Tall Tales about Russian Etymologies - online talk by Andrew Jameson

Many and mysterious are the ways in which languages allocate or create names. We have had one session on names already, that was the names of people. This time we shall look at a selection of common names of everyday things, some living and some not. You will be very surprised at the adventures words get up to. They come from strange places, they swap around and eventually settle down, like, for example an elephant becomes a camel? Are you kidding me?

This is another in a series of online talks by Andrew on the Russian language.

After hosting a number of free online talks since September 2020, the Trustees of the SCRSS decided to commence charging from the beginning of 2022. As an educational charity, the Society relies on the income from events to support its work. If you are not already a member, do please consider joining - see our website for more details. One of the key membership benefits is discounted tickets for all our events (online and in-person).

And remember, if you book for any of our online talks, you will receive a link to the recording which is valid for 30 days.

Andrew Jameson came top of course in Russian language and radio technology at the Joint Service Language School, and served in signals intelligence at Flugplatz Gatow in Berlin. At Oxford he played leading roles in Russian plays and first visited Russia when Khrushchev was in power.

At Essex University he formed part of a group who produced ground-breaking BBC Russian courses. At the same time he worked for the Nuffield-funded Russian Language Project, requiring two long stays in Russia as a sound recordist, collecting samples of different styles of Russian, and also set up a sound archive of Russian recordings.

Still in Russia he met prominent Russian linguists, and a number of well-known dissidents of the time. He was able to make further recordings on his own account of Russian bards, etc., and (most importantly) copies of readings at a Russian literary salon which included prominent writers, including Solzhenitsyn, Akhmatova, Ginzburg and others.

Next he moved to Portsmouth Polytechnic, helped design a new degree in Russian and recruited 25 students at the first intake, before moving to Lancaster University. During a long stay here he created with colleague Mike Kirkwood a well-designed beginners intensive language course to degree level, and developed interests in translation theory, Russian lexicology and substandard Russian (slang). On taking early retirement he worked in Russian AE as before and also as a professional translator, and lectured on English linguistics and English studies for periods of 1-2 months per year in universities in St Petersburg, Moscow and Khabarovsk/Birobidzhan.