# Russian & other Slavic languages: Similar words



## martinemussies

Hi there! 

While trying to learn Russian... I was wondering the following.
People often tell me, that when one knows a bit of Russian, he/she
can easily understand some of the other Slavonic languages as well.
IS THIS TRUE? What do you think about it? And do you guys know
words that are (almost) the same in Russian and another Slavic
language? I'm very curious to find out!  

Best regards, Martine.


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## Jana337

martinemussies said:
			
		

> Hi there!
> 
> While trying to learn Russian... I was wondering the following.
> People often tell me, that when one knows a bit of Russian, he/she
> can easily understand some of the other Slavonic languages as well.
> IS THIS TRUE? What do you think about it? And do you guys know
> words that are (almost) the same in Russian and another Slavic
> language? I'm very curious to find out!
> 
> Best regards, Martine.


Hi Martine,

I doubt it. Understanding other Slavic languages is not easy for me.
I am sure it would be quite demanding for a non-native person proficient in one of them. And you even write "a bit of Russian"... I am very sceptical. 
What can be easy is to have a look at a text in another Slavic language and get what it is about. 

Czech words that you could figure out: Kniha, jazyk, syn, mouka, dům, vidět, slyšet, čaj...

Jana


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## Whodunit

martinemussies said:
			
		

> Hi there!
> 
> While trying to learn Russian... I was wondering the following.
> People often tell me, that when one knows a bit of Russian, he/she
> can easily understand some of the other Slavonic languages as well.
> IS THIS TRUE? What do you think about it? And do you guys know
> words that are (almost) the same in Russian and another Slavic
> language? I'm very curious to find out!
> 
> Best regards, Martine.


 
Do you know German or have you ever tried to study it? I'm not sure if you have, but you haven't you can still find out that it is not that hard to understand some lines of German, since you're a native speaker of Dutch. Same applies for me, because I can understand several Dutch posts here, although I've never studied it.


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## Lev Yakupov

martinemussies said:
			
		

> People often tell me, that when one knows a bit of Russian, he/she
> can easily understand some of the other Slavonic languages as well.



Hi, Martine & Jana. Im from russia, so let's try:

Kniha - book
jazyk - tongue
syn - son
mouka - (dish)washer, sink
dům - house, home
vidět - to see 
slyšet - to hear
čaj - hour

Am I right, Jana? ))

Also it is not so hard to understand ukraine & belarusian speeches or text's.

A good reference about subject is there... Eh, i couldn't post link, find 'Slavic_languages' topic in wikipedia.


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## _sandra_

Hi Martine,
I can't really tell as I don't speak Russian at all.. But it doesn't work the other way round .. at least not for me.. I'm Polish and when I happen to meet somebody who is speaking Russian  I hardly understand anything... A lot of people round here (in their 30ties,40ties)  had Russian at school and now even if they don't know/speak it, it's obviously easier for them to figure out the meaning of some words.. But to a complete ignorant - like me (only when it comes to Russian I hope -  it's quite difficult..
Same thing with Czech I think, it's not so easy for me to understand it.. a lot of words are similar though (but easier to get their meaning when they are written).

As for Jana's words:

jazyk - język
syn - syn
dum - dom
videt - widzieć
slyset - słuchać/słyszeć

+ wrote only those who are similar in Polish (similar to Czech /and Russian)
+ Sorry Jana for misspelling your mother tongue but I have problems with accents..

Best regards,
Sandra


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## Ralf

Lev Yakupov said:
			
		

> ...
> ča*s* - clock, time
> čaj - *tea*
> ...


I hope you don't mind a minor correction.  

In a long forgotten millenium I used to learn Russian and knew it quite well (unfortunately I have forgotten most of it). While I had no chance to understand Polish or Czech it was no problem to make myself understood in Bulgaria. However, sometimes you will fall on deaf ears there when asking something in Russian.

Another word which randomly occurred to me as the same in several Slavic languages is

služba - service

Ralf


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## Lev Yakupov

Thanks for your corrections, Ralf!

And I think 'služba' translation is more closer to duty, then to service


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## Jana337

Lev Yakupov said:
			
		

> Hi, Martine & Jana. Im from russia, so let's try:
> 
> Kniha - book
> jazyk - tongue, also language
> syn - son
> mouka - (dish)washer, sink  mouka - flour (I think that there are many Czech words with the diphtong "ou" that are easily convertible to Russian by simply substituting "u" for "ou".
> dům - house, home
> vidět - to see
> slyšet - to hear
> čaj - hour  see Ralf's correction
> 
> Am I right, Jana? )) Yes, almost.  Could you, for the benefit of Martine and other learners, write the Russian equivalents and their transliteration?
> 
> Also it is not so hard to understand ukraine & belarusian speeches or text's.
> 
> A good reference about subject is there... Eh, i couldn't post link, find 'Slavic_languages' topic in wikipedia.


