another Teffi question

[Gasan Gusejnov]

Dear Robert,

Teffi likes short, very short sentences, doesn't she.
In this case, it looks like an attempt to express the way stutters speak.
Step after step.

gg


18 марта 2014 г., 19:43 пользователь Robert Chandler
<kcf19 at dial.pipex.com>написал:

> Dear all,
>
> This too is from Vospominaniya, her memoir of her journey south from
> Moscow in 1918.
>
> Дом был тихий. По комнатам бродила пожилая женщина, такая бледная, такая
> измученная, что, казалось, будто ходит она с закрытыми глазами. Кто-то еще
> шевелился на кухне, но в комнату не показывался: кажется, жена заики.
> Напоили нас чаем.
> --   Можно бы ве-э-э-тчины... -- шепнул заика. -- Пока светло...
> --   Нет, уже стемнело, -- прошелестела в ответ старуха и закрыла глаза.
> -- *  М-ма-м-маша.* А если без фонаря, а только спички...
> --   Иди, если не боишься.
> I had assumed that this "*М-ма-м-маша" *was simply his way of addressing
> the old woman who is his mother-in-law.  (He has a bad stutter).  But I'm
> puzzled by the full stop after it.  Is there anything else this word could
> mean?  The 1932 edition is only very slightly different; it has ""
> *Мм-a-ммаша."*
>
> All the best - and I will be grateful, as always for any thoughts!
>
> Robert
>
> Robert Chandler, 42 Milson Road, London, W14 OLD
>
>
>
>
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