AnimeSuki Forum - View Single Post - History and Counterfactual speculations discussions

LeoXiao · 2012-03-19, 23:58

It's a kind of specific thing to go into, but what if the Russians had conquered Europe or something, like in 1984, and went about Russianizing the local populations? Here I have made some thoughts about the potential Cyrillicization of the German language, which might have been part of an attempt at assimilation.

Note: "OTL" and "IOTL" stand for "[in] our timeline". It is a convention I have borrowed from...elsewhere.

Example: Их зольте йетцт аигентлих мит дем Шраибен аинес Ауфзатцес бешэфтигт заин, абер дас Тема ист эyссерст лангваилиг унд зо махе их нун геданкен цур Кйриллизирунг дер деутщен шпрахе.

German: Ich sollte jetzt eigentlich mit dem Schreiben eines Aufsatzes beschäftigt sein, aber das Thema ist äußerst langweilig und so mache ich nun Gedanken zur Kyrillisierung der deutschen Sprache.

English translation: I should actually be busy with the writing of an essay right now, but the topic is notably boring and so I am now in thought about the Cyrillicization of the German language.

Notes: People who know German and Cyrillic might notice that I did not do a one-to-one transliteration, but changed some things, namely:

- ''sollte'' (should) in the original German has two 'l's, but in the Russian version I just put in a soft sign, rendering it ''зольте'', as AFAIK the pronunciation would be correct if applying Russian conventions. A lot of time in German when you have two 'l's together or an 'hl' (like with the word 'wohl') you get this soft pronunciation.
- 'j' and 'y' in my rendering of Russianized German share the same letter, 'й'. This is because the two letters are already very similar anyway.
- Though in Russian the German 'ei' sound is rendered 'aй', I decided that to avoid confusion with the 'j' or 'й' sound it should be simply 'аи'.
- Though in Russian 'e' is a 'yeh' sound whereas 'э' is 'eh', I decided that this letter is too awkward for such common use (it's kind of a bitch to write), and kept 'e' as 'eh' for German usage while delegating 'э' the position of 'ä'.
- There is no such example in the text above, but 'ü' would be replaced with 'ю' (with the 'yu' sound being written as 'йу', or 'ju' in OTL Deutsch), and honestly besides keeping 'ö' the way it is I can't think of any sensible alternative.
- The 'ß' letter would simply cease to exist, and be replaced with 'сс'. A rather Soviet thing to do.
- The German 'ie' (which creates an 'ee' as in 'glee' sound) will be done away with, with 'и' replacing it. Sometimes in German 'ie' is pronounced 'ee-eh' instead and in such a case we shall naturally use 'иe'.
- I am not sure what is more appropriate for the German 'sch' sound, as I have seen it Cyrillicized using both 'ш' and 'щ' before. Anyway, German would only have a need for one of these and given the Soviet style of functionality, I guess they would either use only the simpler one, or use 'щ' when 'sch' is actually spelled out and 'ш' when there is only the "sh" sound, like with the word "Stahl" (steel, pronounced SH-tahl, but we only see an 's'). I kind of like this last idea actually.
- 'Ch' of German (that guttural, coughing sound, like in the word "Bach" or "Reich") would be rendered 'x'. This would also be the rendering of 'h', though perhaps there should be an accent over one of them to make the difference clear.
- 'Ch' as we understand it in English would be rendered 'ч' and be used for mostly foreign words as German does not use this sound much.
- The 'z' and 's' sounds of German, which IOTL share the one letter "s" will be each given their own letters, namely 'c' for 's' and 'з' for 'z'.
- The letter 'z' in OTL German, pronounced "ts", will be given as 'ц', as it is in Russian.
- The concept of 'v' as a separate letter will be extinguished and replaced with 'f' (ф) and 'w' (в), much like 'ß' is to be replaced with 'cc'.

2012-03-19, 23:58	Link #50
LeoXiao 思想工作 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Vereinigte Staaten Age: 32	It's a kind of specific thing to go into, but what if the Russians had conquered Europe or something, like in 1984, and went about Russianizing the local populations? Here I have made some thoughts about the potential Cyrillicization of the German language, which might have been part of an attempt at assimilation. Note: "OTL" and "IOTL" stand for "[in] our timeline". It is a convention I have borrowed from...elsewhere. Example: Их зольте йетцт аигентлих мит дем Шраибен аинес Ауфзатцес бешэфтигт заин, абер дас Тема ист эyссерст лангваилиг унд зо махе их нун геданкен цур Кйриллизирунг дер деутщен шпрахе. German: Ich sollte jetzt eigentlich mit dem Schreiben eines Aufsatzes beschäftigt sein, aber das Thema ist äußerst langweilig und so mache ich nun Gedanken zur Kyrillisierung der deutschen Sprache. English translation: I should actually be busy with the writing of an essay right now, but the topic is notably boring and so I am now in thought about the Cyrillicization of the German language. Notes: People who know German and Cyrillic might notice that I did not do a one-to-one transliteration, but changed some things, namely: - ''sollte'' (should) in the original German has two 'l's, but in the Russian version I just put in a soft sign, rendering it ''зольте'', as AFAIK the pronunciation would be correct if applying Russian conventions. A lot of time in German when you have two 'l's together or an 'hl' (like with the word 'wohl') you get this soft pronunciation. - 'j' and 'y' in my rendering of Russianized German share the same letter, 'й'. This is because the two letters are already very similar anyway. - Though in Russian the German 'ei' sound is rendered 'aй', I decided that to avoid confusion with the 'j' or 'й' sound it should be simply 'аи'. - Though in Russian 'e' is a 'yeh' sound whereas 'э' is 'eh', I decided that this letter is too awkward for such common use (it's kind of a bitch to write), and kept 'e' as 'eh' for German usage while delegating 'э' the position of 'ä'. - There is no such example in the text above, but 'ü' would be replaced with 'ю' (with the 'yu' sound being written as 'йу', or 'ju' in OTL Deutsch), and honestly besides keeping 'ö' the way it is I can't think of any sensible alternative. - The 'ß' letter would simply cease to exist, and be replaced with 'сс'. A rather Soviet thing to do. - The German 'ie' (which creates an 'ee' as in 'glee' sound) will be done away with, with 'и' replacing it. Sometimes in German 'ie' is pronounced 'ee-eh' instead and in such a case we shall naturally use 'иe'. - I am not sure what is more appropriate for the German 'sch' sound, as I have seen it Cyrillicized using both 'ш' and 'щ' before. Anyway, German would only have a need for one of these and given the Soviet style of functionality, I guess they would either use only the simpler one, or use 'щ' when 'sch' is actually spelled out and 'ш' when there is only the "sh" sound, like with the word "Stahl" (steel, pronounced SH-tahl, but we only see an 's'). I kind of like this last idea actually. - 'Ch' of German (that guttural, coughing sound, like in the word "Bach" or "Reich") would be rendered 'x'. This would also be the rendering of 'h', though perhaps there should be an accent over one of them to make the difference clear. - 'Ch' as we understand it in English would be rendered 'ч' and be used for mostly foreign words as German does not use this sound much. - The 'z' and 's' sounds of German, which IOTL share the one letter "s" will be each given their own letters, namely 'c' for 's' and 'з' for 'z'. - The letter 'z' in OTL German, pronounced "ts", will be given as 'ц', as it is in Russian. - The concept of 'v' as a separate letter will be extinguished and replaced with 'f' (ф) and 'w' (в), much like 'ß' is to be replaced with 'cc'.