The link is here. You will be able to post links as soon as you reach 30 posts. Until then, you can PM the link to me and I will paste it in your posts. 

Folks, this looks like we could generate enough traffic for a regular Slavic forum. 

Jana


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## Jana337

Lev Yakupov said:
			
		

> Thanks for your corrections, Ralf!
> 
> And I think 'služba' translation is more closer to duty, then to service


Not so.  At least not in Czech, which is the language Ralf has chosen.
služba - service (in the economic sense of the word: the tertiary sector comprises services etc.)
povinnost - duty

Jana


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## Jana337

Ralf said:
			
		

> I hope you don't mind a minor correction.
> 
> In a long forgotten millenium I used to learn Russian and knew it quite well (unfortunately I have forgotten most of it). While I had no chance to understand Polish or Czech it was no problem to make myself understood in Bulgaria. However, sometimes you will fall on deaf ears there when asking something in Russian.
> 
> Another word which randomly occurred to me as the same in several Slavic languages is
> 
> služba - service
> 
> Ralf


Out of curiosity: Does your impeccable Russian (modesty aside!) help you guess the topic of a written text in Czech or Polish?

Jana


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## Jana337

_sandra_ said:
			
		

> Hi Martine,
> I can't really tell as I don't speak Russian at all.. But it doesn't work the other way round .. at least not for me.. I'm Polish and when I happen to meet somebody who is speaking Russian I hardly understand anything... A lot of people round here (in their 30ties,40ties) had Russian at school and now even if they don't know/speak it, it's obviously easier for them to figure out the meaning of some words.. But to a complete ignorant - like me (only when it comes to Russian I hope -  it's quite difficult..
> Same thing with Czech I think, it's not so easy for me to understand it.. a lot of words are similar though (but easier to get their meaning when they are written).


My perception of Polish, on the other hand, is slightly different. It's not that I can understand fluent speech easily and automatically. However, I used to be exposed to a lot of Polish which substantially improved my understanding of the spoken language. When reading, I sometimes have to pronounce the words because the Polish spellling is quite convoluted (many digraphs that were removed from Czech like 5 centuries ago, so now  rz, sz, cz roughly correspond to ř, š, č) - that is, I can understand as soon as I figure an appropriate "transliteration". 


> As for Jana's words:
> 
> jazyk - język
> syn - syn
> dum - dom
> videt - widzieć
> slyset - słuchać/słyszeć
> 
> + wrote only those who are similar in Polish (similar to Czech /and Russian)
> + Sorry Jana for misspelling your mother tongue but I have problems with accents..


No problem - I hardly ever have enough patience to type all Polish "odd symbols"  (and you use more of them than we do, I think). However, in this case, copy and paste would do the trick. 

Jana


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## martinemussies

Whodunit said:
			
		

> Do you know German or have you ever tried to study it?


Yes, I have  and indead, for Dutchies it's easy to understand & read it (much easier than Russian, lol), but it's difficult to write and speak. Most Dutch people just speak Dutch mixed with a few German words and a German accent.... and most Germans will understand!  

Everybody in the Netherlands can read German, I think. As Sandra pointed out: "a lot of words are similar though, but easier to get their meaning when they are written." Reading is always easier, I guess, because you can look at each word seperately and have more time to think about a sentence you don't understand at once.  

But back-to-the-topic : every word on the list Jana provided (thank you!) can be traced in my Russian dictionary. Very interesting. Was wondering, someone one's told me that cat in Slavic languages is always KOT (Rus. male cat) KOTSHKA (Rus. female cat... is their an English word for female cat, by the way? I only know one I prefer not to use... would be pizda in Russian) or MATSHKA. Is this true? And if so, would you write it with proper sp. and accents for me? I'm curious !!  

Maybe 2 little additions to the Czech-Russian list:
-DOBROU NOC 
-DOBRY' DEN 

After Ralph's sentence: "it was no problem to make myself understood in Bulgaria" I'm hoping for some Bulgarians to participate in this discussion... mm, do you think they would mind recieving a PM with an invitation from me? Don't want to stalk them....  

