Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0006289, Fri, 4 Jan 2002 13:58:35 -0800

Subject
Re: Spelling of Anna Karenina (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Andrew Woods <andrew.woods@student.adelaide.edu.au>

>From: TA Colquhoun <TAColquhoun@compuserve.com>
>
>>It is first necessary to understand that the termination -a is only
>used when speaking or writing in Russian. Translations into English
>eliminate the variable form, omitting the a and using the masculine
>pronunciation of a surname, as in Countess Tolstoy or Madame Blavatsky.
>One does not use Countess Tolstoya or Madame Blavatskaya when speaking
>English.<
>
>Maybe that was a consistent rule 'before', but what about writers like
>Tatiana Tolstaya? Natalya Baranskaya? Lydia Chukovskaya? Are they too
>'victims' of misguided translators??
>
>Alexandra Colquhoun
>

The users of Slavic languages have a habit of declining foreign
names to fit their grammars: for example, a Pole will say not
that his friend comes "z [from] New York" but "z Nowego Yorku".

This, of course, is an unbelievable liberty. We do not discuss "erratums" in
works Nabokova, but "errata". In the same way, we do not "speak of errata" but
"speak of erratís".

Here we are speaking of one errató we have found, in "Pninye".

Some examples of correct usage:

Anna Karenina went to London.
In London, an Englishwoman met Annu Kareninu.
The Englishwoman stole the purse Anni Karenini.
A passerby stopped to help Annye Kareninye.
He spoke for a few minutes with Annoy Kareninoy.
Then he tried to steal the hat Anni Karenini.
Anna Karenina was not very happa.

There. Perfectly simple.


Andrew Woods