Twelve Days of Christmas -- How to Count In the Russian Language
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Count and Laugh Along with Us in Russian
In middle schools some of us learned to count from 1 to 10 in Russian and we had a good time learning the language and the history and culture of Russia, especially the arts and the music.
In high school Russian Class, we learned to sing the Russian lyrics to The Twelve Days of Christmas.
This means that we at least learned to count from one through twelve in this great language. Actually, we learned to count to a thousand and higher in Russian, and I will show you some of the numbers below.
We had a lot of fun with Russian language numbers and even held a bingo game for an entire class hour one day. Another time, we translated old TV shows into Russian - I did an old episode of The Honeymooners.
In addition, I have provided some fun videos that let you hear the language in numbers and also a Russian group singing the Twelve Days of Christmas in English.
I hope you enjoy these displays and wish them to bring you a smile or a laugh.
Na Zdrovye!
Click here for the entire lyric for the Russian Language version of the Twelve Days of Christmas.
Russian Icon - King Solomon, Known for Counting
Comparison of Roman and Cyrillic Alphabets For Russian Numbers
Russia in Music
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Youngster Leaning to Count 1-20 in Russian
Moscow Boys Choir - 12 Days of Christmas
Christmas in Other Languages
I could not find the complete Russian Lyrics yet for The Twelve Days of Christmas.
However, I happened upon 12 Drummers Drumming. They are the Edinburgh military team precision drummers (of Scotland) and are completely syncronized.
They are unbelievably practiced and skilled and amazing to watch.
Enjoy!
Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2006 (Top Secret Drum Corps)
Matryoshka Dolls Counting to 10
Matryoshka Dolls = 8 in this Set
Russian Language Links
- Pravda
Pravda (Truth) newspaper in Russian, English and other langauges. - Russian online
Alphabet, numbers and how to pronounce them and Seven Sections total -- even learn to read street signs. Videos too! - Russian
An Interactive Reference Grammar - packed with information. - Travel Guide to Russia
All your travel needs: Travel and Visa service to Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and other CIS countries. Hotels, tours, Volga river cruises, discounted airfare, fast and inexpensive visa service - Klingon Language Institute
Well, it's a little LIKE Russian!
October Country
Oktyabrina or Octyobriana Is a female Russian name, which is in use since the 1920s is related to the month name (Oktyabr = October), symbolizing the Great October Revolution. There is much legend surroudning the original comics of the same name, but they were illegal in the USA in the 1960s.
A cult following has grown up around the newer version created in the 1980s and a live film version has been done.
You might find a rare copy of the 1950s-1960s comic on eBay or at a commics convention, or even a science fiction convention, by a slim chance.
Comments and CountsLoading...
I was in experimental classes beginning in grade 7 in the sixties that were later dropped by the school system. By the time I reached 12th grade, I was the last student left out of 60 in two middle schools that had begun the language. I don't even know if it is taught in our city schools currently. German was dropped during WWII and picked up again by a very few schools in the 1960s.
Patty,
I attended an experimental school on the east coast in the 1960s as well. I ended up being a linguist in the military..LOL!
Nice hub.
A linguist with the military - like Uhuru and Soshi in the Star Trek/Enterprise series. I bet you're very skilled at this. I would have enjoyed it very much I think. Do you know about the Navajo Code Talkers of WWII? Very interesting.
I loved video of the boy counting 1-20. Overall your information is very comprehensive. I don't know how to count but I know some conversation in Russian. I love the language it's very sweet & soft. For example.. Da means yes, Paka means see you later & I love to say Kharosho which mean fine, ok & so on. I will continue my hubpage with basic Russian conversation. So check out later. Keep up the good work.
Patty,
yes I do.
Hello Mr. Nice! I originally learned the language from a Ukrainian and it was soft and nice as you say. Then I had an instructor from northern Russia and his speech was more harsh, so I prefer the first speaking style too. I look forward to your posted conversations on your Hub and will go there. I am a little rusty on conversational Russian at times I intermix Russian and English without meaning to do so. I am glad you are posting on Hub pages.
Marye, you probably know al ot of the WWII history fo the Code Talkers. I find it fascinating and hope PBS shows a film about them soon.
Best regards!
My friend I learned Russian from is also Ukrainian. May be That is the sweet dialect of Russian. I have no experience pf northern Russian dialect. I know code talker was the coded language messages used in native languages during wwII. May be from PBS or some other network you can find the related film. Check at your local library you might find it there. If I come across I will let you know. Today I updated my hubpage please visit & you will find it interesting. Keep in touch.
Regards
As a native Russian speaker I would like to chime in with a couple of remarks - if you don't mind :)
You both made great hubs, guys. Patty’s seems to be more complete and self-sufficient, while Mr. Nice’s has better pronunciation markup – all “t” at the end of Russian numbers are soft and should be pronounced more like t’ in tee. (Well, English and Russian t are pronounced differently anyway, but this is the closest match)
Now, there is some confusion with Ukrainian and Russian among parties involved. Those are different languages. They are both Slavic of course, they are very close – but they are different. Different words, different rules, etc. I can’t speak Ukrainian, and I can hardly understand people speaking it.