I'm going to check out the Wikipedia-link now, thanks for the suggestion!Oh, and Jana.. I think it would be GREAT to have a seperate Slavic languages forum.... I will visit it everyday and post all my homework  lol. No, seriously, could you arrange this for us Slavic languages lovers? 

NA SHLEDANOU  xx Martine.


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## Ralf

martinemussies said:
			
		

> .... Was wondering, someone one's told me that cat in Slavic languages is always KOT (Rus. male cat) KOTSHKA (Rus. female cat... is their an English word for female cat, by the way? I only know one I prefer not to use... would be pizda in Russian) or MATSHKA. Is this true? ...


(female) cat = kóshka (Russian), kočka (Czech)
(male) cat or tomcat = kot (Russian), kocour (Czech)
kitty = kóshechka (Russian), kočička (Czech)

Ralf


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## Lev Yakupov

> Could you, for the benefit of Martine and other learners, write the Russian equivalents and their transliteration?



As you will 

Kniha - книга - [knIegha] - book
jazyk - язык - [yazYi'k] (/ya/ like in word 'yankee') - tongue
syn - сын - [sYin] - son
mouka - мука - [mu:kA] - flour
dům - дом - [dOm] - house, home
vidět - видеть - [vIdet'] (/e/ like /ye/ in 'yes') - to see 
slyšet - слышать - [slYishat'] - to hear
čas - время - [vrEmya] (/e/ like /ye/ in 'yes') - hour
služba - сервис- [sErvi:s] - service
povinnost - служба - [slU:jba] - duty
čaj - чай - [chA:j] - tea

'ы' prounonce like vowel you sound off while hiccuping.

And Martine you russian equivalent for female cat is very-very obscene, by the way  like english **** i'm PM'ed you what.


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## Whodunit

martinemussies said:
			
		

> Yes, I have and indead, for Dutchies it's easy to understand & read it (much easier than Russian, lol), but it's difficult to write and speak. Most Dutch people just speak Dutch mixed with a few German words and a German accent.... and most Germans will understand!


 
Same here, just vice versa. 



> Everybody in the Netherlands can read German, I think. As Sandra pointed out: "a lot of words are similar though, but easier to get their meaning when they are written." Reading is always easier, I guess, because you can look at each word seperately and have more time to think about a sentence you don't understand at once.


 
I wouldn't say everybody in Germany can read Dutch, but if you chose special sentence that are almost exactly as in German, I'm sure everyone would laugh about that badly-written German and be able to read it. 

Is their an English word for female cat, by the way? I only know one I prefer not to use...[/QUOTE]

kitten, kitty, feline, rabby, simply cat 



> Maybe 2 little additions to the Czech-Russian list:
> -DOBROU NOC
> -DOBRY' DEN


 
Dobré jitro - Доброе утро (dobroye utro)
Dobrý den - добрый День (dobry den')
Dobrý večer - добрый вечер (dobry vetsher)
Dobrou noc - доброй ночи (dobroy notshi)



> After Ralph's sentence: "it was no problem to make myself understood in Bulgaria" I'm hoping for some Bulgarians to participate in this discussion... mm, do you think they would mind recieving a PM with an invitation from me? Don't want to stalk them....


 
Sure, why not? 



> I'm going to check out the Wikipedia-link now, thanks for the suggestion!Oh, and Jana.. I think it would be GREAT to have a seperate Slavic languages forum.... I will visit it everyday and post all my homework  lol. No, seriously, could you arrange this for us Slavic languages lovers?


 
If you seriously want it, you have to post as many posts as possible here, so that our administrator Mike can see that opening a Slavic forum would make sense and is worthwile.


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## Ralf

Jana337 said:
			
		

> Out of curiosity: Does your impeccable Russian (modesty aside!) help you guess the topic of a written text in Czech or Polish?
> 
> Jana


Sometimes it does, but most of the times it is more a 'wild guessing' . Fortunately I can rely on my wife's help and advice (She has meanwhile subscribed to a Czech periodical, which is now her favourite reading on weekends).





			
				Jana337 said:
			
		

> ...
> Folks, this looks like we could generate enough traffic for a regular Slavic forum.


... really a great idea!!  

Ralf


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## Jana337

martinemussies said:
			
		

> But back-to-the-topic : every word on the list Jana provided (thank you!) can be traced in my Russian dictionary. Very interesting. Was wondering, someone one's told me that cat in Slavic languages is always KOT (Rus. male cat) KOTSHKA (Rus. female cat... is their an English word for female cat, by the way? I only know one I prefer not to use... would be pizda in Russian) or MATSHKA. Is this true? And if so, would you write it with proper sp. and accents for me? I'm curious !!


