Saturday, January 26, 2008

Importing English: Second Hand

Pre-owned clothing shops are thriving here in Rostov-on-Don and they're called Second Hand stores. No surprise there, just another term imported from English. Pictured above is the term second hand, and it's pronounced almost the same in Russian as in English - so you can see first hand what Russian letters ~ Cyrillic letters to be more precise ~ produce what sounds. That is, with the exception of the a in hand. Here that sound is like e in elephant. So let's say that together, Second Hend. See, you're speaking Russian!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mac World is spreading, eh?

Kyle and Svet Keeton said...

Yes, "Second hand" (Сэкод хэнд) came definitely from USA ;).

Best wishes from Moscow,
Svet and Kyle

Eileen said...

Hey John, Thanks for stopping by again. But if you would please explain your comment - I'm not sure what is meant by Mac World... =)

Kyle and Svet, Yeah! Svet, you came to mind while I was writing this. I wondered if you would insist that Second Hand originates in Greek not English! hahah (Love it!) E