We have assumed that users will know enough Russian to be able to recognize inflected forms of words. We have followed the common practice of listing nouns in the nominative singular, adjectives in the masculine nominative singular, and verbs in the imperfective infinitive, with the perfective (if there is one) in parentheses.
Theoretically, the Russian spelling of foreign names is supposed to represent the pronunciation used in the original language. Thus, Эйлер = Euler, Надь = Nagy, Гатó = Gâteaux. Nevertheless, it is often difficult to determine the correct spelling of the original name, especially when it is French or Hungarian. We have included a selection of Russian versions of mathematicians' names.
Adjectives formed from proper names are not capitalized in Russian. If a word seems strange, it very well may be such an adjective.
Some entries may seem unnecessary, because they mean just what they look like. There are, however, enough Russian words that resemble English words, but mean something entirely different, that we preferred to include too many rather than too few.
We thank the hundreds of mathematicians, from many countries, who have made the revision of the Dictionary possible by contributing suggestions for corrections and additions.
The Society intends to update the Dictionary from time to time. Consequently, users are encouraged to submit additions and corrections to Russian-English Dictionary, c/o American Mathematical Society, P.O.Box 6248, Providence, RI 02940-6248.
R. P. Boas Northwestern University
| Abbreviations Used in the Dictionary |
abbrev. abbreviation
acc. accusative case
adj. adjective
adv. adverb
cf. compare
colloq. colloquial
compar. comparative
conj. conjunction
dat. dative case
f. feminine
gen. genitive case
imperf. imperfective
instr. instrumental case
loc. locative case
m. masculine
n. neuter
nom. nominative case
num. numeral
ord. num. ordinal numeral
part. participle
perf. perfective
pl. plural
p.n. proper name, personal name
pred. predicate
prep. preposition
pron. pronoun
sing. singular
v. verb
A Short Grammar of the Russian Language
| Introduction and Alphabet |
Like any inflected Indo-European language, the Russian language is studied by means of an analysis of the declension of nouns and adjectives and the conjugation of verbs, together with their use in conjunction with prepositions, connectives, etc. The first obstacle which the beginner encounters, however, is the problem of the alphabet. Once the alphabet has been learned, the study of Russian becomes relatively simple, certainly no more difficult than the study of German. The Russian, or Cyrillic, alphabet is an interesting combination of Roman, Greek, and Hebrew characters; following the Bolshevik Revolution, the orthography was revised and modernized, and, in the alphabet given in the following table, the older characters are listed for the convenience of those readers who must make occasional references to the pre-Revolution literature. Since the italicized alphabet is used in places of such critical interest as the statements of theorems, etc., many phrases and sentences are duplicated in italics in the grammatical sketch so that the reader will become accustomed to reading italicized printing.
No universal agreement has been reached on the transliteration of the Russian alphabet, and the most commonly used systems of transliteration are given in the following table. System I is that used by the Library of Congress and is the most commonly used system for nontechnical literature in the United States. System II is the system used in Mathematical Reviews from 1980 onward. System III was used in Mathematical Reviews from 1962 to 1979. System IV is a German system which is frequently encountered in mathematical literature.
The Alphabet
| PRINTED | SOUND | TRANSLITERATION | I | II | III | IV |
| А а | ah (father) | a | a | a | a | |
| Б б | b (bed) | b | b | b | b | |
| В в | v (vigor) | v | v | v | w | |
| Г г | g (go) | g | g | g | g | |
| Д д | d (do) | d | d | d | d | |
| Е е | yeh (yet) | ye, e | e | e | je | |
| Ё ё 1 | yo (yolk) | ye, e | л | л | jo | |
| Ж ж | zh (pleasure) | zh | zh | ž | sh | |
| З з | z (zigzag) | z | z | z | s | |
| И и | ee (feet) | i | i | i | i | |
| Й й | y (toy) | y | ǐ | ǐ | j | |
| (І і) 2 | ee (feet) | |||||
| К к | k (king) | k | k | k | k | |
| Л л | l (ball) | l | l | l | l | |
| М м | m (man) | m | m | m | m | |
| Н н | n (nose) | n | n | n | n | |
| О о | o (sort) | o | o | o | o | |
| П п | p (pin) | p | p | p | p | |
| Р р | r (ring, trilled) | r | r | r | r | |
| С с | s (sun) | s | s | s | s (ss) | |
| Т т | t (time) | t | t | t | t | |
| У у | oo (poor) | u | u | u | u | |
| Ф ф | f (fig) | f | f | f | f | |
| Х х | kh (like kh in German ach) | kh | kh | h | ch | |
| Ц ц | ts (tarts) | ts | ts | c | z | |
| Ч ч | ch (much) | ch | ch | č | tsch | |
| Ш ш | sh (shop) | sh | sh | š | sch | |
| Щ щ | shch (lush cherry) | shch | shch | šč | stsch | |
| Ъ ъ 3 | (silent) | ″ | ″ | ″ | ′ | |
| Ы ы | i or e (it, we) | y | y | y | y | |
| Ь ь | (silent) | ′ | ′ | ′ | j | |
| (Ђ ђ) 4 | ye (yet) | |||||
| Э э 5 | e (ten) | e | è | è | e | |
| Ю ю | yu (you) | yu | yu | yu | ju | |
| Я я | ya (yard) | ya | ya | ya | ja | |
| (Θ θ) 6 | f (fat) | |||||
| (V v) 7 | ee (meet) |
| 1. | Usually written as е although the pronunciation of ё is retained. ↑ |
| 2. | Replaced by и in the post-Revolution orthography. ↑ |
| 3. | Used only as a separation mark after certain consonants; sometimes replaced by the symbols ′ or ″ in the middle of words, and dropped altogether when used at the end of a word in the old orthography. ↑ |
| 4. | Replaced by е in the post-Revolution orthography. ↑ |
| 5. | Retained in the post-Revolution orthography, but replaced by е in certain words. ↑ |
| 6. | Replaced by ф in the post-Revolution orthography. ↑ |
| 7. | Replaced by и in the post-Revolution orthography. ↑ |