Czech: kočka (there is a word for the male cat, kocour - as someone has already pointed out, but kočka is considered the more general word).
Slovak: mačka
Don't know about other Slavic languages.


> After Ralph's sentence: "it was no problem to make myself understood in Bulgaria" I'm hoping for some Bulgarians to participate in this discussion... mm, do you think they would mind recieving a PM with an invitation from me? Don't want to stalk them....


 It is certainly acceptable but our most active Bulgarian member has just posted 37 times, so I am skeptical...


> Oh, and Jana.. I think it would be GREAT to have a seperate Slavic languages forum.... I will visit it everyday and post all my homework  lol. No, seriously, could you arrange this for us Slavic languages lovers?


I helped midwife the Arabic subforum, and I would happily do the same for a Slavic one. At this point, however, natives outnumber learnes by a huge margin. And the ability of forer@s to generate sufficient traffic is crucial. 

So, Martine, it really depends on you. But don't despair, you are not the only one: The German forum is immensely productive in this respect - the core of the Arabic forum overlaps with the core of the German one to a large extent. I have a hunch that history could repeat itself in the Slavic languages - here are strong pro-Slavic sympathies in the current crew of the German forum.  Moreover, Ralf will certainly report the joyous news to his wife who will subsequently join our ranks. 

About your homework: What on earth are you waiting for? 

Jana


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## _sandra_

Hi there,


> No problem - I hardly ever have enough patience to type all Polish "odd symbols" (and you use more of them than we do, I think).


Very true about the odd symbols.. I'm often not sure whether it should be sz or rz.., ch or h...u or ó - we are wasting half of our lives learning how to use our own language properly!
As for Czech I would really love to start learning it one day (only when I finally improve my poor Italian) - for me the sound of it is lovely.. /and I think I heard some words similar to those from old Polish, which takes you back to the beginning of the last century


> However, in this case, copy and paste would do the trick.


Heh, I definitely don't think clearly at 9 am...


> Was wondering, someone one's told me that cat in Slavic languages is always KOT (Rus. male cat) KOTSHKA (Rus. female cat... is their an English word for female cat, by the way? I only know one I prefer not to use... would be pizda in Russian) or MATSHKA. Is this true? And if so, would you write it with proper sp. and accents for me? I'm curious !!


In Polish it's kot (male); kotka (female) .. / there's also kocur - but means male cat usually big/fat...


> And Martine you russian equivalent for female cat is very-very obscene, by the way  like english ****


Same thing in Polish.. it actually is a very vulgar word..


> Folks, this looks like we could generate enough traffic for a regular Slavic forum.
> ... really a great idea!!


Totally agree with you!

Take care, 
Sandra


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## Lev Yakupov

Good morning!
I just remember new russian word that's describes a tomcat:
Кошак - [koshA:k] ('A' like /a/ in smart)

It's sound so funny that became very popular in few month, just Im never hear it before. Particularly after Shrek2 mercy-calling-cat character appered in media 

In response of this word, appeared another one:
Кошара - [kosha:rA]
It's meaning is the same for your 'kocur'.


> kocur - but means male cat usually big/fat...


Actually this word is a result of mutation in our slang for word:
Котяра - [kotYa:ra] - a big veteran-cat
But pretty 'ш' sound in it made it outstanding ))

I think these words come in masses from modern russian's LifeJournal ( ЖЖ - Живой Журнал ) communities, which loves to transform origin words or groups of words. For example:
Аффтор [Affto:r] for Автор [Avtor] - Author

Ржунимагу [rzhU: ni magu]. A close meaning for this word-phrase is near LOL abbreviation. But it consist of 2 independent parts:
Pжу ( declensed from ржать ) - [rzhU:] - wild, loud laughter
не могу - [ne mogU] - impossibility for something

жжот [jjhO:t] for жжёт [jjhE't] - smbd burning smth out.

