Do you agree?

[Irina Shevelenko]

If it is not the town, the line in the passport might have been "soslovie," and "meshchanskoe" could be a grammatically appropriate entry there.

On 10/05/11, "Paul B. Gallagher"  
 wrote:
> 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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