Toasts
Alina Israeli
aisrael at AMERICAN.EDU
Fri Feb 27 22:50:45 UTC 2004
>I've yet to find a consensus, a hard and fast rule, on when to use one or
>the other... even after eight years of rigorous research. (Ahem!)
>"Na" is definitely the most common of the two, and is, indeed, used as a
>toast.
Only in Polish, not in Russian.
>The explanation that makes the most sense, to me, is that "na" is
>preferable when the toast is more general, when no one in particular is
>being addressed. In this way it's kind of like "Cheers!" But "za" is used
>when someone wants to be more specific, to toast to the health of someone
>in particular. That's why "za" is always (in my experience) followed by a
>pronoun (such as "Vashe/vashe " or "nashe"), as in, "Za vashe zdorov'e."
In may make sense but it is all wrong. Factually wrong.
__________________________
Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Mass. Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20016
phone: (202) 885-2387
fax: (202) 885-1076
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