Russian
The most notable example in Russian language is the greeting здравствуйте, which is colloquially pronounced . Other examples include:
- меня → мя ('me')
- сейчас → щас or ща ('now')
- что → чё ('what'; originally a contraction of Genitive чего, but can be used instead of Nominative too)
- когда → када ('when')
- тысяча → тыща ('thousand')
Contracted forms are usually found only in colloquial contexts, but they can occur in poetry.
For example, look at the verse from the Russian translation of Avesta (Mihr Yasht, verse 129):
- На колеснице Митры,
- Чьи пастбища просторны,
- Стрел тыща златоустых
"On a side of the chariot of Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, stand a thousand ... arrows, with a golden mouth."
This contrasts with contracted forms found in colloquial speech in that it is used to keep the original rhythm. The previous verse (verse 128) has a literary form:
- На колеснице Митры,
- Чьи пастбища Просторны,
- Из жил оленьих тысяча
- Отборных тетивы
"On a side of the chariot of Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, stand a thousand bows well-made, with a string of cowgut").
Read more about this topic: Relaxed Pronunciation
Famous quotes containing the word russian:
“To be born in a new country one has to die in the motherland.”
—Irina Mogilevskaya, Russian student. “Immigrating to the U.S.,” student paper in an English as a Second Language class, Hunter College, 1995.
“Who are we? And for what are we going to fight? Are we the titled slaves of George the Third? The military conscripts of Napoleon the Great? Or the frozen peasants of the Russian Czar? No—we are the free born sons of America; the citizens of the only republic now existing in the world; and the only people on earth who possess rights, liberties, and property which they dare call their own.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“A country is strong which consists of wealthy families, every member of whom is interested in defending a common treasure; it is weak when composed of scattered individuals, to whom it matters little whether they obey seven or one, a Russian or a Corsican, so long as each keeps his own plot of land, blind in their wretched egotism, to the fact that the day is coming when this too will be torn from them.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)