# all Slavic: words + language names



## Gavril

In English, the following sentences mean the same thing:

1) "Slovene _pes_ is cognate with Polish _pies_"
2) "The Slovene word _pes _is cognate with the Polish word _pies"_
3) "_pes_ in Slovenian is cognate with _pies_ in Polish"

In #1 and #2, the words "Slovene" and "Polish" are like adjectives modifying the following word, whereas in #3, they function as nouns.

When expressing this kind of meaning, which structure does each Slavic language normally use: the structure seen in #1, #2, #3, or a different structure?

Thanks


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## ahvalj

Russian uses adjectives for most language names except cases like _латынь, санскрит, иврит_:
Словенское _pes_ родственно польскому _pies_.
Словенское слово _pes_ родственно польскому слову _pies_.
_Pes_ в словенском родственно _pies_ в польском.
_Canis_ в латыни родственно _hound_ в английском.


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## DarkChild

In Bulgarian all of those are possible and used but #3 seems the most common to me.


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## Colutti

In Slovak #1 sounds very rough and you would probably be misunderstood if you said it that way (especially because Slovak uses the same word for dog as Slovene). Unless you make it clear that you are speaking about a word, as in #2 (which is the best way to say it in Slovak, incidentally), people might think you're talking about a Slovene dog breed they haven't heard about before. The word cognate translates too closely to "related by blood/by marriage".

#3 is fine and commonly used, but for best results I would go with #2


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## Gavril

Colutti said:


> In Slovak #1 sounds very rough and you would probably be misunderstood if you said it that way (especially because Slovak uses the same word for dog as Slovene). Unless you make it clear that you are speaking about a word, as in #2 (which is the best way to say it in Slovak, incidentally), people might think you're talking about a Slovene dog breed they haven't heard about before. The word cognate translates too closely to "related by blood/by marriage".



This brings up another question: if you were to use structure #1 in your language, what gender would the adjective be in? Would it be neuter, as in the Russian example (_slovensk*oe *"pes", pol'sk*oe* "pies"_)?


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## Colutti

Gavril said:


> This brings up another question: if you were to use structure #1 in your language, what gender would the adjective be in? Would it be neuter, as in the Russian example (_slovensk*oe *"pes", pol'sk*oe* "pies"_)?



I hadn't thought of making the adjective neuter. That would make #1 a little less prone to misunderstanding. The only reason you would make the adjective neuter would be for it to agree with the omitted, but implied word "word" (which is basically what #2 is about), otherwise you should make sure your adjective matches the noun in gender. Just to be sure, I wouldn't use #1 when there are better alternatives in Slovak.

I will translate it for you, however:

(neuter adjective, "word" is implied)
Slovinské [slovo] "pes" je príbuzné s poľským [slovom] "pies"

(masculine adjective, agrees with "pes")
Slovinský "pes" je príbuzný s poľským "pies". I don't think you should use this translation as it sounds very rough to my ear.


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## ahvalj

As to the gender in (1), Russian will use a neuter adjective even in other cases, e. g. _Словенское o соответствует русскому у и болгарскому ъ_, where implied is the masculine _звук_.


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## Милан

DarkChild said:


> In Bulgarian all of those are possible and used but #3 seems the most common to me.


+Serbian


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## Gavril

From the little I have read, it seems that #1 is possible in Slovene with the neuter form of the adjective: "slovensko _pes_", "polsko _pies_", and so on_. _I am not sure if #1 is the most common option, though; it would be great to hear more about this from a native Slovene speaker.


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## M_L_P

1) "Slovene _pes_ is cognate with Polish _pies_"
In Slovene the literal translation would be: "Slovenski _pes _je soroden poljskemu _pies-_u." This can be confusing, because it may be understood that you're talkinkg about dogs, not words.
Using neuter: "Slovensko _pes _je sorodno poljsko _psies-_u." is incorrect. I can currently only think of a correct usage of neuter in the grammatical form of "pristavek": "Poljska beseda _pies_, slovensko _pes_, ima sorodnike v številnih indoevropskih jezikih." (The Polish word _pies, __pes_ in Slovene, has cognates in several indoeuropean languages.)

2) "The Slovene word _pes _is cognate with the Polish word _pies"_
"Slovenska beseda _pes _je sorodna s poljsko besedo _pies._" This sounds the most natural.

3) "_pes_ in Slovenian is cognate with _pies_ in Polish"
"_Pes_ v slovenščini je soroden s _pies_-om v poljščini." This is theoretically possible, but sounds rather awkward.


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