There is very popular phrase, which gratitude the author of a creative story or describes mad actions of somebody:
Аффтор жжот

Try to catch the meaning of it 

I decided to put a link to a LJtoRussian dictionary here. If you are fond of modern russian, you should check it out, it's very interesting 
http://www.livejournal.com/users/shoo_/218401.html


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## MindStorm

Hi everyone!
Lev, would you mind a small correction? as I thought.. 
Actually you should write not "аффтор", but "аффтар" =)

About the same words-yep, there are much. I now a bit czech, so now i can understand even polish. Not that i could catch the normal speech/ but I can read and understand the meaning >50%

The other interesting fact is that the words that sound the same have the opposite meaning, eg

in czech (forgive me for writing without hacky&carky =))
zapomnel (means forgotten) in russian means "memorised"
zapametoval (memorised) in russian means "forgotten". That's odd!
also there are common words, like
vedro (it means hot weather i think) in russian means the same, but it is a bit archaic..

also i can say that the structure of russian and czech are very similar, but it looks like czech is 100years behind russian (i mean the manner of saying and stuff, i dont mean it is out of date =))

other same words:
cislo (chislo) = number
voda = water

they might sound different because of different accents


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## Jana337

MindStorm said:
			
		

> also i can say that the structure of russian and czech are very similar, but it looks like czech is 100years behind russian (i mean the manner of saying and stuff, i dont mean it is out of date =))


Hello and welcome! 

Intriguing!  Could you elaborate on it? And give some examples of how Russian sounded 100 years ago?

Jana


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## MindStorm

"saying" was a bit figurative, please excuse me.. what i meaned is that in czech there are many constructions etc. that used to be in russian too, but quite long ago.
Like I said, vedro is also a russian word. it is not beig used today, but you can fing an instace in russian classical writers' text, in something written by Turgenev..

Also, in russian and czech there are many so-called cases. Vocative is still in use in czech, but there is no vocative in a modern russian. but if we take a line from a Puskin's writing (don't remeber wich of them), we can see the following:
Чего тебе надобно, старче? Here "старче" means the elder, but it is used in vocative case.
Also, we dont have symbols with hačky or čarky, but before the revolution there were some letters that duplicate others, but have different length and stuff...
And, finally, we don't use constructions like jsem, jste etc. (only in some rare cases). but in russian there are similar words, just like "есмь (sounds like jesm in czech)"=jsem..

Oh, i'm tired of typing =))


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## martinemussies

MindStorm said:
			
		

> voda = water
> 
> they might sound different because of different accents


 
In Russian BODA, the accent is on the last a, so you pronounce it like "wadá",
am I right? How is it pronounced in Czech, Polish....?


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## martinemussies

Lev Yakupov said:
			
		

> And Martine you russian equivalent for female cat is very-very obscene,


I didn't realise that...  this is just a word one of my Russian
classmates once mentioned. Thought it would be just naughty,
not obscene, and I didn't mean to be rude. Apologies and thank 
you for PM'ing me, Lev, I'll be more carefull with words I'm not
sure of, next time.


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## Jana337

martinemussies said:
			
		

> In Russian BODA, the accent is on the last a, so you pronounce it like "wadá",
> am I right? How is it pronounced in Czech, Polish....?



Voda, with an open "o".

Jana


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## martinemussies

Guess I found another similar word... 

Jana, in the Sloveniantread, you wrote:

"Já jsem studentka" (Czech)

Ja = I
Studentka = female student

in Russian.


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## _sandra_

> In Russian BODA, the accent is on the last a, so you pronounce it like "wadá",
> am I right? How is it pronounced in Czech, Polish....?



In Polish it's woda / accent on the 'o'/ 

Sandra


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## Thomas1

martinemussies said:
			
		

> Guess I found another similar word...
> 
> Jana, in the Sloveniantread, you wrote:
> 
> "Já jsem studentka" (Czech)
> 
> Ja = I
> Studentka = female student
> 
> in Russian.


studentka exists in Polish too and the meaning is exactly the same

Some more examples of similar words in Polish and Russian:
wódka водка vodka
automat автомат slot-machine
autor автор autor
dwa два two
pięć пять five
sześć шесть six
siedem семь seven
osiem восемь eight
dziewięć девять nine
dziesięć десять ten (well many numbers, they are similar in pronounciation as the rest of words since it's hard to read Russian for a Polish who doesn't know the Cyrillic alphabet)
stopa стопа foot
stolica столица capital city
stół стол table
szkoła школа school

In my opinion in Russian there are many words that have similar meaning and pronunciation to Polish ones, though there exist words that suggest the similar meaning but mean sth different, for instance word:
'персики' suggests 'piersi' in Polish (female brests) but means peaches (brzoskwinie). I don't know how much Czech and Slovak are similar to Polish but hearing a native I sometimes do recognize single words that sound similar in Polish, however, I don't know if the meaning is the same, they even sound funny for me (and for many Poles too, me think ) since Czechs and Slovaks (note that I don't deferentiate them) use words with endings that are dimunitive suffixes in Polish.
I think could understand 30% maybe 40% of that what a Russian would say, though I learned Russian but it was a long time ago and don't remember much.


