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April 30, 2005
Feeling maudlin
I just completed my final unit of Russian-language assessment. It went ok, except I have no idea how to say "mortgage".
A big shout out to brilliant and enigmatic mathematician, Maxim (my sketch of him, above, c.1999), who taught me my first Russian words, six years ago (and in doing so, changed my life forever): "On tol'ko droog". (I'll leave you to divine the context.) Maksimka, ty pomnish'?
Posted by michele at April 30, 2005 2:19 PM
Comments
ZAjm (or *zaJOm)
Congratulations!
You can start looking for txs to NY...
Posted by: Tatyana at April 30, 2005 9:00 PM
Huh, just remembered - there was an almost archaic word, *ipotEka*, means mortgage exactly, not sure if it's used in Russia now. *Zajm actually means loan.
Posted by: Tatyana at April 30, 2005 10:41 PM
I remember the context well. it seem to have resulted in my undeserved but enjoyable sugardaddy reputation among those folks.
Your entry is quite flattering. it is a surprize to me those were your first russian words, considing that much earlier you shocked me by mentioning Lermontov in a smoky crowded wan chai bar.
By the way, when I asked you how you would like to be referred to in the caption for the sketch, you said: Grand High Mistress Michele of Hong Kong.
And i also didn't know how to translate mortgage until i read the comment above.
Posted by: GweiLo at April 30, 2005 11:31 PM
Yeah, ipoteka rings a bell, I think it's from German. Online dictionary says zakladnaya.
Posted by: Michele at May 1, 2005 1:48 PM
M: Ah, the follies of youth.
Posted by: Michele at May 2, 2005 11:25 AM
Michele, congratulations for real this time!
Ipoteka is the word used nowadays specifically for mortgage finance, I am pretty sure it's actually from French (hypotheque). Zaim (or however you want to transliterate it) is a broader term referring to a loan.
Posted by: Lyndon at May 5, 2005 6:04 PM
Same word in German, too. I think the Russian language has tended to borrow functional-type words from German and vaguer ones from French, no?
Posted by: Michele at May 6, 2005 12:33 PM