Пуп, пупок

by Don  

One Russian root word for navel is пуп. That's enough to make any American laugh. And most of us will be so amused that we aren't going to bother to investigate the word further. But here at Russian Word of the Day we pride ourselves on taking interest in all sorts of things that other people simply ignore, and today the belly button is it. It is an end-stressed noun, so it declines like this:

SgPl
Nomпуппупы
Acc
Genпупапупов
Preпупепупax
Datпупупупам
Insпупомпупами

I know, I know: the dative singular made you laugh again.

Anyhoo, пуп is etymologically the source word for navel, one that you will find once in a blue moon in a formal, scientific, or medical context. Thus Russian Wikipedia gives us this info:

Пуп — рубец на передней брюшной стенке, остающийся после удаления пуповины у новорожденного ребенка. Пупком обладают все плацентарные млекопитающие, у большинства из которых он выглядит небольшой линией без волосяного покрова. The navel is a scar on the anterior abdominal wall that is left over after the umbilical cord is removed from a new-born child. All placental mammals have a belly button. On the majority of them it appears as a small hairless line.

But when talking about a person's belly button, the Russians almost never say пуп. Instead they use the end-stressed diminutive пупок.

SgPl
Nomпупокпупки
Acc
Genпупкапупков
Preпупкепупкax
Datпупкупупкам
Insпупкомпупками

Sometimes you see belly dancers in movies and you can see their navels, but my mother, who used to take belly dancing classes, tells me that that is a no-no:

В традиционном арабском танце танцовщицы никогда не показывают свои пупки. In traditional Arab dance the dancers never show their belly buttons.

Every five or ten years I get into a conversation about the lint that can show up in one's belly button. It seems to be a gender based issue: men have it happen more often than women. Тhe subject was even brought up recently on the web:

В конце долгого дня я снимаю рубашку и в течении миллисекунды проверяю благополучное состояние своего достоинства перед тем, как принять душ. Оказывается, что почти всегда в пупке есть пушок. At the end of a long afternoon I take off my shirt and do a millisecond body check to ensure my manhood is still intact before taking a shower, and there always seems to be lint in my belly button. (source)

One of the amazing things about Russian is that you can make a diminutive of a diminutive, so the dimiminutive of the diminutive пупок is — are you ready for the? — пупочек. This one turns out to be stem stressed:

SgPl
Nomпупочекпупочки
Acc
Genпупочкапупочков
Preпупочкепупочкаx
Datпупочкупупочкам
Insпупочкомпупочками

The word is mostly used to refer to a baby's belly button. There is a bit of a gender difference in the use of this word. Adult men will rarely use it. Mothers and grandmothers will use it more often. (I actually had one Russian man tell me no one used it, but that's simply not true.) For instance, on babyblog.ru I found this little gem:

Ещё в РД мне сказали обрабатывать пупочек только зелёнкой, на курсах нам говорили, что сначала перекисью. Back in the Maternity Center I was told to treat [the baby's] belly button just with brilliant green. In class we were told that we should start with peroxide.

And as long as we are talking about belly buttons, we should mention the English word omphaloskepsis, which is meditation using the belly button as a focus. That's got nothing to do with Russian. I just really like the word.

Чтобы (часть вторая)

by Don  

Consider the following two sentences in English:

1. I want to attend the university.
2. I want my daughter to attend the university.

Both sentences use an infinitive construction in the second part of the sentence. If the implied subject in the second part is the same as the subject in the first part, the subject is not repeated in the second part. If the subject in the second part is different from the subject in the first part, it is specified in the second part. Russian uses an infinitive construction for sentences like #1, but it uses чтобы + past tense for sentences like #2:

3. Я хочу учиться в университете.
4. Я хочу, чтобы моя дочка училась в университете.

This чтобы + past tense construction is sometimes referred to as the “subjunctive mood” because it is equivalent to similar subjunctive uses in Spanish, French, German, and some other languages. It is used not only with the verb хотеть “to want,” but also with many other verbs where one person asks/tells/orders another person to do something, especially просить/попросить to request/ask, говорить/сказать to tell, приказывать/приказать to order, and предлагать/предложить to suggest.

Учительница постоянно говорит, чтобы школьники вовремя сдавали домашние задания. The teacher is constantly telling her students to turn in the homework assignments on time.
Генерал приказал, чтобы солдаты окружили врага. The general order the soldiers to surround the enemy.
Милиционер попросил, чтобы иностранцы предъявили документы. The policemen asked the foreigners to present their documents.
Бабушка и дедушка предложили, чтобы мы съездили к ним на дачу. Grandma and Grandpa suggested that we come see them at the dacha.

Чтобы (часть первая)

by Don  

One of the uses of the word чтобы is to indicate the purpose for which an object or action is designated. It is often translated into English as “to” or “so that”:

Я купил словарь, чтобы лучше делать домашнюю работу. I bought a dictionary to do better on my homework.
Она позвонила брату, чтобы узнать, когда он придёт. She called her brother to find out when he would arrive.