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## cecoll

Hi to everyone !

   I like the thread u started here and i was wondering, will it be possible for us to make a scoreboard where to sign in all entries of the most common used words and their matches in all Slav languages...this way people will get more clear idea of the common origin of all Slav languages and how close some of them really are...
   I know it will be a difficult task, but i`m after this from a long time and it will be nice people from all countries to achieve this...Obviously we have something to start with and some initiative from mine and your side will make the perfect match  Please let me know how u like this idea ! 

Thank u for your attention  

p.S> I guess I`ll have to ask our sweet moderator if that`s possible, but she appears to be offline at the moment ! Please let me know if someone, somewhere has already done smth similar !!! I`d like to take a look at it !


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## Jana337

cecoll said:
			
		

> p.S> I guess I`ll have to ask our sweet  moderator if that`s possible, but she appears to be offline at the moment ! Please let me know if someone, somewhere has already done smth similar !!! I`d like to take a look at it !


 Please have a look at our glossaries subforum. Is that what you mean?
If so, do not hesitate and start one. If not, PM me (I can receive messages even when I am offline ) and explain your idea in greater detail.

Ciao,

Jana

P.S. A reminder: Chat slang (u instead of you, i instead of I etc.) should be avoided. We are a forum of language lovers, after all


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## Thomas1

Actually, I've been thinking about something like that since at least two months, though, I haven't enough time to make this idea alive . 'Glossaries of Slavic languages' would be a good thing  since we could find out how other Slavs call things in their own languages and what are the differences between them, it seems really interesting (at least for me). So, cecoll, if you're thinking about something similar I'm wholeheartedly for.

Thomas


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## Hryts

A lot of the Slavic words constitute 'falsh friends' in other Slavic languages. You can see how they are linked, but the meaning and usage has developed differently through the languages' development:

Russian город (gorod) - city/town
Ukrainian город (horod) - city garden

Russian место (myesto) - place
Ukrainian місто (misto) - city

Russian час (chas) - hour
Ukrainian час (chas) - time

Russian год (god) - year
Ukrainian година (hodyn) - hour

Russian недель (nyedyel') - week
Ukrainian неділь (nedil') - Sunday

Russian, Ukrainian and Belarussian have at some point inserted extra vowels into the old slavic words. So if you compare, say a Russian word with a Czech or Polish word, you'll tend to see extra vowels in the Russia

e.g. 
Slavic grad (town, city, castle) - Russian gorod (city, town)
Slavic melko - Russian moloko (milk)

I've seen old forms of words in Russian poetry, like in a poem the other day I saw вечр (vyechr) instead of the modern вечер (vyechyer).

And obviously Russian still uses grad in names, like Leningrad, Vologograd, Stalingrad.


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## Zetarun

the second ones are in bulgarian:

Kniha   - книга     - книга - book
jazyk   - език      - язык - tongue as well as language
syn     - син        - сын - son
mouka - брашно   - мука - flour
dům    - дом, къща  - дом - house, home
vidět   - да видя    - видеть - to see 
slyšet  - да чуя     - слышать - to hear but
          - да слушам - to listen
čas      -  час       -время -  hour
   but   -  време - time
služba  - служба, услуга - сервис- [sErvi:s] - service
   but   - услуга - favor (as well)
povinnost - повинност, служба - служба - duty
čaj       - чай -чай -  tea


число - cislo (chislo) = number
вода   - voda = water

стъпало - stopa -  стопа foot
столица -stolica столица capital city
маса      -stół стол table
стол - chair
училище, школо, даскало - szkoła школа school

Russian город (gorod) - city/town
Ukrainian город (horod) - city garden
Bulgarian град ( grad ) - city/town

verb - градя - construct, build

Russian место (myesto) - place
Ukrainian місто (misto) - city
Bulgarian място (or место) - (myasto or mesto) - place

Russian год (god) - year
Ukrainian годин (hodyn) - hour
Bulgarian година (godina) - year

Russian недель (nyedyel') - week
Ukrainian неділь (nedil') - Sunday
Bulgarian неделя (nedelya) - sunday or week ( in some dialects )

Bulgarian:
ведро - water bucket

Now about the cat, all the words I have heard in bulgarian:

feminine:
котка (kotka), мачка (or мацка*) (machka (or matska), писана(acc. a) (pisana)- ( derivatives ) котарана (kotarana), котана (kotana).

masculine:
котарак (kotarak), котак (kotak), мачок (machok), писан (pisan) (acc. a) - ( derivatives ) котаран (kotaran), котан (kotan).

middle gender:
коте, маче - (kote, mache)

* мацка - as well means pussy in english (in any sense)


Пъс! or Псът! (Pus! or Psut! u as in dust) you say when you want to make it go away.

