Re: Scandal growing in Latvia over language textbook for schools.

In article <1138280837.959534.68490@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"ladzius" <2130-690@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> so how can one tell for sure whether smetana comes into English from
> Russian, Polish or Czech or some other language ?

You can't tell for absolute sure, but there are some clues that justify
regarding Russian origin as the most probable alternative:

Russian pronounces the word: /s,m,i'tan@/
Czech: /'smEtana/
Polish: /smE'tana/

English has /'smEt@n@/ as well as a variant smitane /smI'tein/.

Certainly the form *smitane* indicates a borrowing from spoken Russian,
while the more common form. *smetana* is a borrowed spelling, while the
pronunciation is completely adapted to the English sound system. Given
that the first known written attestation of the word in English is from a
1909 cookbook when Russian cuisine was beginning to become better known in
the English-speaking world (the great works of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky had
been translated into English by then, and many Russian culinary terms had
become known to a wider audience through them. On the other hand, English
speakers had little interaction and few cultural contacts with any
speakers of Czech or Polish other than immigrants, usually poorly educated
and lacking a command of English, to the United States. Given the quality
and quantity of contacts with these three languages, I think there is
justification for concluding that the word entered English twice, once
from spoken, and once from written Russian, thus *smitane* and *smetana*.

Regards,
Eugene Holman
.

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