Do you agree?

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Jules Levin wrote:

> On another list I belong to, dealing with genealogy, someone sent in the
> following question:
>
> My grandmother's 1912 passport shows that her father enlisted in the army
> (Polish or Russian) in the town of Meshanskoye.
>
> One of the best researchers, and doubtless a native speaker of Polish
> and/or Russian, responding:
>
> There appear to be a bit of a confusion.
> Meshchanskoye identifies the social status of a "town dweller"in the
> Russian
> Empire, not a town name. Word has originated from Polish "mieszczanin"
>
> Aside from the etymology, what would have been the line on a passport
> that would get the adjective with a neuter ending?
> My impression is that such questions would be answered by a noun--e.g.,
> "meshchanin", etc., or if not, why not the masculine
> adjective (or fem. for a woman)?
> This is also intriguing because the neuter ending IS found with town names.
>
> Comments? Thoughts?

Apparently there was such a village, "село мещанское":

<http://belovodskoe-muh.ucoz.ru/publ/otchjot_o_sostojanii_turkestanskoj_eparkhii_v_1916_g_chast_3_ja/1-1-0-85>
Дорога в село Мещанское проходит ущельем, а потому, во избежание 
нападений, пришлось ехать окружным путём (горами), и лишь спустя 3 – 4 
часа ...

More hits (I get 88) if you google "село мещанское" with the quotation 
marks. Even more if you leave them off, but then you get a lot of chaff.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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