SMS russian: transliterated russian alphabet

I remember my first impression: american guy was totally shocked by very first sms he recieved from russian friend. It was with latin letters but just some abrakadabra. So, what is pecular about sms language?

Text message in english could contain 180 signs, but in russian it has a limit of 70 signs per sms. This was a primary reason why russian use latin letters in sms quite often.

Words are transliterated as it is but probably this matches will make it easier for you. Note: do not try to read letters in combinations, as long as in russian all letters are pronounced. For example kh would be кх, not x (as it sounds in english)

1) ж is zh, z and asterix
2) ч is ch and 4
3) ь is b or '
4) ш is sh, w
5) е is equal to ё
6) щ is sh, sch
7) ц is c, sc, ts
8) з is z, 3 (digit)
9) я is ja, ya
10) ю is ju, yu
11) ы is bl, y, i
12) й - j, y,i
13) г is g and r (resembles russian letter)
14) д is d and g

Here are several examples of such phrases:

Privet, ya to4no na paru ne uspeyu
3aderzhus' minut na 30
Ja na soveschanii
Tbl rge?

Gaming Russian

Recently I found in this blog a question (sorry for a delay, anyway) about gaming russian.

1) Of cause - and you know it - the main idea of gaming russian is - it is as short as possible.
Examples
нзчт (не за что) - don't mention it
ща (сейчас) - now or in a second
спс (спасибо) - thank you

2) The second thing you need to consider - gaming russian was created on the base of gaming english, because in the very beginning all games in russia were on english.
That's why words like below exist:
респаун - respawn
левелап - level-up
экспа - experience
квест - quest

3) You also need to remember that gamers use a lot of Padonkovsky slang
For example
мну - i, me, mine
учите матчасть - Go learn the basics (I'm the smartest here)

4) There's no common rules beyound that. Each game has it's own specific words. I can only say that transliteration is not a rule, using common(for english and russin) symbols is not a rule too

5) A little advice for those who want to gather the samples of gaming and messaging language. There is a russian-language resource that contains funny quotes from real dialogs. But not all people find tham funny because it contains too much of slang.
http://bash.org.ru

If you will learn to understand what is funny about that quotes - you will easily understand any gaming language.

For now on I will continue my investigation for gaming russian - and if you have any questions - don't hestitate to ask.

March, 8 - international women's day

There are 2 russian holidays widely celebrated in Russia (sometimes we call it gender holidays what reflects their nature). It's February 23rd (men's day) and March 8th (women's day). As long as men's day is passed I will tell you about Women's day.

The history of Women's day has begun at 1857 in New-York at the women's demonstration. They wanted 10-hour working day, good working conditions and salary equal to men's salary. At that times women worked for 16 hours a day.

Starting 1857 this day become widely spread all over the world. The first time the Women's day was celebrated in Russia March 2nd, 1913, in Peterburg. In a while the Women's day was stated as official holiday by Soviet Government, since 1963 it's a non-working day.

Despite now this day is not widely celebrated all over the world, it is called International Womens Day. This is why many people jokingly call it International Women's Day in Russia.

How big is the holiday? It is the second one after the New Year. There's nothing to excuse you if you haven't gave your mom - or your girlfriend a flowers. Starting February 24th men are in all-embraciing hunt for a gifts to their beloved ones. It is also common for a girls to give cards to each other.

Slang word of the day

In famous male-female dictionary there is an interesting translation of a word

Мать
girls mostly mean: mother
boys mostly mean: mainboard - computer hardware

Online russian test

I have already recommended you materials for russian language test preparation. Now I want to share with you a link on online russian language test.

This test was created to check literacy of native speakers - so if you are beginner you better do not try to pass it. But this it could be very helpful if you preparing to any official russian tests or checking your knowledge before the trip to russia.

It implies knowledge of more and less litearate variants of pronunciation, punctuation, spelling etc. Most literate russians pass it with score between 100 and 110. Someone with 90 can be measured as quite educated, only professional linguists have 116 (a maximum).

I have 108.

3 random facts about russian language

Fact#1
There is no continues tense in Russian. Only Future, Past and Present. Continuous tense can be figured out by meaning and sometimes in the form of word. There are 2 words with one source, meaning almost the same: ехать and ездить. They produce many equal words but ехать basically means that they are moving now, and ездить – do it regularly.

Fact#2
When you address to somebody in Russian you still use faces, but you need to remember that there are separate words for You in single and multiple. Multiple You (Вы) is also a polite form.

Fact#3
There is no true IT in Russian. To name objects and animals Russians use word’s gender. Every word can be in feminine, masculine or neutral gender. They are quite recognizable by endings, but still, it means that sun is IT, earth is SHE, fox is SHE, and table is HE. Weird, isn’t it?

Moscow Toilets

Browsing in internet I have found tips that made me smile.

Public toilets in the centre of the city are few and far between. Innovative, although somewhat squashy toilet buses (10Rbl) are sometimes parked at public events or outside the Hermitage.
Generally speaking, McDonald’s and random hotels and cafes are your best option. Just utter the words ‘gdye tualet?’ (where is the toilet?), while flashing a friendly smile, and most establishments will let you use their facilities.
Otherwise, look for the Russian letters ‘Ж’ (women’s) and ‘M’ (men’s). Never leave home without your own stash of toilet paper!
There is a national toilet-paper shortage - hence the bits of cut-up newspaper and old romance novels next to some toilets.

Found in Hotels in Moscow