Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Jul 4, 2013 04:17
10 yrs ago
Russian term
Brazil
Life Sciences and IT Specialist
Native in: Portuguese (Variant: Brazilian)
Works in: English to Portuguese, Portuguese to English
Ozero
Non-PRO
Russian to English
Other
Geography
Maps localization
Hi All,
I'd just like to start off saying that I don't really work with Russian/English and have virtually no working knowledge of Russian language or the Cyrillic alphabet.
I just happen to be translating a set of toponyms from English into Brazilian Portuguese and I have run across several terms which seem to repeat, but I have not been able to find any reference whatsoever as to geographical entities (more precisely a lake-like or body-of-water-like geographical entity, which is what I'm currently working on) with these names.
By repetition and elimination, I have been able to group them into sets of similarity, either by (a) repetition of an apparent suffix; or (b) being preceded by a certain abbreviation. Another issue I have found is (c) inconsistent spelling/name components; which makes me unsure of how to leave it in Portuguese; and (d) name without any reference whatsoever, anywhere.
(a)
Val'k'yavr
Shuaris'yarvi
Payyarvi
Kazlyayarvi
Tanelinverkkoyarvi
Talvijärvi (Also found as "Talviyarvi", but I think this one's in Finland)
Kamenskoe
Nivastroevskoe
(b)
Mal. Keyga
Mal. Monastyrskoe
Mal. Zakhar'evskoe
Mal. Nizh. EzevskoeOsipovoe
Nizh. Kapustnoe
Bol. Sergozero
Bol. Kardozero
Bol. Il'men'
Bol. Shardozero
Bol. Pivkozero
(c)
Davydovskoe / Davydovskoye
Kochkarnoe / Kochkarnoye
Dubovoe / Dubovoye
Kochkarnoe / Kochkarnoye
Kamenskoe / Kamenskoye
reka Nemtsev / ozero Nemtsev
(d)
Isyakkuly
Kechvan'ty
Poryl'to
Shilos
Madagaty
Mois(Vargan)
Medniy TO
Khvostatoe-TO
Vorgadorynty
Yulenkhedo
So, my question is: are these things merely random similarities or do they have any semantic value? Do they indicate generics like the body of water type or not? Are they translatable? Are there any reliable sources I can use to verify the official spelling of these names or what kind of body of water they are?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I'd just like to start off saying that I don't really work with Russian/English and have virtually no working knowledge of Russian language or the Cyrillic alphabet.
I just happen to be translating a set of toponyms from English into Brazilian Portuguese and I have run across several terms which seem to repeat, but I have not been able to find any reference whatsoever as to geographical entities (more precisely a lake-like or body-of-water-like geographical entity, which is what I'm currently working on) with these names.
By repetition and elimination, I have been able to group them into sets of similarity, either by (a) repetition of an apparent suffix; or (b) being preceded by a certain abbreviation. Another issue I have found is (c) inconsistent spelling/name components; which makes me unsure of how to leave it in Portuguese; and (d) name without any reference whatsoever, anywhere.
(a)
Val'k'yavr
Shuaris'yarvi
Payyarvi
Kazlyayarvi
Tanelinverkkoyarvi
Talvijärvi (Also found as "Talviyarvi", but I think this one's in Finland)
Kamenskoe
Nivastroevskoe
(b)
Mal. Keyga
Mal. Monastyrskoe
Mal. Zakhar'evskoe
Mal. Nizh. EzevskoeOsipovoe
Nizh. Kapustnoe
Bol. Sergozero
Bol. Kardozero
Bol. Il'men'
Bol. Shardozero
Bol. Pivkozero
(c)
Davydovskoe / Davydovskoye
Kochkarnoe / Kochkarnoye
Dubovoe / Dubovoye
Kochkarnoe / Kochkarnoye
Kamenskoe / Kamenskoye
reka Nemtsev / ozero Nemtsev
(d)
Isyakkuly
Kechvan'ty
Poryl'to
Shilos
Madagaty
Mois(Vargan)
Medniy TO
Khvostatoe-TO
Vorgadorynty
Yulenkhedo
So, my question is: are these things merely random similarities or do they have any semantic value? Do they indicate generics like the body of water type or not? Are they translatable? Are there any reliable sources I can use to verify the official spelling of these names or what kind of body of water they are?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Proposed translations
(English)
| 4 | Not an answer |
James McVay
|
| 5 +4 | lake (in Russian) |
LilianNekipelov
|
Proposed translations
10 hrs
James McVay
United States
United States
Native in English
United States
Quality translations at reasonable rates
Native in: English 
Works in: Russian to English, Bulgarian to English
Selected
Not an answer
For some reason the "Post Discussion Entry" button isn't working for me today...
