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Maybe I should clarify something about the transcription …
The hyphen – ‘ – is a commonly used transcription symbol that indicates that the preceding consonant is “soft”. “Soft” consonants in Russian are pronounced with the tongue close to the roof of the mouth, a bit like when you would pronounce the vowel “eee”.
“Hard” consonants are pronounced with as much empty space between the tongue and the roof of the mouth as possible, kind of like when you say the vowel “oh”.
Whether a consonant is hard or soft is indicated by the vowel character that follows it, or by a special character if there is no following vowel. Я, е, ё, и, ю and the special character ь indicate soft consonants, and а, э, о, ы, у and the special character ъ indicate hard consonants. It can be confusing that this is indicated by the vowel characters, even though the difference is in the consonants.
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My shoulder is as good as new after I hung a bit from the door frame last night, and it made a loud popping noise. I guess I dislocated it. But now it’s back in place again!!!
If it had happened while doing something productive, or if it had at least been in actual combat, no problem. But that was seriously one of the most idiotic things I have ever done in my life.
While I work on in shame, you should instead read the story of how the wonderful late Captain Phil Harris broke his back in two places. (I wish I’d had men like him around me when I grew up.)
I have to say, those Russian names *are* awfully complicated… It’s not that people don’t use ‘variants’ on names in English, but it’s not… formalized… like this seems to be. I imagine that at some point, though, English also used patronymics – that’s where you get all those surnames with ~son and fitz~ and the like.
As a random point, I know a dog called Dunya. The very largest, furriest dog I have ever seen.
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You managed to dislocate your arm by punching things? Wow. I once dislocated both my arms at the same time – the most extraordinarily painful thing I have ever experienced. It was also then that I learned that losing consciousness from pain was not just a popular literary device.
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… Just wondering, how on earth does one become a ‘proto’martyr? By *beginning* to die for a cause, or what? :P.
Awww, what kind of dog is Dunya? Is she (or he?) VERY big and furry? Like these doggies – Caucasian Ovcharkas? http://www.aacoo.net/Nicholas4-09-5ac.jpg http://www.canadasguidetodogs.com/customergraphics/ovcharka_b.jpg
Yes, I think I dislocated my shoulder a little bit. Too much heart and not enough to back it up … (^^;) But I could still use it, although it hurt. It’s happened to me once before (that time I fell when rock climbing).
Heh, protomartyr means the first Christian martyr in a country. I just thought it sounded fun, like something from a Moebius comic. Maybe Aeron the Protomartyr was the first Christian martyr in some tiny irrelevant country that only existed for half a century or so.