pushkin's nanny

[Alina Israeli]

>Arina Rodionovna is sometimes referred to as Anna Rodionovna (I've run
>across it in a couple of essays and brief bios of Pushkin).

This is the first time I hear of it. Who were the authors, did they know
Russian well?

>Wondering if Anna can be a short form of Arina,

Never. Anna was Christ's grandmother, so to speak, and the name Anna cannot
be a diminutive for anything that does not include it to begin with (like
Marianna, for ex. and even then it wouldn't.)

> or vice versa,

The sound R does not appear in names as a diminutive element unless in a
suffix -ur-: Shura, for ex.

> or if this is simply a wrong substitution that somehow got currency in
>English.

Sounds like it.

__________________________
 Alina Israeli
 LFS, American University
 4400 Mass. Ave., NW
 Washington, DC 20016

 phone:    (202) 885-2387
 fax:      (202) 885-1076

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