# Latvian: m***a



## Filip

Hy,  

this weekend I met two girls from Ukraine and Latvia and they we're always calling themselves something like  *mauka* or *malka*. 

 They didn't tell what it means, but I guess it must be some vile word.

Can anyone please tell me what it means?  

Thank you!    


Greets, 
Filip


----------



## beakman

Filip said:
			
		

> this weekend I met two girls from Ukraine and Latvia and they we're always calling themselves something like *mauka* or *malka*.
> 
> They didn't tell what it means, but I guess it must be some vile word.
> 
> Can anyone please tell me what it means?


 
Hi, Filip.
I'm afraid there isn't any similar word in Russian. At least, I've never heard the word *mauka* nor *malka. *May be the girls were speaking some other language, not Russian, or just joking by inventing some new words.
Regards!


----------



## lidia1201

Maybe "malaka" - gerk (or jerk  I don't know to write in English), in Greek.


----------



## übermönch

Filip said:
			
		

> Hy,
> 
> this weekend I met two girls from Ukraine and Latvia and they we're always calling themselves something like *mauka* or *malka*.
> 
> They didn't tell what it means, but I guess it must be some vile word.
> 
> Can anyone please tell me what it means?
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> 
> Greets,
> Filip


 In Ukrainian there's mau*p*a and it means "ape", there also ma*w*ka, "mermaid".


----------



## Thomas1

übermönch said:
			
		

> In Ukrainian there's mau*p*a and it means "ape", there also ma*w*ka, "mermaid".


We have the first one in Polish too małpa (the pronunciation would be a bit different [muwpah] (p*u*t, *w*eath, ye*ah*)).

How is pronunced "w" in the second word like "w" or "v"?

Thanks,
Tom


----------



## übermönch

Thomas1 said:
			
		

> We have the first one in Polish too małpa (the pronunciation would be a bit different [muwpah] (p*u*t, *w*eath, ye*ah*)).


Ukainian is quite strange when it comes to the hard L. It does contain the letter in words like Лампа, and they *do* pronounce it as an L, however many words which contain or contained the hard L in other slavic languages have an у or a в instead. (Осив-Donkey; ) - the past tense of some verbs ends with a "-ла" in female form and with a "-в" in masculine  (була/був (was)) Maybe it's that the hard L can only stand before syllables in Ukrainian.


> How is pronunced "w" in the second word like "w" or "v"?
> 
> Thanks,
> Tom


The ukrainian в (w/v) is something between w and v, while the у (u) is between w and oo. The у and the в are sometimes confused.


----------



## Anatoli

Thomas1 said:
			
		

> We have the first one in Polish too małpa (the pronunciation would be a bit different [muwpah] (p*u*t, *w*eath, ye*ah*)).
> 
> How is pronunced "w" in the second word like "w" or "v"?
> 
> Thanks,
> Tom


I wonder why you transliterated it that way?

Here's my version:
małpa [ma*-w-*pa]

Yes, the final consonant in the Ukrainian form "бу*в*" (was) is similar to Polish, so is the Belarussian бы*ў* These ednings are pronounced like Polish "*ł*".

Normally Ukrainian palatalised and palatalised *л/ль* in Ukrainian and Belarussian are pronounced exactly as the Russian *л/ль*, not like Polish  *ł/l*. But these verb endings are exception, the letter л in the past tense masculine ending is replaced with *в/**ў *(Ukr./Bel.). (Compare with feminine or plural form.)

There are some words in both Ukrainian and Belarussian where *в* (Ukr.) and * ў *(Bel.) are used matching Polish *ł*   - мавпа - małpa but more often they match Russian/Polish в/w letters - гла*в*ный (Rus.) – голо*в*ний (Ukr.) - гла*ў*ный (Bel.) – gło*w*ny (Pol.). (Russian *г* and Polish *g* are pronounced the same, Ukr./Bel. *г* is pronounced like Czech *h*) The letter *в* (v) never loses voice in Ukrainian (unlike Russian, which becomes "ф - f" in some positions) and in final positions/in front of consonants is pronounced like Polish "*ł*", Belarussian "*ў*" or English "*w*".


----------



## Thomas1

Anatoli said:
			
		

> I wonder why you transliterated it that way?
> 
> Here's my version:
> małpa [ma*-w-*pa]


It should read:
[muwpah] (n*u*t, *w*ealth, ye*ah*) using IPA it would be [mʌwpə] or [mʌwpʌ] as its strong version.
I made a stupid mistake having typed in _put_ instead of _nut_ (there was a typo in wealth too, though it didn’t affect the sound I wanted to stress), thank you for pointing that out and sorry for obscurity.
To put it briefly, I chose to represent the grapheme _a_ by the sound ʌ as in _nut_ [nʌt]on purpose since it has different pronunciation when it is enunciated by the sound _cat_ [kæt].
As for the _ah_ sound I also think that the first _a_ is pronounced differently than the second one. It is on a final position and the fact that it follows a plosive consonant make it sound even more like the sound in _yeah;_ most people wouldn’t discern any difference though; but in fast speech this doesn’t sound like [ʌ]nor [æ] (my opinion of course).





> Normally Ukrainian palatalised and palatalised *л/ль* in Ukrainian and Belarussian are pronounced exactly as the Russian *л/ль*, not like Polish *ł/l*. But these verb endings are exception, the letter л in the past tense masculine ending is replaced with *в/ў *(Ukr./Bel.). (Compare with feminine or plural form.)


 
I don’t quite understand what you mean in the underlined part (no sarcasm intended). I guess it was meant to be: _Normally unpalatilised and palatalised *л/ль*_? Am I right in my supposition.
We had an interesting thread on pronunciation of _l_ in Russian on this forum (I’ll try to find the link and submit it). Is the difference between _*л/ль *_the same as the difference _between л_s inсЛышаЛ? If not could you please provide some examples so that I could see the difference (Russian most appreciated).



BTW: Anatoli, for the sake of clarity I created new threads here and here dealing with coments of yours I would be very pleased if you contributed. 

Edit: the thread I mentioned earlier: Russian/Polish: The pronunciation of L.


----------



## Anatoli

I answered some of your questions. Yes, it was a typo. If you're still not sure, please PM me.


----------



## Ragutis

Hey,

„Mauka“ is, of course, a Latvian word meaning  „slut“, „whore“.


----------



## zaigucis

Ragutis said:


> Hey,
> 
> „Mauka“ is, of course, a Latvian word meaning  „slut“, „whore“.



yes and "malka" is firewood... so I think first one was used...


----------

