Thread: Caribou? (pic inside)

If you can, please, write it both in Cyrillic AND English-phonetic showing where the accent is? Please and thank you!

КАРИБУ [kah-ree-boo] ('А' as in 'car', 'И' as in 'seed" and 'У' as in "book")

hahaha...nice! Just like ours - well fairly close anyway. Spacebo!!

To me it's just олень (ah-len'). I have never in my life heard the word "карибу". And I believe many Russians haven't.

Originally Posted by Оля

To me it's just олень (ah-len'). I have never in my life heard the word "карибу". And I believe many Russians haven't.

I believe most Russians who have ever been interested in animal life and/or read books about Indians know what Caribou is. I knew it since I was a child.

Anyway, the word 'caribou/карибу' does exist in Russian (it's used specifically for American nothern deers and it's not uncommon), but if there's no need to talk about caribous in particular , you can use a more general term like "a nothern deer"/"северный олень"/[seh-vehr-nyi ah-len']) instead.

PS. "Just олень" looks like this:

I know that you do in fact have caribou / reindeer in your High North/Siberia and in the areas where Russia connects with Finland. (Arctic/Lapland?) So maybe they are a different subspecies and Olya was referring to that? Do you have a different name for 'reindeer'?


They look pretty similar to me, but there are differences.

They are different subspecies, but for casual conversation it hardly matters.
reindeer = северный олень (see my prev. post for details)
But please note that you can't call Russian reindeers "caribou". Caribou refers to American reindeers only.

Originally Posted by Оля

I have never in my life heard the word "карибу".

Один мой знакомый переводчик однажды сказал в подобной ситуации одной очень милой редакторше: "Книжки нужно было в детстве читать, а не в футбол гонять"
(Шутка, если кто не понял)

Thank you, gRomoZeka. This is what i wanted to know. They really are not that different. The first picture I posted, the antlers were in velvet ( Still having the skin and blood covering it) but there isn't too much of a difference. Aside from country of origin. I had to make certain that the second picture I showed was from the Lapland species so that I was not misunderstood. Strange that I found in on an Australian site )))

So, simply "Northern Deer" as you said in your previous post, is the most accurate name for your species/reindeer?

I appreciate you time and patience with this matter - as trivial as it seems. So, Thank you.

_________
- translationsnmru: I have NO idea what you wrote. I'm still a very new learner with a tutor. I'm afraid that if you were addressing me, I cannot reply just yet. I'll have to wait for help from my tutor. Apologies.

Originally Posted by Chelle

So, simply "Northern Deer" as you said in your previous post, is the most accurate name for your species/reindeer?

Yes, it's an "official" general name for ALL kinds of reindeers (i.e. you'll find them in any Russian encyclopedia under this name).

For example, Russian wikipedia goes like this:
Nothern Deer/Северный олень, or Caribou in North America, is the only representative of the genus Nothern Deers/Северные олени.
Classification of Nothern deers:
North-American subspecies (blah blah blah.. various kinds of Caribous are listed, and yes, they are called "карибу", not just reindeers)
Eurasian subspecies (among them 'Russian' reindeers are mentioned, the term "северный олень" is used for all Eurasian subspecies)

I appreciate you time and patience with this matter - as trivial as it seems.

No worries! I like talking about animals, especially if there are pictures involved.

Originally Posted by Chelle

- translationsnmru: I have NO idea what you wrote. I'm still a very new learner with a tutor. I'm afraid that if you were addressing me, I cannot reply just yet. I'll have to wait for help from my tutor. Apologies.

Oh, I was replying to another person's (Оля's) post that I quoted. It was just a joke, not really relevant to the topic. Sorry if my post confused you.

translationsnmru: I thought it might be directed to her, but wanted to make sure, just in case, that if it WAS aimed at me, that you knew I could not understand you, yet.

gRomoZeka : ANY time you want to talk about animals or even plants, I'm more than happy to do so. I find that language and culture are not always the most important parts of a country...the flora and fauna is equally important and amazingly diverse. You may PM me here or my email is in my profile! ))) I also have skype and yahoo messenger.

Oh! gRomo! How do you say Pumpkin? I know you don't really do Halloween in your country, so I don't know if you have a word for jack o'lantern or not, but pumpkin will do! Annnd here's some pics cause I know ya like 'em!!


Pumpkins


Jack O'Lantern.

Тыква (f., pl. тыквы). Pronounciation is tricky, as everything with "ы".

Originally Posted by Chelle

.. How do you say Pumpkin? I know you don't really do Halloween in your country, so I don't know if you have a word for jack o'lantern or not, but pumpkin will do! Annnd here's some pics cause I know ya like 'em!!

Pumpkin = Тыква

There is a fashion trend in Russia these days to celebrate Halloween, but since it's a foreign holiday I didn't hear about some special vocablury for it. For me it's just an extra reason to drink for .

Originally Posted by Basil77

There is a fashion trend in Russia these days to celebrate Halloween, but since it's a foreign holiday I didn't hear about some special vocablury for it. For me it's just an extra reason to drink for .

ILU Basil ))) We don't really drink for it.. not like New years ( which I'm sure you fully understand). It's more fun dressing up and scaring the cr@p out of little kids!! It's my favorite holiday!

Originally Posted by ac220

Pronounciation is tricky, as everything with "ы".

Yep, it's official - it's my least favorite vowel sound in the Russian language. I can say it just fine for the most part, but it makes me all twitchy.

Это олень или лось?