Everything is pronounced the way it is written.


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## natasha2000

Lev Yakupov said:
			
		

> Thanks for your corrections, Ralf!
> 
> And I think 'služba' translation is more closer to duty, then to service


 
Well, in Serbian, služba means service. Duty is dužnost.


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## natasha2000

martinemussies said:
			
		

> In Russian BODA, the accent is on the last a, so you pronounce it like "wadá",
> am I right? How is it pronounced in Czech, Polish....?


 
voda in Serbian. with the accent on o.


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## natasha2000

The red ones are Serbian:


			
				Zetarun said:
			
		

> the second ones are in bulgarian:
> 
> Kniha - книга - книга - book - knjiga
> jazyk - език - язык - tongue as well as language jezik
> syn - син - сын - son - sin
> mouka - брашно - мука - flour - muka (it means pain, not flour)
> dům - дом, къща - дом - house, home - dom ( or dim, meaning smoke)
> vidět - да видя - видеть - to see - videti
> slyšet - да чуя - слышать - to hear but - Čuti (to hear)
> - да слушам - to listen - slušati (to listen)
> čas - час -время - hour - čas
> but - време - time - vreme
> služba - служба, услуга - сервис- [sErvi:s] - service - služba
> but - услуга - favor (as well) usluga (the same as bulgarian)
> povinnost - повинност, служба - служба - duty - dužnost
> čaj - чай -чай - tea - čaj
> 
> 
> число - cislo (chislo) = number - broj
> вода - voda = water - voda
> 
> стъпало - stopa - стопа foot - stopalo
> столица -stolica столица capital city - glavni grad (stolica in Serbian means chair - this is one of false friends!!)
> маса -stół стол table - sto
> стол - chair - stolica
> училище, школо, даскало - szkoła школа school - škola
> 
> Russian город (gorod) - city/town
> Ukrainian город (horod) - city garden
> Bulgarian град ( grad ) - city/town
> Serbian grad - city/town
> 
> verb - градя - construct, build - graditi
> 
> Russian место (myesto) - place
> Ukrainian місто (misto) - city
> Bulgarian място (or место) - (myasto or mesto) - place
> Serbian mesto - place
> 
> Russian год (god) - year
> Ukrainian годин (hodyn) - hour
> Bulgarian година (godina) - year
> Serbian godina - year
> 
> Russian недель (nyedyel') - week
> Ukrainian неділь (nedil') - Sunday
> Bulgarian неделя (nedelya) - sunday or week ( in some dialects )
> Serbian nedelja (also means Sunday, but week can also be said sedmica)
> 
> Bulgarian:
> ведро - water bucket
> vedro, kofa, kanta - water bucket
> 
> Now about the cat, all the words I have heard in bulgarian:
> 
> feminine:
> котка (kotka), мачка (or мацка*) (machka (or matska), писана(acc. a) (pisana)- ( derivatives ) котарана (kotarana), котана (kotana). MAČKA, MACA, mačkica (little cat), mačketina (augmentative - big, ugly cat)
> 
> masculine:
> котарак (kotarak), котак (kotak), мачок (machok), писан (pisan) (acc. a) - ( derivatives ) котаран (kotaran), котан (kotan). mačak, mačor
> 
> middle gender:
> коте, маче - (kote, mache) mače,mačence
> 
> * мацка - as well means pussy in english (in any sense) maca,
> mačka in Serbian means girl, not p*ssy and it is not a bad word.
> 
> 
> Пъс! or Псът! (Pus! or Psut! u as in dust) you say when you want to make it go away.
> Pis! (the same, when you want to make the cat to go away)
> 
> Everything is pronounced the way it is written.
> The same as in Bulgarian. Everything is pronounced as it is written.


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## Primorec

The word KOT (cat) doesn't exist (anymore?) in Slovene. We say maček for cat and mačka for female cat.
 
