Brilliant illustrations bring this 1976 Soviet edition of 'The Hobbit' to life

Re:Brilliant illustrations bring this 1976 Soviet edition of... by culebron21 on Friday August 15, 2025 @04:52AM (#44910052)

1) No, it's just Russian translators are aware that in English, Daniel and John start from different letters and want to indicate that. I think it's the only case of 2-letter initial in English->Russian translation. Can't recall any other cases, but maybe there are such with translations from other languages.

2) like Spanish perro, but accent on the last syllable, "perró". I think Pierrault would add a "soft sign", Пьерро.

3) There's no equivalent of W in Russian, and different translators take different ways - either В (v) or У (u). E.g. I read two translations of Sherlock Holmes with Watson being Уотсон and Ватсон.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Brilliant illustrations bring this 1976 Soviet edition of... by thaumasiotes on Saturday August 16, 2025 @01:49AM (#44920556)

> I think Pierrault would add a "soft sign", Пьерро.

Really? That contradicts everything I've ever been told about the Russian alphabet. What's the difference between Перро and Пэрро?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Brilliant illustrations bring this 1976 Soviet edition of... by culebron21 on Saturday August 16, 2025 @02:03AM (#44920625)

Oh, well, correct, Spanish perro would be пэрро. The name Perrault is Перро and it's clear Е, not Э. But Pierrault would be definitely Пьерро, because of the i.

Also, sometimes in borrowed words everyone writes Е like in the original but pronounces Э, especially in the Western part of Russia. IDK exactly the reasons, may be it's just disgust for the letter Э, may be it's Ukrainian and Belarussian orthograhy influence, where Е is pronounced like Э.

[ Parent | on HN ]