'Borsch' should also be accepted for 'Borscht' because in some languages it's called something similar to 'borsh' e.g. borš/borsh in Estonian. Also the T in the letter usually transliterated as 'shch' is rarely pronounced in Russian. In Russian it's usually pronounced as a long 'sh'.
Nice quiz though, never knew words like Steppe or Fedora come from Russian.
However, the correct answer in this quiz is the word as spelled in English, as an accepted loanword of Russian origin. Not a random Latin-alphabet approximation of the original Russian sound as used in any number of languages.
The actual word in Russian - which is spelled Борщ - converts into the English alphabet as borshch. Wikipedia lists the following possible spellings: "Borscht (also borsch, bortsch, borstch, borsh, borshch)".
Why not use a real source and not one written and overwritten hundreds or thousands of times per article by anyone with a pulse and an internet connection?
As far as I know "pogrom" comes from polish...and, if you are flexible with "borscht" spelling (the option you choose comes via german language, the "sch" is not used in slavic languages, for example in polish its called "barszcz") you should thing about accepting "babooshka" ;)
The Gulag was acutally the agency that administered Soviet work and re-education camps. It's an acronym for "Glavnoye upravleniye lagerey", which means, "main camp administration". The clue should probably say "Prison camp system"
I lived in Russia for three years and breezed through this... except for that darn wolfhound. I don't know that I've ever heard that in Russian or English.
I completely agree that they are great looking. The one that I had (Natasha - the "War and Peace" one not the "Rocky and Bullwinkle" one) was just as smart and gentle as she was beautiful, but a little on the hard headed side and sometimes had an "I vant to be let alone" attitude. Before anyone comments, I know Garbo was Swedish not Russian.
My guess would be that 'j' is pronounced very different in English than in many other languages. The way we pronounce 'j' in German, Baltic, Slavic etc languages makes 'njet' the correct transliteration but in English that would be hard to pronounce. Just think of the English words Jet and Yet, put an N in front of it, and it makes sense.
I never knew Mammoth came from the Russian. For some reason English words for big tend to come from something that was big. Scrap that, when English words for big come from something that was big, that thing was invariably some kind of elephant. viz, Jumbo, Mammoth.
Nice quiz. Why not Tundra for Tiaga? Is Tundra not Russian? Also, there is more than one way to spell Tsar, Tzar is also acceptable in English (or at least Scrabble!)
tundra IS from russian (though they might have gotten it from sami), but the difference is, tundra is without trees and taiga is wtih trees. And since the clue mentions forest..
Really need add more variants of 'nyet' - especially given the most direct transliteration 'net', which doesn't work here. Of course I was kicking myself afterwards that I didn't even try 'nyet' (I also tried 'niet). Nonetheless, at very least 'net' should work. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%82#Russian
And again... tried ever variation you can think of, several times... nyet doesnt even look to me as it would be pronounced (like) njet. It looks like knee-add
Good point! Maybe like loco,, i dont feel like that word is used like a loanword, it is used in the usa, but it keeps it full ehm... damn hard to explain, it stays as spanish/mexican as it originally was.
I thought tundra for taiga. I looked it up and now know the difference. Though for me personally tundra is much more know ( i only MIGHT ve heard from taiga, but mainly think so because I remember coming across the similar problem before, when i thought it was tundra but wasnt)
of the other 8 I got wrong i only had heard of parka. (I tried pullover and poncho haha though didnt expect it to be right)
Please accept "niet" for "nyet". The transcription of Cyrillic letters into the Latin alphabet is somewhat subjective, and either of these could be correct
I disagree with using "villa" for dacha, unless it is for ironic reasons. Dacha is typically inexpensive house, often unsuitable for living during winter, and mostly maintained for a small plot of garden. Perhaps "summer house" would be more accurate?
Agreed, a dacha is quite the opposite of a villa. Unless you're talking about the dacha of the Secretary General and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet, of course. Or the tsar's. Or Putin's.
Only people talking about dogs of different breeds, breeders of dogs, dog lovers, dog owners, Russian dogs, collectors of dog names, people interested in words in English that were originally Russian, pet-shop owners, jetpunkers who ask 'Who says that ...ever?!
"Cosmonaut" is not a russian word. Its a greek one it comes from the words Cosmos (Κόσμος) which means World and Naut (Ναύτης) which means sailor in greek.
I had thought parka was an Inuktitut word - or a word derived from a Inuktitut. Wrong. But it seems it's from Nenets - a language in the Uralic family. So, I guess what matters is how we interpret "came to us from Russian". The Russians may have adopted the word, with English and other languages picking it up from there.
'Parka' is not a Russian word, it is a Nenets/Aleut word. Both of these nations are Indigenous peoples within Russia. In Aleut it means 'animal skin', in Nenets it means what it means in English. It is probably through Russian that it has become an English word, but by no means it is of Russian origin. Not sure if it is culturally sensitive to have it on this quiz.
Taiga is not originally a Russian word. According to Wiktionary, the word "taiga" is borrowed from South Siberian Turkic languages. For instance, the Yakut word тайга (tayga) means “untraversable forest.”
Nice quiz though, never knew words like Steppe or Fedora come from Russian.
Fun quiz. thanks.
A number of words on this are similar.
of the other 8 I got wrong i only had heard of parka. (I tried pullover and poncho haha though didnt expect it to be right)
Aka sailor of the world. Not russian, greek etymology.