RU SSIAN GRAMMAR FO R C LASS AN D R E FE R E N C E U SE A Progressive Method of Learning Russian E JO HN DYN LE Y PRIN CE , Ph. D. Professor of 4883 89 N EWYORK Columbia U niversity Press I 9I 9 RI HT ES E RV D ALI. G S R E HT I 9| 9 COPYRIG . N IVERSITY PRESS By COLU MBIA U ublished N ovemba . l 9l 9. Set up md electroty ped . P I N TR O D U CTIO N T l v n ic a R he living S a o l nguag es are u ssian , Polish , - a - an d Czech o Slov k , Serbo Croatian , Slovene , Wendish Bulg a an arian , all so closely related th t a knowledg e of y one of m them is a key to an easy co prehension of all the others . f Th e R u ssian languag e i s di ficult and at first sig ht , a a a irregular , and yet m ny obst cles dis ppear when the student an a becomes familiar with the phonetics d the g r mmatical basis . R u ssian is hard to acqu ire at first , mainly owing to the somewhat confu sing phonetics ; viz . , the unlikeness of many sound s to those of E ng lish and the chang es in spelling m m . of numerou s for s , when certain sounds are co bined Added to this is the fact that the accent d oe s not fall reg ularly on any one syllable , bu t moves in the inflected am forms of the s e word so arbitrarily , that the stress of each form mu st be learned rather by association than by mm memorizing . In the p resent gra ar , the compiler has tried to le ad the learner more briefly than has been done in some other grammars of R u ssian , by progressive step s through the mazes of R u ssian morphology . M ost of the examples given are intended for reference and not to be learned by heart at the outset . No attempt has been made to expound ' the higher style , poetical metre , etc . , as these can be learned only after the beginner is well equipped g rammatically . It is \ a h i absolutely necessary to tr in students first in t e acc d en ce, m teaching the to recognize and u se , both by sight and sound . the inflection s and conjugations . This has been attempted in the present work by means of exercises in R u ssi an at the close of each lesson . These themes should be transl ated in to E nglish and then re- tran slated into R u ssian without reference to the origin al text . I t is quite impossible to learn H ” R u ssian by the natu ral method ; that is , exclu sively by a t lking , withou t a previou s study of the grammar in all its essential s . Th e writer acknowledges his debt to the grammars of ’ n fi I va o , Paul Fu chs and Nevill Forbes . as well as to Meyer s R u s s i s c h e r S p r ach fii h r e r for some valuable suggestions . ffi Owing to war condition s , it was di cult to find a fon t of type satisfactory for beginners and the compiler i s aw are of the deficiencies of some of the lettering herein u sed , H i s warmest thanks are due to M essrs . V . V . Kister and Clarence A . Manning for their assistance in reading the p roof of the an k v i h exercises , and to M r . Bozo R o c for his patien t labor u nder many di fficulties in p rinting the work . PAGE Th e R u ssian Alphabet 1 Th e Noun . Masculine Nouns 6 Masculine Noun s (contin ued) 1 4 Feminine Noun s 1 9 Soft Feminine Nouns 2 5 Neu ter Nouns 29 Th e Adj ective . Attributives 3 5 Th e Predicate Adj ective 45 Comparison of Adj ectives 50 Th e Pronoun . Personal Pronoun s 6 0 Demonstrative and Interrogative Pronou ns 6 7 R elative Pronoun s 7 2 Defi nite and Indefinite Pronoun s 7 7 Th e Nume rals . Cardinals 88 Declen sion of Numerals . Cardinal s 93 Ordinals 1 01 Numerals (continued) : Idiomatic Con structions 1 07 