Most of your toponyms look to me like U.S. Board of Geographic Names (BGN) transliterations of toponyms from a Russian map. The Cyrillic "soft sign" -- or "ь" is normally omitted when place names are used in newspapers, etc. The BGN system retains it for precision, however. For example Val'k-Yavr (not Val'k'yavr) is a transliteration of Вальк-Явр, with the "ь" transliterated as an apostrophe for precision. More info on the BGN can be found here:
http://geonames.usgs.gov/
You can find the BGN transliteration systems for Russian and other languages here:
http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/romanization.html
Without seeing the original, however, there's no way of being sure, and some of the toponyms don't follow the BGN system. For example the BGN system stipulates that a Cyrillic "e" should be transliterated as "ye" when it follows a vowel. That rule isn't always observed in your list.
(Incidentally, I apologize for the spurious "\'s" -- they're appearing all by themselves. I blame Windows 8.)
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 hrs (2013-07-04 14:42:26 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
(Funny. The "\'s" disappeared when I posted my comment.)
Most of your toponyms look to me like U.S. Board of Geographic Names (BGN) transliterations of toponyms from a Russian map. The Cyrillic "soft sign" -- or "ь" is normally omitted when place names are used in newspapers, etc. The BGN system retains it for precision, however. For example Val'k-Yavr (not Val'k'yavr) is a transliteration of Вальк-Явр, with the "ь" transliterated as an apostrophe for precision. More info on the BGN can be found here:
http://geonames.usgs.gov/
You can find the BGN transliteration systems for Russian and other languages here:
http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/romanization.html
Without seeing the original, however, there's no way of being sure, and some of the toponyms don't follow the BGN system. For example the BGN system stipulates that a Cyrillic "e" should be transliterated as "ye" when it follows a vowel. That rule isn't always observed in your list.
(Incidentally, I apologize for the spurious "\'s" -- they're appearing all by themselves. I blame Windows 8.)
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 hrs (2013-07-04 14:42:26 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
(Funny. The "\'s" disappeared when I posted my comment.)
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thank you James, that really helped clear things up! I have been noticing several spelling inconsistencies when backing this client's toponyms up against other sources available, especially in transliterations that happen to include "-yavir", "iyavir" or "'yavr", as well as the transliteration of "e" (although this one has consistently not followed the BGN guidelines and's always shown up as "oe" instead of "oye"."
+4
4 hrs
LilianNekipelov
United States
United States
Native in English
Works in field
United States
Legal and literary translator. Linguist.
Native in: English (Variants: British, US) 
, Polish (Variant: Standard-Poland)
Works in: Russian to English, Polish to English, Swedish to English
lake (in Russian)
Well this one means lake. The others, you would really have to ask the people from the right language pairs. Jarvi is Finnish for sure.
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
GaryG
25 mins
|
| agree |
cyhul
32 mins
|
| agree |
MariyaN (X)
5 hrs
|
| agree |
alex suhoy
1 day 3 hrs
|
Discussion
Kechvan'ty
but Порыльто
rivers or lakes are located in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District
Lake Хвостатое-То
Try to translate into BP
http://www.google.ru/#newwindow=1&output=search&sclient=psy-...