fun with phrases

[Victor Steinbok]

Well, I did specify "diminutive" (endearing). Russian has more words for
"cat" than we have complaints about "Eskimos" having 30 words for snow.
Of course, so does English, if you think about it.

One thing I failed to mention is that "kiska" and the Anglicized and
Yiddish versions of "kishka/kishke" have first-stress syllable. Russian
"kishka" does not (nor does plural "kishki"). I'm not sure about Polish,
but I assume first syllable.

VS-)

On 10/5/2011 8:25 AM, ronbutters at AOL.COM wrote:
> Isn't the Russian word for 'cat' KOSHKA?
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Oct 4, 2011, at 9:22 PM, Victor Steinbok<aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>  wrote:
>
>> I am assuming you're jesting on both A and B (I take it, it's meant to
>> be a parody on Yiddish jokes). "Sausage" is "kiełbasa" and diminutive
>> for "cat" is "kicia", not "kishka". The Russian diminutive for "cat" is
>> "kisia", which is pronounced nearly the same, or "kiska", which is
>> similar, but not identical to "kishka". Neither has any connection to
>> "kishka" (Russian) or "kiszka" (Polish), other than one's gut is used
>> for various purposes (e.g., strings for musical instruments) and the
>> other is wrapped in gut. As such, my sense of humor fails me with
>> respect to this fanciful dialog. Perhaps it's the amount of sleep I got
>> last night with cats jumping all over me... or the kiełbasa I ate earlier...
>>
>> VS-)

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