <aisrael at american.edu> wrote:

> That older guy saying "звучит дико" is exaggerating a tad. The professional
> PhD holding teacher is wrong.
>
> I think most of us who are saying it correctly, that is "moj den'
> rozhdenija" endured strict drilling from mothers or grand-mothers.
>
> Grammatically it's quite simple: den' rozhdenija is reinterpreted as one
> entity -- den'-dozhdenie. A quick search on Google for "день-рожденье" gives
> About 71,900 results. And this entity should definitely be neuter.
>
> Let's approach the search from the other end: "мое день" gives a whopping
> About 188,000 results. I deliberately left out whatever could follow den',
> it could be spelled differently or it could be "den' varen'ja": "мое день
> варенья" About 17,600 results.
>
> (Of course there are some non-Russian hits mixed in as well, but the
> numbers are so large, that there could hardly be a doubt of its popularity.)
>
> Fortunately, "мой день варенья" is a lot more common: About 316,000 results
>
> "мое день рожденья" -- About 21,000 results
>
> "мой день рожденья" -- About 546,000 results
>
> Fortunately, the frequency of use proves the professional language teacher
> wrong. We are not there yet.
>
> AI
>
>
> Oct 6, 2010, в 8:48 PM, John Hope написал(а):
>
>  SEELANGTSY!
>>
>> I appeal to your collective wisdom with a grammar question.  Today a young
>> native speaker newly arrived from Moscow used the phrase день рождения было
>> (den' rozhdeniia bylo).  She spelled the phrase день рождения correctly on
>> the board, keeping the genitive, but used the neuter verb form.  When I
>> suggested that this was grammatically incorrect, she told me that nobody now
>> would say "den' rozhdeniia byl" or "moi den' rozhdeniia".
>>
>> I'd just chalk this up to "kids today," but when I asked an older native
>> speaker, this one a Ph.D.-holding professional teacher of Russian, I was
>> told that, when using the possessive pronoun, моё день рожденье (moe den'
>> rozhden'e) is preferable, i.e. using the neuter form and the uninflected
>> rozhden'e (precisely that, not рождение / rozhdenie).  I confess, I am
>> unable to understand how such a construction is possible grammatically.  I
>> agree that it is widely encountered (as a Google search demonstrates), but
>> correct?
>>
>> Another, older native speaker and professional linguist told me he'd never
>> heard моё день рожденье before, and said that it звучит дико.  I'm inclined
>> to agree, but not being a native speaker myself I hesitate.  Is anyone able
>> to explain to me by what grammatical understanding the uninflected form and
>> neuter modifier may be considered correct?
>>
>> Many thanks,
>>
>> John P. Hope
>> Colgate University
>>
>>
>
> 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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