Table of contents
Page
Title-page I
Table of contents II-III
Preface IV-V
Construction of the tables VI-VII
References VIII
OPERATIONS etc. 1-2
the 18 verbs 1
besides the 18 verbs 2
THINGS 3-26
400 general 3-18
from "account" to "belief" 3
from "birth" to "comfort" 4
from "committee" to "daughter" 5
from "day" to "edge" 6
from "education" to "fold" 7
from "food" to "hour" 8
from "humour" to "law" 9
from "lead" to "memory" 10
from "metal" to "offer" 11
from "oil" to "position" 12
from "powder" to "regret" 13
from "relation" to "self" 14
from "sense" to "society" 15
from "son" to "swim" 16
from "system" to "verse" 17
from "vessel" to "year" 18
200 pictured 19-26
from "angle" to "bottle" 19
from "box" to "cloud" 20
from "coat" to "floor" 21
from "fly" to "key" 22
from "knee" to "oven" 23
from "parcel" to "scissors" 24
from "screw" to "street" 25
from "sun" to "worm" 26
- II - Page
QUALITIES 27-32
100 general 27-30
from "able" to "equal" 27
from "fat" to "married" 28
from "material" to "round" 29
from "same" to "young" 30
50 opposites 31-32
from "awake" to "late" 31
from "left" to "wrong" 32
SUPPLEMENT 33-42
150 verbs besides the first 18 33-42
from "admit" to "bind" 33
from "bite" to "complain" 34
from "cook" to "empty" 35
from "fall" to "govern" 36
from "greet" to "laugh" 37
from "leave" to "paint" 38
from "play" to "rise" 39
from "roast" to "sit" 40
from "sleep" to "think" 41
from "throw" to "write" 42
- III -
Preface.
The great German mathematician Gauss commenced at the age of 62 on an intensive private study of Russian (10.). 2 years later he could both read, write and speak the language perfectly.
Unfortunately, I am no Gauss -- nor with regard to aptitude for languages.
I began on Russian (by a Swedish Linguaphone-course) at the age of 42, and I can now - 26 years later and after a lot of other courses, various reading and visits to Russia -- neither chat nor understand what is said and only uttermost slowly read a text.
Most troublesome it is to get something said. The pronunciation is OK (according to a Russian taxi-driver) but I cannot find the words.
In my childhood my parents had DEN NYE SALMONSEN(1) which I studied eagerly, among other things the pages about Basic English. After my fathers death in 1984 I inherited the book.
As a possible cure for my Russian disability it then fell me in that if you “just” in your head had a translation of the 850 words of Basic English into Russian you might be able to find some words to say. I intended to make such a translation and procured an A4-pad of ruled paper for the purpose. The pad was put in a drawer where it still remains.
It became namely clear that a translation to just one form of the Russian word would be insufficient. Consequently, the task became overwhelming.
Then from Nordvestjysk Handelsgymnasium (a local college) in Nykøbing Mors arrived an offer of a computer course for seniors. That I could not refuse as at home I had got a computer and I did not know much about neither Windows nor Word. However, at the course I was also forced to learn Excel which I considered to be of no use for me.
In the meantime I had with the assistance of Mrs. Helle Dalgaard at The Slavic Department of Gad in Århus acquired ABBYY Lingvo (3.); and to my 40-years anniversary some colleagues had given me the heavy 2-way dictionary Oxford Russian Dictionary (2.). Consequently, the idea about Basic English started to haunt me again as with (2.) I could translate the English words into Russian and with (3.) I could conjugate the Russian words.
However, the work of writing this by hand was felt to be insuperable for which reason the computer should be used for the purpose; and while working with Excel it one day occurred to me that perhaps Excel might be used for the translation waited for so long. It ought to be tried; and after the first successful attempts I decided to start.
I took a certain number of words each day and gave it a high priority all days -- if not done it was “force majeure”.
After 9 months I had 42 tables -- 32 with Basic English and 10 with SUPPLEMENT.
- IV -
The latter was caused by a felt need of more verbs than the 18 in Basic English. I supplemented by the addition of 150 verbs -- totalling the numbers of English words to 1000.
I had some considerations about how to find the 150 verbs. What would the local library say if I asked them to tell me the 150 most widely used Danish verbs?
One winter morning (2/2-02) I tried to suggest some verbs by looking around in the bath room and think about the weather and the course of the day besides. Soon afterwards I started to write down the verbs and continued doing so whilst buttering my crispbreads and during the consumption. Before walking out with the dog the list was ready. 2 months later I translated it into English and got the computer to arrange the verbs alphabetically.
Deliberately during the work I would not consult previous translations of Basic English into Russian. But I would, of course, willingly compare afterwards and refer to them.
