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PROPER NAME, FIRST, MIDDLE,LAST

Russian translation: I'm afraid this is nonsense (see explanation)

02:36 Aug 3, 2002
English to Russian translations [Non-PRO]
Art/Literary
English term or phrase: PROPER NAME, FIRST, MIDDLE,LAST
QUESTION?
IF :JOHN PHILLIP SMITH=
IVON PHILLIPEVICH SMITH(?)
WHAT IS
DAVID TERRILL KELSEY' AS IT WOULD SOUND IN RUSSIAN (SPELLED PHONETICALLY IN ENG. ENGLISH)
DAVID TERRILL KELSEY
Russian translation:I'm afraid this is nonsense (see explanation)
Explanation:
For a start, this should be in the English-Russian pairing, not Russian-English. Not to worry.

Second, an English middle name is just a second first name; whereas the Russian "middle name" is a patronymic meaning "son of": Phillipevich would mean "son of Phillip", which is not what you mean. A Russian version of Phillip would just be Filip.

Third, there is no "th" sound in Russian, so Smith would just have to stand as Smit.

Your name would sound something like Du'VEED (accent on second syllable) Ter-RIL KEL-si or KEL-zi. David is a common name in Russian as in English, though stressed differently and with different sounding vowels, the 'a' being shorter and closer to an unstressed 'u' and the 'i' being longer and closer to a double 'e'. How they would spell the rest of your name depends on how they imagine it would be pronounced. Is the 's' in your surname pronounced as an s or as a z? Russians probably wouldn't be too concerned as to the answer, they would just spell it the way they think it should sound, the way Americans pronounce foreign names any way they feel like :) Remember also that sounds in one language often have no direct equivalent in another, so it's better to let native speakers decide on how they want to pronounce your name...

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Note added at 2002-08-03 03:47:55 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

One more thing: the Russian equivalent of John is Iv-AN, with stress on second syllable (pronounced \'ahn\', longer than in English), rather than Ivon, which sounds more like French Yvonne.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2002-08-03 03:57:58 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

My name is Clive. Russians would prefer to pronounce this as Kleef. I was able to get them to change the vowel to -eye, but it is very unnatural for Russian to have a hard (voiced) \'v\' sound at the end of the word, so I had to resign myself to being called Kl-eye-ff. If your name is longer than one syllable, the chances of it being pronounced the way you are used to is exceedingly slim!

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2002-08-03 04:15:16 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

My name is Clive. Russians would prefer to pronounce this as Kleef. I was able to get them to change the vowel to -eye, but it is very unnatural for Russian to have a hard (voiced) \'v\' sound at the end of the word, so I had to resign myself to being called Kl-eye-ff. If your name is longer than one syllable, the chances of it being pronounced the way you are used to is exceedingly slim!
Selected response from:

Clive Wilshin
Local time: 07:29
Grading comment
Graded automatically based on peer agreement. KudoZ.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +7I'm afraid this is nonsense (see explanation)
Clive Wilshin
4 +5Dehvid Terreel Kehlsi
GaryG
5David, If you really want to make your middle name patronymic
Milana_R


  

Answers


5 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +5
Dehvid Terreel Kehlsi


Explanation:
Assuming an American accent, but transliterations like this assume a standard transliateration model which doesn't really exist

BTW, "Smith" would be pronounced "Smeet"

GaryG
Local time: 02:29
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in pair: 113

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Vladimir Dubisskiy: or even "dah'veed"
4 hrs
agree  Oleg Pashuk (X)
10 hrs
agree  Chinoise
11 hrs
agree  Marina Hayes (X)
14 hrs
agree  Libero_Lang_Lab: My friend Sasha would pronounce it Dayvith Therell Kelshi (but then he's an alcoholic with a lisp)
3 days 17 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

22 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +7
I'm afraid this is nonsense (see explanation)


Explanation:
For a start, this should be in the English-Russian pairing, not Russian-English. Not to worry.