In my opinion if you are native speaker of one Slavic language (e.g. Slovene) and you know at least another Slavic language of another group different from the your group (e.g. for me: Russian or Czech or Polish, etc.) you may easily understand all Slavic languages, at least written texts. It is true that even if you have basic knowledge of other Slavic languages, you'd hardly understand spoken Polish...


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## Xopxe

Primorec said:
			
		

> The word KOT (cat) doesn't exist (anymore?) in Slovene. We say maček for cat and mačka for female cat.
> 
> In my opinion if you are native speaker of one Slavic language (e.g. Slovene) and you know at least another Slavic language of another group different from the your group (e.g. for me: Russian or Czech or Polish, etc.) you may easily understand all Slavic languages, at least written texts. It is true that even if you have basic knowledge of other Slavic languages, you'd hardly understand spoken Polish...


 
Золотые слова. Думаю, теперь тема исчерпана 
Зная английский трудно понять другой германский язык. А если знаешь русский и украинский все остальные славянские языки более или менее понятны. Че тут спорить-то, братва?


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## natasha2000

Xopxe said:
			
		

> Золотые слова. Думаю, теперь тема исчерпана
> Зная английский трудно понять другой германский язык. А если знаешь русский и украинский все остальные славянские языки более или менее понятны. Че тут спорить-то, братва?


 
Other non-Russian foreros would appreciate very much if showed a little bit consideration and translated this into English, please.


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## Xopxe

natasha2000 said:
			
		

> Other non-Russian foreros would appreciate very much if showed a little bit consideration and translated this into English, please.



Translation: all Slavic languages are close. There is no problem for educated native speakers from various Slavic lands to understand each other. That is why I agree with a guy from Slovenia.


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## MirjanaB

You can understand the meaning of the text when you read it, because there is so many similar words.
On the other hand if I listen to the Russian News or whatever, I can't understand much!.. I guess they would have to speak really slooooowly


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## Suane

I think that Slavic languages are generally similar in some old or very recent words. But I can't understand Russian, or Ukrainian, Bulgarian... I think. Imo, slavic nations can understand each other, but maybe in some groups. Like, Slovaks can understand Czech or somewhat Polish and maybe vice versa, or maybe Russians can better understand Ukrainian.
I found out that I cannot understand fast-spoken Polish.

And I think some languages can seem funny or odd, and that's just because they're different from the person's native language.
Like, I don't think that Czech language is weird, it seems pretty "normal" to me, maybe because of movies, internet, books and maybe because it is more similar. We don't use phrase: "It's vedro" and we don't use vocative. 
When I hear Polish, it seems a bit funny for me because we have a dialect in easthern Slovakia, that is quite similar to Polish. And it seems to me, like Polish uses an extreme words (in Slovakian) to express rather common things. I'd love to hear what Poles think of Slovak language.

I think that Slovak language give an stress on the first syllable in words.
Like *vo*da. 
Imo, if we didn't change G fo H in some words, Slovak language could sound more slavic, or harder, I don't know. Just try to say Belegrad and Belehrad. Or Bog and Boh. It sounds somewhat different.

My classmates from USA can't say what I'm. One thought that I'm French, maybe because he heard me and my brother speking slang slur Slovak without maintaining stress. Another classmate thought that I'm Russian because he heard me reading. Funny. 
I think it's rather difficult for people that write with Azbuka (or cyrilic) to learn to write fluently with Latin. 
And I don't think that Slovak or Czech language seems to be 100 years behind Russian. I think these languages maybe maintain more accuarancy. Or maybe it is that's why that people from abroad use to study Russian language more frequently, so it is changing more, I don't know.
Can anyone tell me why the author of slavism.com thinks that Slovak language is the one that slavic nations can well understand?
And when I was reading something in Slovenian it seems to me like Stur's language. Stur (founder of slovakian literary language but based on softer dialect). In that time there were another rules about using i/y. Everywere was a caron or maybe circumflex. 
In nowaday Slovak language we almost don't use circumflex (only ô- like nôž, stôl ). I cannot understand quite well why we keep it, but maybe because of the diversity of language. 
What I think quite weird about Slovak is letters ĺ, ŕ. You cannot almost say them separately, when they are not in the word (like stĺp or tŕnie).


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## skye

Xopxe said:
			
		

> Translation: all Slavic languages are close. There is no problem for educated native speakers from various Slavic lands to understand each other. That is why I agree with a guy from Slovenia.


 
I thought you were just testing him to see if he can understand you.


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