A love story of sorts

Between language lessons (now that you know the alphabet, I'll be making posts about grammar and vocabulary), I will share a story about our cousin in the north, whom you may remember from the letter P.

To tell this story, I will introduce you to another character. Her name is Мелания (Melaniya).

Zdrast-vuy-tye! Hello! Melaniya came to St. Pet --Oops, Petrograd -- to study. Here, she met the Yozhin's cousin Николай (Nikolai).

To quote from Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, which their story will loosely follow,

Her eyes were opened and she said

"This is the one!" Ah, ever stronger,

In sultry sleep, in lonely bed,

All day, all night, his presence fills her,

By magic everything instills her

With thoughts of him in ceaseless round.

(From the translation by Charles Johnston)

An Interlude

Я is for yabloko

This is the very last letter of the Cyrillic alphabet! Ура! Hurray!

Яя is pronounced "ya" and written like Яя, with the front hook not connected the the preceding letter.

Яблоко ("yabloko") is an apple. Yum!

Now that you know the alphabet, get ready for stories with vocabulary and grammar! See you again soon.

Ю is for yunnat

This vowel is pronounced "yoo." It is written as Юю.

Юннат ("yunnat") is an abbreviation of юный натурализт, or Young Naturalist. Beginning in Moscow in 1918, this was an after-school program for children in the Soviet Union that featured hands-on nature activities and lessons in biology and agriculture.

Э is for entsiclopediya

This letter is analogous to the short "e" in English, and looks like Ээ in handwriting. It isn't very common in Russian -- it appears mostly in words borrowed from other languages. You're much more likely to encounter our old friend Ee (that sounds like "ye").

Энциклопедия ("entsiklopediya") is an encyclopedia. There is a really big one at the library!