Notice that in those sentences чтобы was followed by an infinitive phrase. That's not always the case:

Я купил словарь, чтобы моя дочка лучше делала домашнюю работу. I bought a dictionary so that my daughter could do bettter on her homework.
Она позвонила брату, чтобы он принёс сметану. She called her brother so that he would bring some sour cream.

So what's the difference? The difference is who the “doer” is in the чтобы portion of the sentence. If the doer implied by the чтобы portion is the same as the doer in the main clause, then it is followed by an infinitive. If the doer is different, then you use чтобы to introduce a clause with a past tense verb. Note, however, that even though the form of the verb is past tense, the meaning is not necessarily past tense. It's just indicating the purpose of the action. Here are a couple more examples.

Антон Павлович дал взятку директору школы, чтобы получить там работу. Anton Pavlovich gave a bribe to the director of the school so that he could get a job there.
Антон Павлович дал взятку директору школы, чтобы он принял его сына. Anton Pavlovich gave a bribe to the director of the school so that they would accept his sone.
Машенька взяла иголку, чтобы пришить пуговицу. Mary got a needle to sew the button on.
Машенька взяла иголку, чтобы мама пришила пуговицу. Mary got a need so that her mother could sew the button on.

Буква

by Don  

Буква means letter, as in a letter of the alphabet, not a letter you get in the mail. It's a perfectly regular feminine noun. When you talk about how many letters are in the English alphabet, there is a consensus that the alphabet consists of twenty-six letters. For Russian the situation is slightly hazier, since over the last hundred years sometimes ё is considered a variation of the letter е, and sometimes it's considered a separate letter. The current standards consider them separate letters, so it's educated nowadays to say that the Russian alphabet has thirty-three letters.

SgPl
Nomбуквабуквы
Accбукву
Genбуквыбукв
Preбуквебуквах
Datбуквам
Insбуквойбуквами

Because we English speakers were taught to worry about spelling, we always wonder how to say that a word is written with a particular letter. In that context Russians do not use the preposition «с», but rather «через» followed by the accusative case:

«Раб» пишется через букву «б» а не «п», хотя «б» произносится как «п». “Раб” is written with the letter “б”, not “п,” although the “б” is pronounced like “п.”

Of course we also need to know how to say capital letter прописная буква and lower-case letter (small letter) строчная буква. (Aren't you glad you studied a language where each letter has only two forms as opposed to, say, Arabic, where letters can have an initial, medial and final form?)

Как писать ВЫ — с прописной или со строчной буквы? How do you write “вы”, with a capital letter or a lower-case one?
Во фразе «Новый год» слово «новый» пишется с прописной буквы, а «год» начинается со строчной. In the the phrase “Новый год” the word “новый” is written with a capital letter, and “год” starts with a lower-case one.

Notice that in this context the preposition с is used with the genitive case. I think that's because the Russians conceive of it as starting from a particular letter, not with a particular letter.

По (часть третья)

by Don  

Today we will talk about another use of по, and this one is a weird one. When you express the idea of giving each individual in a group of people the same quantity of something, you express that quantity after the preposition по. In English we express the idea with the words each or apiece:

Мама дала детям по яблоку. Mom gave the kids an apple apiece.
Учительница раздала школьникам по таблетке «Валиум». The teacher gave a tablet of Valium to each of the schoolkids.

You will notice that in those sentences the dative case was used after по. You are probably thinking, “No problem. I'll just memorize that по in the distributive sense is used with the dative.” You poor sucker. The Russian language is about to kick you in the teeth. Consider the following sentences:

Мама дала детям по два яблока. Mother gave the kids two apples apiece.
Учительница раздала школьникам по две таблетки «Валиум». the teacher gave two tablets of Valium to each of the schoolkids.
Бабушка дала внучкам по два щенка. Grandma gave her granddaughters two puppies each.
Соседка дала ребятам по две кошки. The neighbor lady gave the kids two kittens each.

Pop quiz: what case is used after по when more than one object is distributed? Since два щенка and две кошки occur after по, any normal human being would say that it is the nominative case. There was an old assumption, however, that no preposition can govern the nominative case, which is mostly true in Indoeuropean languages. To be frank, the issue is complicated for reasons that are beyond the goals of this blog. The practical answer is this: when a number other than one is used after по, the number is in the nominative case. The noun that number quantifies shows up in the genitive singular if the number is полтора/ы, два/е, три or четыре, and in the genitive plural for other numbers. So here is a rule of thumb for first- and second-year Russian students:

Distributive по: uses the dative case when talking about a single item; uses nominative case of numbers other than one.


If you want to pursue the question of what the case actually is that по governs, start with Igor Melchuk's excellent book ... Melchuk is a grammatical god to whom I have erected a shrine (along with his publisher... ) in my home. I make a small offering to them every day in a brass bowl. The fire is fueled by pages ripped from People Magazine, which richly deserves to be burned, and the sacrifice is made of my own blood and hair, accompanied by me singing «Я хочу быть с тобой» by Nautilus Pompilius.

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