Thread: Please can you help to translate

And as for MacDonalds, it is actually McDonald's, there is no A.
There is a Schwa between the M and C however, and since the A in the Russian МакДоналдс is unstressed, it is pretty much a Schwa anyway.

Oh, God! I thought there probably was no A between M and C. I just didn't feel like doing a search at the time. Though I should have.
It's strange that Americans tend to pronounce the word 'Jack' incorrectly in Russian, although in Russian it sounds the same way as in English.

Neither the 'J' nor the 'a' sound in 'Jack' even exist in Russian.
Even the 'ck' is different from the Russian 'k'.
There is no way to write any word of any one language in terms of another without distorting the pronunciation.

I quite agree with your point of view. I have got only one question for you. How do you suggest pronouncing borrowed words then?

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

I quite agree with your point of view. I have got only one question for you. How do you suggest pronouncing borrowed words then?

usually there are more or less established rules on pronouncing borrowed words, and many of the more common words have an established pronunciation of their own. Jack is one of them, so one should just pronounce it the Russian way when speaking in Russian...
As far as names go, if a foreign speaker prefers to pronounce them in his native fashion, that's fine too, imo. I often do that, for one.

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

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It's strange that Americans tend to pronounce the word 'Jack' incorrectly in Russian, although in Russian it sounds the same way as in English.

How come the transliteration is different between these two words jazz (джаз) and Jack (Джек, Джэк) whereas they have an identical phonetic [a] sound in English.

Originally Posted by Spiderkat

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

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It's strange that Americans tend to pronounce the word 'Jack' incorrectly in Russian, although in Russian it sounds the same way as in English.

How come the transliteration is different between these two words jazz (джаз) and Jack (Джек, Джэк) whereas they have an identical phonetic [a] sound in English.

it's just the way it works; there are some approximate rules but many words do not follow them. why do you call Moscow Moscow, for example?
It can be worse. Isaac Asimov is "Айзек Азимов" but Isaac Newton is "Исаак Ньютон".

Originally Posted by laxxy

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It can be worse. Isaac Asimov is "Айзек Азимов" but Isaac Newton is "Исаак Ньютон".

The name Isaac is pronounced in different ways depending on the country you live in and I think the transliteration will use the first one heard. Айзек is the English sound and Ncaaк is more like the French sound.

But everybody knows that names are pronounced and written so differently because they don't follow any rule.

Originally Posted by Spiderkat

Originally Posted by laxxy

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It can be worse. Isaac Asimov is "Айзек Азимов" but Isaac Newton is "Исаак Ньютон".

The name Isaac is pronounced in different ways depending on the country you live in and I think the transliteration will use the first one heard. Айзек is the English sound and Ncaaк is more like the French sound.

But everybody knows that names are pronounced and written so differently because they don't follow any rule.

why are you so surprised about Jack then?

Originally Posted by Spiderkat

Originally Posted by laxxy

..
It can be worse. Isaac Asimov is "Айзек Азимов" but Isaac Newton is "Исаак Ньютон".

The name Isaac is pronounced in different ways depending on the country you live in and I think the transliteration will use the first one heard. Айзек is the English sound and Ncaaк is more like the French sound.

But everybody knows that names are pronounced and written so differently because they don't follow any rule.

Names... If one wants to follow the rules when defining the right transliteration and pronunciation, he should refer to the root from where the name comes. For example, biblical character Моисей is [моисей] in Russia. But in Enagland he's Moses (read [мозес]), while his Jewish name (I can be incorrect here, someone, please, correct me) is [мойша]. So if we transliterate the real name, we should use Мойша (Moyshah, or something like that). However, people don't act this way just because they borrow names that were already borrowed by other nations (that's just my opinion). That's why you never know what's true.

BTW, I would transliterate Jack as Джек. But I heard it pronounced by native speakers with a vowel that is just between [ae] and [a:]. So this discussion can be endless since you can hear this vowel different at different speakers.

Guys! Don't waste your time for such a discussion. When a borrowed word is considered, please keep in mind that it has already been borrowed and is in fact a word of Russian language. It is pronounced in some way by Russians, and it's spelled accordingly. The name "Jack" (a foreign name, in fact) is pronounced by Russians somewhat like "Djeck" and is spelled "Джек/Джэк". The word jazz is pronounced "djuz" and spelled "джаз". Isaac is a harder case; we have some jews here in Russia and the name is spelled and pronounced as Исаак. A hundred years ago and earlier people used to transform foreign names into their language (e.g. find the closest equivalent) - that's why Isaac Newton is Исаак. And recently a new tradition has developed - foreign names are just spelled by Russian sounds. That's why Isaac Azimov is Айзек.