Consequently, towards the finishing I made an enquiry to Morsø Folkebibliotek (the public library in Nykøbing Mors) for translations of Basic English into Russian.
Totally surprising it was found -- in spite of a persistent and original effort by librarian Conni Christensen -- that the search was completely negative. Further enquiries both to Mrs. Tatiana Hansen at The Slavic Department of Gad in Århus and to professor Annie Christensen, Slavic Institute, Århus University, gave the same result. There did not in print exist any translation of Basic English into English! This was uttermost surprising to me who in so many years had regarded the translation into Danish in DEN NYE SALMONSEN(1.) as a matter of course which could not possibly be limited to my own small mother tongue.
So, without knowing, I had created a unique piece of matter !
The reasons for that may be many. Seemingly nobody had felt the need; maybe the Russians would not or were not allowed to learn English; or the Russians who would or should(spies, interpreters, diplomats, scientists, journalists a. o.) should learn it properly.
I do not know whether or not the present 42 tables can be used at all. Anyway, I have probably myself learnt something by doing the work.
Nevertheless, I continue to run far away if somebody is telling that I can speak Russian!
Finally, I wish to express my great thanks to my teacher of Russian at Nordvestjysk Handelsgymnasium in Thisted during the years 1996 to 1998 -- lecturer Kirsten Lund Jensen, Nors -- because she so kindly accepted to do the big work to check and correct the 42 tables and by that significantly increase the credibility of the presented work.
Nykøbing Mors, the 2nd February 2003.
Stig Johansson
- V -
Construction of the tables.
The starting point has been (1). The English words, their designation, succession and grouping are imitated slavishly. The translation into Danish as given in (1.) is generally used though sometimes modified for one or more reasons, most often in consideration of the Russian word chosen.
Pages 33-42 do not originate from (1.) as they are the extension with 150 verbs.
Page 1 : OPERATIONS etc. - the 18 verbs.
In case of the existence of both an imperfective and a perfective verb, the imperfective verb is placed in the upper row of Russian words for each English word. In case of the translation to a Russian verb of motion the determinate verb is placed in the central of the 3 rows.
There is 6 columns of Russian words with the following conjugations from left to right:
infinitive.
present tense , 1st Person , singular.
present tense , 2nd Person , singular.
present tense , 3rd Person , plural.
past tense , masculine.
imperative , singular.
The forms are picked from (3.). Unfortunately, (3.) does not show accents for which reason these have been placed by the assistance of the other references.
Here as elsewhere in the present work the accent is given by an apostrophe placed after the stressed vocal. So is done by the Russians themselves in (9); however, it is only followed in the present work because the computer could not place the accent above the vocal as normally.
Page 2 : OPERATIONS, etc. -- besides the 18 Verbs.
The content in the parentheses tells that the preposition in question governs accusative(+a.), genitive(+g), instrumental(+i.), and prepositional(+p.), respectively.
Pages 3 - 26 : THINGS.
There is 4 columns of Russian nouns with the following declensions from left to right:
nominative , singular.
genitive , singular.
nominative , plural.
genitive , plural.
- VI -
Pages 27- 32 : QUALITIES.
There is 4 columns of Russian adjectives with the following forms from left to right:
full form, singular , masculine.
shortened form, singular , masculine.
shortened form, singular , feminine.
comparative , normal form.
Pages 33- 34 : SUPPLEMENT.
The principles of arrangement are the same as those mentioned for page 1 with the following small exception:
In the column with present tense, 1nd Person, singular a few of the Russian words are succeeded by (3'). This signifies that the form here is not 2nd Person, singular but 3rd Person, singular.
- VII -
References.
- DEN NYE SALMONSEN (The New Salmonsen),1949, column 332-345.
- The Oxford Russian Dictionary, 1997.
- Bolój Anglo-Russkij, Russko-Anglijskij Elektronnyj Slovar
(Comprehensive English-Russian, Russian-English Electronic Dictionary), ABBYY Lingvo 7.0 2001.
- Jørgen and Valentina Harrit: Russisk-Dansk Ordbog (Russian-Danish Dictionary), 1980.
- Helge Vangmark: Dansk-Russisk Ordbog (Danish-Russian Dictionary), 1966.
- Sigrid Schacht and Helge Vangmark: Russisk-dansk Grundordbog
(Russian-Danish fundamental Dictionary), 1975.
- Erik Bach Nielsen: Russisk grundgrammatik (Russian Fundamental Grammar), 1978.
- Annie Christensen: Russisk Grammatik (Russian Grammar), 1996.
- S. I. Ozegov and I. Ju. vedova: TOLKOVYJ SLOVAR´ RUSSKOGO JAZYKA
(Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language)