Thread: Russian wikipedia

Hi,

I've posted my message in this section as I believe this might be a good additional resource for learners. My question, though, is whether wikipedia in Russian is generally accurate grammatically? Obviously the articles will be written by natives, but some of the articles I've read on Wikipedia in English, German and a few in Norwegian sound a bit strange stylistically. Would it be best to avoid it, or is it okay in terms of grammatical accuracy etc? I realise it's probably a bit of an odd thing to ask...

Thanks

Jack

Originally Posted by JackBoni

My question, though, is whether wikipedia in Russian is generally accurate grammatically?

Of course not. Anyone who wants writes them. I often see mistakes in Russian articles on Wikipedia. Natives make many mistakes too, like in any other language, I believe.

Okay; thanks Оля. I expected that sort of answer, but thanks for the confirmation

Jack

Originally Posted by JackBoni

My question, though, is whether wikipedia in Russian is generally accurate grammatically? Obviously the articles will be written by natives, but some of the articles I've read on Wikipedia in English, German and a few in Norwegian sound a bit strange stylistically.

You can't even be sure they're natives. Our final assignment in Russian class last semester was to write a Russian Wikipedia article (vetted by our teacher before being posted, though).

Not all natives know grammar unfortunately.

Sometimes articles expected to be Russian are just translated from English, and this translation may be pure badly done.

Originally Posted by Lynn

You can't even be sure they're natives. Our final assignment in Russian class last semester was to write a Russian Wikipedia article (vetted by our teacher before being posted, though).

Надо же, какие вещи выясняются. )) Но это у вас хорошо придумали, приятно, наверное, осознавать, что твою работу увидят многие. (:
Извините, что не на английском.

Originally Posted by Rtyom

are just translated from English, and this translation may be pure badly done

На некоторых будто написано: «Перевод с английского». Синтаксис, характерный для английского, но не для русского, «английские» запятые и т. д. То, что эти статьи писали носители русского, ничего не меняет. Все равно это не естественный русский язык, а что-то другое.

is it okay in terms of grammatical accuracy etc?

Это ж Википедия. Она постоянно меняется. Сегодня в какой-то статье все окей, а завтра кто-нибудь исправит правильный вариант на неправильный или добавит с десяток предложений, написанных с ошибками.

I have ever seen articles which were translated into russian by translation software.

I think you should only read articles on common subjects. They are good enough:
Russia
Russian language
And so on.

Read best articles first, I think, they has much less mistakes: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Википедия:Избранные_статьи

Originally Posted by JackBoni

Hi,

I've posted my message in this section as I believe this might be a good additional resource for learners. My question, though, is whether wikipedia in Russian is generally accurate grammatically? Obviously the articles will be written by natives, but some of the articles I've read on Wikipedia in English, German and a few in Norwegian sound a bit strange stylistically. Would it be best to avoid it, or is it okay in terms of grammatical accuracy etc? I realise it's probably a bit of an odd thing to ask...

I'd say it's less probable to see an article in Russian wiki with grossly screwed up gender, cases and other basic things. Number of non-natives writing there is significantly less than that for English wiki, and unless the article is of no interest for native contributors ( e.g. podunk_ne_elementary_school_soccer_team ) it's most likely to be proofread soon. The style is another problem - there are still a few articles (partially) copypasted from pre-revolutionary Brockhaus and Efron , there are (as already said) literally translated from English. And everlasting тся/ться.

Originally Posted by Zaya

Originally Posted by Lynn

You can't even be sure they're natives. Our final assignment in Russian class last semester was to write a Russian Wikipedia article (vetted by our teacher before being posted, though).

Надо же, какие вещи выясняются. )) Но это у вас хорошо придумали, приятно, наверное, осознавать, что твою работу увидят многие. (:

I rather liked the assignment, actually, since it seemed like there was a point to writing it, that it wouldn't just be graded, corrected, and tossed into the recycle bin. I don't think anyone worried too much about our work being out there for all to see, since the point of Wikis is that someone else will come along and improve things once you get the article started. Mine has been edited a few times since I posted it, and so far only one change was language-related. (I began learning Russian last July, so when I wrote it I'd been studying for six months.)

I'll be brave... here she is: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0% ... 0%B5%D0%B2)

Lynn,

Изначальный договор с Кировским театром

I have not found any other mistakes or evidences that the page is written by non-native speaker.

Originally Posted by SAn

Lynn,

Изначальный договор с Кировским театром

I have not found any other mistakes or evidences that the page is written by non-native speaker.

I've found another five mistakes, at least.
But I agree, it doesn't look at all being written by a non-native.

Originally Posted by Оля

Originally Posted by SAn

Lynn,

Изначальный договор с Кировским театром

I have not found any other mistakes or evidences that the page is written by non-native speaker.

I've found another five mistakes, at least.
But I agree, it doesn't look at all being written by a non-native.

Thanks for correcting that, SAn. Olya, can you let me know what those mistakes are so I can fix them? Or have you corrected them yourself?

(And if I may: "...it doesn't look at all like it was written...")

Originally Posted by Lynn

(And if I may: "...it doesn't look at all like it was written...")

Sure you may. I am happy when someone corrects my mistakes. Thank you!

Originally Posted by Lynn

Olya, can you let me know what those mistakes are so I can fix them? Or have you corrected them yourself?

No, I haven't.
They are mostly commas:

В сотрудничестве с режиссёром Сергеем Радловым и драматургом Адрианом Пиотровским_(the comma is not needed) Прокофьев создал...

Изначальный договор с Кировским театром выполнен не был, и заказ на балет перешёл к Большому театру, который тоже отменил постановку после кампании 1936 г. В конце концов премьера состоялась за границей в декабре 1938 г., в Брно, в отсутствие композитора.

В фильме показана хореография Лавровского, и роль Джульетты исполняла Уланова.
Maybe that's the only sentence which sounds a bit unnatural. A Russian would write, "...а роль Джульетты исполняла Уланова".

Другие балетмейстеры, такие как Джон Кранко (John Kranko) в 1962 г., Кэннэт Макмиллан (Kenneth MacMillan) в 1965 г._ (no comma) и Рудольф Нуриев в 1972 г., со временем создали новые постановки балета.

[s:wno5vt0w]Встепеча[/s:wno5vt0w] Встреча Тибальда с Меркуцио