Numerals (continued): Fractions Distri bu ti ves , , M ultiplicatives , Collectives 1 1 4 Th e Adverb 1 22 T Th e Verb . enses and Morphology 1 3 6 m Th e I perative . Gerunds an d Participles 1 45 Variant Verbs 1 52 Irregular Verbs 1 7 5 Th e Verbal Aspects and Passive 1 86 Th e Preposition s 200 Syntax 203 LE SSON 1 THE RU SSIAN ALPHABET a as in father; when u naccen m ted , short e as in et . b as in English . v as in English ; sometimes f , when final . hard g as in get ; E ng . v in genitive of adjectives , as r - no opa o do b ravo, not go. d , bu t when final , sometimes t . Do not confu se with J: (1 3) always yay , when accented ; un accented yii , bu t 5 (with diae resis) yo (cf z 7. as in a u re; repre sented by zh French j . z as in zeb ra . cc when u naccenterl i in pin ; frequen tly palatalized yee or yi . 1 0) I same as u ; u sed only when the cc sound precedes anothe r ' i ia xxa vowel , as d , never (bu ' a J ma ex cept in N ip‘b (world) , A L P H A B E T l l ) l7l n us ed only in diphthongs or tri ph Be 8 as ' an i on thongs , as ; oy ; kra tkoy . en yay ; na oy . E ng . k . Kah ! ve ry thick I ; almost ull , bu t Ell when followed by the soft sign soft like the Ger man I . Do not confu se with A G) Eng . m. E mm E ng . n . Enn almost like 0 in not e; when un O accented a in far. Eng . p . Pay r trilled r; neve guttu ral , as in E rr German . Eng . 5 , as in soft; neve r 2 . E 5 5 n E g . t . Tay r oo in hoot , neve 00 in foot . 0 0 Eng . f . Eff rm the soft Ge an guttu ral ch , Khah rep resented by kh . Eng . ts . Tsay as in r . ch , chu ch Chay sh in shall . Shah ’ sh eh p ronounced as one sound Sh ebah - as in cash check . the hard sign , final in all words Yer which do not end in a vowel or in the soft sign not p ronounced . A L P H A B E T ft 9 bf 14 = i or Yero 6 2 ) when accented German o, y 6 French eui in feuille : when u naccented , almost i in pin , bu t more unclear . the soft sign , which has the value of a faint consonantal y afte r preceding consonant; r r i it ep esented by i , as y. pronounced exactly like e when unaccented yu ; with d r iae esis I; has the value yo , like 3 e in met; this is the only un palatalized e in Ru ssian . Eng . yoo . has the valu e yah , when accen : n ted when u accented ye , y u . Eng . f . ( rare); occu rs chiefly in Feetah theological words . i as in pin ( rare); occu rs in theological words . All the Ru ssian vowels are su sceptible of change when . The d u naccented accent is indicate with every word through out this g ramma r. I t I I AL ]B El fr 4. E x ercise in Pt on u n cia tion 34 25 9 28 s 34 23 30 - sr - T a X O - L H si rr y gi n A H T . ' ' ' ' - - t a h - r Ny a h nyah oo chit dee y kho dy ee tj . Th e nu rse teaches the child to w alk . 7 l 1 5 27 28 1 3 26 30 I 9 , ' - - - o rs c e H m n H a T a M s . JI m a ;r r o r n - h h - n ah hm a Z h e n s c ee ta . Lo sh dy sta Th e Th e woman is there . horse is 28 34 . - m a - ;r n c r o ' ' ' - - ce t tahm . d s a a h t tahm (y) Lo sha y ee t y . Th e standing there . horses are standing there . 3 5 I B I 7 2 - - o - - B e gi p o n y c T 0 . C d a n a ' ' ' - a- - Vy e dro poo s to . S ba h kah Th e Th e pail (is) empty . dog i s e 9 23 1 3 1 7 27 ' - ' - ' r a. H 3. s a u n i t s Jr a n x A u g a s . I II e ' ' ' ' — n ikh - dy ee t nah za d la h pakh . Sh ch e on its hind legs . Th e gener 29 25 3 h ' n p u n ‘l e - l l O - B B K 'L A a n s m n s u n ' d ri che - lo vy ek d ahl mny e mee person gave to me chari ty 29 33 I 7 24 - - l l T H I O H - - - o c H .