Second, an English middle name is just a second first name; whereas the Russian "middle name" is a patronymic meaning "son of": Phillipevich would mean "son of Phillip", which is not what you mean. A Russian version of Phillip would just be Filip.

Third, there is no "th" sound in Russian, so Smith would just have to stand as Smit.

Your name would sound something like Du'VEED (accent on second syllable) Ter-RIL KEL-si or KEL-zi. David is a common name in Russian as in English, though stressed differently and with different sounding vowels, the 'a' being shorter and closer to an unstressed 'u' and the 'i' being longer and closer to a double 'e'. How they would spell the rest of your name depends on how they imagine it would be pronounced. Is the 's' in your surname pronounced as an s or as a z? Russians probably wouldn't be too concerned as to the answer, they would just spell it the way they think it should sound, the way Americans pronounce foreign names any way they feel like :) Remember also that sounds in one language often have no direct equivalent in another, so it's better to let native speakers decide on how they want to pronounce your name...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2002-08-03 03:47:55 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

One more thing: the Russian equivalent of John is Iv-AN, with stress on second syllable (pronounced \'ahn\', longer than in English), rather than Ivon, which sounds more like French Yvonne.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2002-08-03 03:57:58 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

My name is Clive. Russians would prefer to pronounce this as Kleef. I was able to get them to change the vowel to -eye, but it is very unnatural for Russian to have a hard (voiced) \'v\' sound at the end of the word, so I had to resign myself to being called Kl-eye-ff. If your name is longer than one syllable, the chances of it being pronounced the way you are used to is exceedingly slim!

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2002-08-03 04:15:16 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

My name is Clive. Russians would prefer to pronounce this as Kleef. I was able to get them to change the vowel to -eye, but it is very unnatural for Russian to have a hard (voiced) \'v\' sound at the end of the word, so I had to resign myself to being called Kl-eye-ff. If your name is longer than one syllable, the chances of it being pronounced the way you are used to is exceedingly slim!

Clive Wilshin
Local time: 07:29
Native speaker of: English
Grading comment
Graded automatically based on peer agreement. KudoZ.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  AYP
14 mins
agree  Diane Fontainebleau Pochй: and we don't even know if Terrill is patronymic. I don't believe there is a "correct" answer, as such.
29 mins
  -> You are right. I hope I wasn't too harsh on poor David though..:)
neutral  Vladimir Dubisskiy: well, i'd call you 'kl-eye-v' in Russian and Russian is my mother tongue.it depends:-) And one may suggest dahvid to be pronounced in Russian (as per Biblical personage).
4 hrs
agree  Yelena.
4 hrs
neutral  Jack Doughty: Detailed and completely correct in itself, but the asker only wanted to know how his name would be pronounced by a Russian.
6 hrs
agree  Oleg Pashuk (X)
9 hrs
agree  Chinoise
11 hrs
agree  protolmach
12 hrs
agree  Vasyl Baryshev (X): absolutely!
4 days
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

1 day 2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5
David, If you really want to make your middle name patronymic


Explanation:
such as in the example you gave us, for whatever reason:

Dah-veed Teh-reel-loh-vich Kel-see

I am giving you this transliteration, assuming that you know that the Russians will not just call John Phillip = "Ivon Filippovich" because they will call the person the way they see his/her name written on a piece of paper. And such an interpretation would more than likely be a joking one, an attempt to whimsically russify John Phillip's name.

The above reflects the same idea of a non-serious russification of your name. If this is not what you are ultimately after, and would like to really know the proper pronounciation of you real name, please refer to the answer of my colleague, Gary G.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

P.S. Being a Russian native living in the US, I've had an opportunity to have similar discussions with many non-Russian speakers. If any of the above makes no sense to you whatsoever, please feel free to contact me through my e-mail on my profile page, and I can provide more details.

Milana_R
Local time: 23:29
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in RussianRussian
PRO pts in pair: 48
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