However, there is a Ukrainian (or rather south Russian) dialect of Russian, which you probably meant. It is softer, and it has some funny sounds for classic Russian speaker’s ear :)
Thanks for the insights, Misha. My first instructor spoke both Russian and Ukrainian and I practiced the Russian Langauge with an uncle-in-law that was Ukrainian and also spoke both Ukrainian and Russian. Whatever accent or dialect these two wonderful people had, then I had/have it too. I know some Ukrainian, but I cannot carry on a conversation in it.
Do you happen to have the 12 Days of Christamas lyrics in Russian, Misha? I had a copy many years ago and cannot find one at this time. Perhaps the Slavic studies department at my local univeristy can help.
Patty,
I'm sorry, but I have no clue what 12 days of Xmas is. I asked my wife, and she does not have a clue either :( I might be able to help you, but you need to give me more details...
Misha - its a classic Christmas song!! Is your wife not American?? If she is, she must know it! 5 golden rings!!!!
Patty - I llke this hub cos it taught me that I know some Russian. :) I love that one Slavic language makes the others semi-understandable!
Misha - is the Russian pronunciation of sto, and šest the same as would be in CZ? It would be very cool if I was also pronouncing them correctly!
Ok, I watched the little boy counting and answered my own question! šest had a slight lisp going on, but I think its the same.. and p?t was definitely the same. Cool hub, Patty!
Isa,
My wife is Russian :) Half-Ukranian to be precise.
I don't know any czech and never been there, so I can't really say. The boy in this video has some accent, but he is pretty close to the right thing...
Here is the last stanza of that Christmas song. The whole of it is long, but not as long as 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Twelve drummers drumming, Eleven pipers piping, Ten lords a-leaping, Nine ladies dancing, Eight maids a-milking, Seven swans a-swimming, Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree!
Just Surfed, thanks for the hint :)
Patty, if you google "???? ??????? ?????????", first four results are translations of the song.
Disclaimer: I can't be held responsible for the quality of those translations. This song is NOT widely known in Russia, so those are some amature works from some enthusiasts...
PS OK, hubpages screw russian. You need to search for "sem' lebedej rozhdestvo"... russian characters of course
PPS well, i think I'll better post the links here :)
http://lel.khv.ru/poems/resultik1.phtml?ctg=23&bac
Misha, its the same, I asked a few Czechs. They absolutely refuse to speak it, of course. ;-)
I can't blame them...
Thank you for all the wonderful and helpful comments. It si all so intersting. Thank you Misha for the links to Russian Lyrics. I will certainly look them over carefully. I don't know how I was going to find them without your help!
Interesting, nice amount of resources, too ;)
Thanks
Thank you Elvis, I couldn't get them all one one Hub though! :)
Wonderful graphics and very cute kids!
It was fun to do, FairMaid; glad you like it!
Delightful, unique hub, I had a great time here getting to know Russian, and then had a bonus time in the comments section. Thank you very much, Patty!
Hi Kenny! I hope this conversation continues, because it has been quite a long time since I knew anyone who speaks Russian, Ukranian or Polish. I love the sound of these languages and this is a lot of fun!
I was able to obtain a CD of Pope John Paul XXIII singing Christmas Carols in Polish a couple of years ago and it is delightful as well.
How nice of you to make this hub. I'm pretty new here and browsing a lot. Finding treasures here and there... Russian is my native language too (Misha, privet!) and the only language I speak without accent:) Russian singers Tatyana and Sergey Nikitiny have a nice song (Samoilov translation of Shakespeare text), called Christmas song (Rozhdestvenskaya pesnya), but I can't find where you can download it. May be Misha can help.
Dobroe ootro, ReuVera -
So nice of you to visit! I speak Russian with Ukranian accent, but can be understood a little.:) Misha is sure to be able to help you find what you need, because he helped me find 12 Days of Christmas in the Russian language. He led me to a Russian Language search engine, so if you use one of those, perhaps you can find Christmas Song. I would also like to listen to it.
Best wishes!
Thank you Patty again for your kindness. I have that song on CD at home, but I wanted to give a linkto it here, so you can listen to it too. Nice melody and there's counting there too:) I found where you can order their CDs, but I'll still try to search if you can download it from the web.
How wonderful - thank you! I learned a few days ago that one of my friends is beginning to learn Russian, so I will have someone to speak with for practice again. So much fun!
The boy in this video placed incorrect stresses on the numerals. He constantly shifted a stress to a first syllable from any place it must be situated.
It's strange to make such a mistake and have the correct pronunciation at all at the same time :-)
You're the first to comment on that, Vlad. I have the same problem among my students when I teach them to count from 1-10 in Korean. 90% stress the wrong syllable here or there and end up saying something about shaving and putting on makeup.
I've recently made a site that you might find useful:
www.learnrussiannumbers.com
On it you can hear and see the numbers from 0 to 1,000 using a keypad; please
note that your browser requires Flash.
As well, there is info on a companion app for the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad.
Hope you find this useful,
Sean
I would like to know the names of the hours in the slavic language
Zsuzsy Bee Level 3 Commenter 4 years ago
The only thing I have ever learned in Russian is NO. I remember the Russian space crafts Sputnik and the best seller movie Dr Zhivago from when I was a kid growing up in Belgium. It really surprises me that you had Russian classes in the US. When was that Patty? I find that so great. I love the sound of Russian it sounds so soft and smooth to my ears...
Great HUB
regards Zsuzsy